BMW M3 Convertible (2008-) Review

Comfort and Equipment

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The M3 Convertible is a very comfortable car, with a superb driving position that will suit drivers of all dimensions, thanks to electrically adjustable seats and steering wheel.

It's also remarkably comfortable at high speed with the roof down, the wind deflector doing an incredible job of reducing buffeting in the cabin to a barely perceptible minimum. Even at 200kph on a deresticted autobahn, there was hardly any turbulence in the cabin: it was a bit noisy, as you'd expect, but it was nothing that a slight volume increase of the stereo couldn't handle.

The ride is also very compliant for a car as sporty as the M3, especially if you opt for the Electronic Damper Control (EDC), which means you can choose between Comfort, Normal or Sport settings: without EDC, the standard M damper setting gives you something between Sport and Normal.

Room in the back is a bit limited, and carrying passengers there means you can't use the wind deflector, so to all intents and purposes, it's a two-seater, especially if you factor in the limited bootspace (350 litres, or 210 with the roof down), the result of that folding metal roof.

There's a gamut of gadgets and although BMW's iDrive infotainment system, has loads of options, it lacks the intuitiveness of similar systems found on cars from some rival manufacturers. It just takes too many jogs and clicks to get to where you want to go in each menu: you get used to it, but a truly useful system should work without you having to resort to the manual for even the most basic of functions.

The basic hi-fi is excellent, but there's also the option of upgrading to BMW's Individual Audio system, which features a nine-channel amplifier with Digital Sound Processing (DSP) and 12 speakers, giving a total output of 825W.