SMEZZ

I've been looking at the S4 and like it a lot, but I wonder if I'm selling myself short by not waiting to see the new M3. How do you guys think they will compare?

Baby Bill Gates

Well, that depends...how much money do you make?

SMEZZ

Enough to afford either car; not willing to spend much more than 50,000 or I may as well get a boxster

CraigB

If you're choosing between the two for a daily driver, I would get the S4. If you're just adding a toy to the toybox, get the M3.

CraigB
'98 A4 1.8Tqm (modified)
'99 M3 Coupe

bitrbo

The new M3 may very well be over 50K

Tim Reibling

Boxters are ugly. I live in Boca Raton Florida, and you see 25 of those a day. Get an S4, they are cooler than a Boxter.

Dsanto

Rennlist forum has posts that put new M3 at around $43-$44000 base price. Pretty scary if so. Still only two doors and no Quattro.

S4nAri

ease of use and money is not an option I would say BMW M3. I love my S4, and the quartro helps in the rockies, but there is no dought the the M3 will be a much better performance car. Ihad a '95 M3 and thought that it was one of the greatest cars I had ever driven. My major complaint was that the power was too smooth. None of the grest rocket feel of a chipped S4. I got a close look of the new M3 in LA a few weeks ago (in disguise of course) and the driver who refused to talk about it sure had a huge smile. ............\

Jim Graham

I agree with the 4 door advantage for the S4.

Another factor is that you can get the S4 now (modulo availability) and the M3 is still ?4-6? months away (modulo availability too). I've heard that there will be a 4 door M3 in about 18 months time, which would be the only version that I would be interested in.

If the new M3 *sedan* is really a "must have" over the S4, then I figure I'll get at least 18 months of joy out of the S4 before I'm even offered the choice of switching. And then I'll be in no hurry to be part of the initial rush of "new model buyers" (extending S4 owner-life to at least 2 years). Then there may well be an updated S4 to make the decision that much harder.

Realistically I seem to be averaging 7 years per car and don't have any reason to doubt that the S4 won't hold my interest for at least that long. I don't think there will be a car that is "enough better" than the S4 to warrant switching any time soon.

As far as the original question goes (selling yourself short by not waiting). If getting a car of the caliber of the S4 isn't "right now" important, then you should wait. If anything, the new M3 will take some attention away from the S4 and make them easier to come by. Trying to get one now in many parts of the country is buying into a vicious seller's market...

...jim