M440i vs S5 Sportback?

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The M440i. A car that befuddles so many. On one hand it’s got…that face. But on the other hand it’s a faultless sports sedan. So thanks to International BMW for letting us get behind the wheel and see what’s what

You can’t talk about this car without talking about the beating heart

The B58 3.0 twin scroll I6 is an un-freaking-beleievable engine

It makes, in actuality, over 400 hp

AND YET you’ll get over 30 mpg on the highway!

HOW?!

Now, I understand, you’ve bought a car with the letter M on it AND gas is cheaper now so maybe you don’t care about fuel economy, but I bring it up because it’s just so impressive what BMW has brought here. And then on top of all of this the aftermarket has proved how stout this engine is - it can make toward 500 hp without really sweating reliability

The power come son low and strong

It pulls clean with a nice flat torque curve

And it makes a decent sound while it does it

AND THEN you have a brilliant ZF gearbox with cracks and pops and bubbles

We say here a lot that the AMGs have more drama than the M cars HOWEVER with the M-Lite and AMG-Lite cars, there’s really not anyone close to this thing

And then there’s the M_Sport LSD controlling all that power as it gets to all 4 wheels. The powertrain and driveline on these BMWs is simply faultless. Does it bring a jaw dropping level of drama? Maybe not but there isn’t another powertrain combo that makes the most of it’s power in the way these BMWs do

And then there’s handling

And just like everything else, not going to put you on pins and needles, but it’s just faultless

There isn’t a load of feedback or communication from the steering, but it’s just quick

The rack is tight
The front end BITES and DIVEs in
The suspension is adaptive and keeps the chassis neutral
The brakes are strong and give confidence
And right around the limit you get a playful feeling from the rear end

And isn’t that every enthusiast wants?

And then when you just want it to settle down and be a luxury car just flip it into comfort mode, let the suspension adjust itself, steering lighten up, transmission soften off, and all the sudden you just have a nice luxury sedan

The interior here is where things get a little interesting because as you can see we have the same dashboard and software as last year while the i4 and 3-series get the updated interior with iDrive 8

Here’s the thing though - i’m not mad because iDrive 7 is pretty great
AND you still get more physical buttons for things like climate here
So newer isn’t always better, it’s nice to have the option
With that said, we’ve reviewed this interior a bunch of times
It’s VERY solid
It won’t give you the flash a Mercedes interior will, but the build is noticeably higher quality
Nothing creaks or rattles as you drive along
The sound isolation is really good
You get a nice HUD
You have heated and cooled seats
Heated steering wheel
You even have massage which is impressive at this class
Digital cluster
Big infotainment screen
Car play
Awesome 360 cameras
Reverse assist breadcrumbs
Ambient lighting
I mean you’re really not missing anything here at all
Then in back you have a useable rear seat even for 6 footers plus
You have a black interior but theres a big pano roof to bring in light
You’ve got 2 USB-Cs
And it’s not a bad place to spend time!

And we talked about the big hatch-style trunk and to ME that’s why you go with the 4 series gran-coupe over the 3 series. It brings genuine added practicality and again this review seems to be sponsored by the word “faultless”. And that’s a good time for the final thoughts