Key considerations
- Available for £55,000
- 4.4-litre twin-turbo petrol V8, switchable all-wheel drive
- A saloon that’s not much slower than a hypercar
- Outstanding reliability and quality so far
- Only minor mods in the ’22 refresh, so why bother
- Biggest depreciation has already happened
Built in BMW’s Dingolfing plant in Bavaria and going on sale in 2020, the M8 Competition was the (kind of) replacement for the M6. It was also BMW’s solution for grand touring fans who didn’t want a 911 or a Bentley Conti GT.
Coming in convertible (F91), two-door coupe (F92) and four-door Gran Coupe (F93) versions, the M8 covered all the bases, but for UK buyers at least there was no compromise in the performance. Although everyone got the Competition from 2021, the UK market wasn’t offered the first 2020 ‘straight’ (i.e., non-Comp) M8s at all. The engine for the Competition was a 625hp/553lb ft version of BMW’s twin-turbocharged 4.4-litre V8. With that S63 motor under the bonnet, the M8 Comp Gran Coupe – which is the model we’re going to focus on here – did the 0-62mph in 3.2 seconds. In standard trim, it was reined in to 155mph but with the M Driver’s Package it was delimited to a let-it-rip 190mph.
We’re choosing the F93 M8 Competition Gran Coupe here because it offered more doors, more seats and more practicality without stinging you on either performance (which was as relentless and mighty in the GC as it was in the Coupe or Vert) or on the secondhand price. You’ll find more GCs on the secondhand market compared to the other two body styles too, which keeps used values sensible. Finally, you might think that the Gran Coupe is one of the best-looking saloons on the planet, and we wouldn’t disagree with you there.
An active locking rear differential was part of the M8 Comp spec, as was switchable all-wheel drive, but BMW stopped short of putting all-wheel steering on it, or air suspension, or active anti-roll. Instead, they took the familiar M Competition route of delivering good handling through the optimisation of conventional steel suspension, and by keeping the weight down through the designing-in of centre-of-gravity lowering features like a carbon roof.
An updated M8 made its debut in 2022 at starting prices of £123,800 (Gran Coupe), £125,800 (Coupe), and £132,800 (Convertible). BMW was coy about whether any chassis mods had been made, but the AWS, air and anti-roll were all still absent. On the inside there were new digital interfaces, a bigger 12.3-inch screen (up from 10.25-inch) to go with BMW’s new infotainment system, and the availability of M3/M4-style carbon fibre bucket seats. Externally you had new mesh inserts in the otherwise unchanged front bumper assembly, a new design of 20-inch wheel, a wider range of standard paint colours and a slightly redesigned kidney grille that lit up.
Option packs included M Pro (raised top speed limiter and carbon ceramic brakes) and Ultimate which used the M Pro pack as a starting point and went on to add just about everything else you might want including carbon exterior trim pieces, high-end Bowers & Wilkins Diamond surround sound audio and laser headlights that would otherwise have been a £1,500 option. The cost of the Ultimate pack was a stiff £21,000.
Between 2022 and 2024 the starting price of an M8 Competition Gran Coupe appears to have shot up somewhat to either £137,715 or £139,745 depending on which page of BMW UK’s website you look at. Fortunately for used buyers, there’s been quite heavy depreciation on these cars. As of May 2024, you could pick up a 2020 Comp GC with 45,000 miles on it for less than £55,000. Cars of similar age but with fewer than 20,000 miles were available at under £60k.
The M8 run is scheduled to finish in mid-2025. Bearing in mind that these will very likely be the last internal combustion-engined 8 Series M cars, PH types looking for a family car might want to be paying attention at this point.
SPECIFICATION | BMW M8 COMPETITION GRAN COUPE (2020-now)
Engine: 4,395cc twin-turbocharged petrol V8 32v
Transmission: 8-speed automatic, all-wheel drive
Power (hp): 625@6,000rpm
Torque (lb ft): 553@1,800-5,860rpm
0-62mph (secs): 3.2
Top speed (mph): 155 (limited)
Weight (kg): 1,960
MPG (official combined): 26.9
CO2 (g/km): 238
Wheels (in): 9.5 x 20 (f), 10.5 x 20 (r)
Tyres: 275/35 (f), 285/35 (r)
On sale: 2020-now
Price new: £120,000
Price now: from £55,000
Note for reference: car weight and power data are hard to pin down with absolute certainty. For consistency, we use the same source for all our guides. We hope the data we use is right more often than it’s wrong. Our advice is to treat it as relative rather than definitive.
ENGINE & GEARBOX
In the M8 Gran Coupe, the engine developed its maximum torque over a 260rpm longer rev range than the standard M5, from 1,800-5,860rpm, so you were never short of grunt irrespective of the gear you were in. The ZF 8HP76 M-Steptronic transmission wasn’t a dual-clutcher, BMW having started the phase-out of its seven-speed DCTs at the beginning of the 2020s, even on its M cars. Despite that, the M8 Comp box did a great job of converting torque, of which there was an absolute ton. AMG’s V8s were more ‘in your face’ than the M8’s which had a relatively restrained engine note, but the BMW did bung out a great noise on the overrun.
The ZF box also permitted the addition of launch control. Although the official 0-62mph time was 3.2 seconds, even the clumsiest independent testers could easily knock out 3.0-second runs. A leading US mag reputedly did a 0-60mph in 2.5sec, but we don’t know whether that was with a rolling start. Either way, these are incredibly impressive numbers for a near-two-tonne saloon.
If they’re not impressive enough for you, AC Schnitzer did an ACS8 Sport with 720hp and 627lb ft, 21-inch centrelock wheels, a new axle-back exhaust, lowered suspension, some new aero bits and Schnitzer’s lovely in-house shifter paddles and foot pedals. The fact that it was only 0.1sec quicker than the standard M8 Comp GC over the 0-62mph tells you all you need to know about the diminishing returns at this end of the performance scale. The AC’s 0-124mph took less than ten seconds though, which was quick. The standard car needed 10.8 seconds for that, which was also quick, just not as quick. And if none of that is enough, take a look at Bimmerpost where you will see Comp GC build threads using twin Garrett G30-770 turbos, the aim being to get to somewhere in the region of 1,200-1,300hp.
The M8 Comp GC’s official combined fuel consumption figure was 26.9mpg, and that was a pretty accurate reflection of what you might get on the road in mixed use. Pressing on for more of the time would reduce that to the low 20s. Go bonkers and you’ll be down to 13mpg. If bonkers was more your driving style the 16.7 gallon fuel tank might feel on the small side for serious continental touring.
BMW’s Service Inclusive plan covered your car’s maintenance for at least the first four years after you’d made a single upfront payment ‘tailored’ for the model. No figure is published online for the M8s but of the regular BMW ranges the 8 Series is the highest-priced at £1,879. A pay monthly plan is also available, but when we tried to purchase one of those on the BMW UK site the screen went blank. Apart from the usual crop of generalists who had bunged ‘M8’ into their browsing software we couldn’t find any genuine independent M8 specialists in the UK.
CHASSIS
The G14/15/16 8 Series BMW was built on the Cluster Architecture (CLAR) platform that made its debut in 2015 on the G11 7 Series. That meant it had the capacity to accommodate pure internal combustion, mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid or battery electric drivetrains, along with a decouplable xDrive system for four- or two-wheel drive.
Suspension on the M8 Comp was conventional strut/wishbone at the front and multi-link rear, with steel springs and adaptive dampers. Compared to the regular M8 the Comps had increased negative camber at the front, balljoints at the rear instead of rubber bushings, and stiffer engine mounts. The suspension hardware was mainly from the M5, but with settings bespoke to the Comp GC. Those with experience of air suspension systems over a period of time will know that it’s a potential banana skin in terms of reliability and maintenance, so BMW’s refusal to offer air even as an option on the M8 was seen as good news from both reliability and ‘trackiness’ perspective, that last one being backed up by an additional Track Mode setting. The Comp’s anti-roll bars, brakes and steering were all ‘M’ spec and as mentioned earlier there was an M limited-slip rear differential too.
Again as above, the all-wheel drive system was switchable to two-wheel drive if you fancied your chances drifting on the skid pan. Two M mode switches on the steering wheel gave you instant access to your two favourite mode combos. For British roads, Sport Plus was properly sharp. You were best off leaving the suspension in Comfort. Some thought that the Porsche 911 had a better all-day, every-day ride quality. On a smooth track, however, even a nadgery one, the M8 Comp GC’s ability belied its size. Roll was usefully low, the steering was accurate and even with all four wheels driving it had a rear-drive feel about it. Dynamically the M8 was significantly better than the M6.
The standard tyre choice was Michelin Pilot Sport 4S. That’s a great tyre but even with the xDrive working overtime, lighting up all four tyres in launch control was par for the course on damp surfaces. You’d still be doing 0-62mph in 3.5 seconds, mind. Deeply impressive.
BODYWORK
There was aggression aplenty in the front end look of the M8 Competition Gran Coupe. You might encounter aggression from others too if you were driving towards them on a minor road that you appeared to be fully occupying. At around five metres long (23cm longer than the normal 8 Series coupe) the M8 GC was no bubblecar. At 2.1 metres it was the widest car in the BMW catalogue in 2019.
It was aggressive from the rear, too, if you accept the idea of rears being aggressive. Other road users were certainly in no doubt about the car’s performance potential from that angle. You’d have a job seeing much of them in the M8’s rear-view mirror because visibility in that direction was heavily compromised by the headrested rear seats and the shallow rear screen. Knowing where the front corners of the car were wasn’t easy either. Reverse parking was a doddle thanks to the camera system but some cars suffered from obscuring of part of the rearview image on the screen when reverse was selected, or a failure of the screen to light up.
The vents on the wings looked great, but that was their only role in life: they were non-functional. Extended Shadowline trim deleted the chrome. The M Carbon exterior trim package including carbon bootlid spoiler cost around £5k on its own. If you didn’t have that, all the bits that were carbonised were in gloss black. The windows were frameless all round. The boot wasn’t overly huge at 440 litres which was about 50 litres less than you got in something like a Panamera or a Mercedes CLS and nearly 100 litres short of the Audi A7. If it was any consolation the BMW’s bootlid struts were truly immense. You could fold down the back seats to add space and there was a through-loading function when the back seats were in place but not every kind of cargo could be shoved through the narrow boot opening.
M8s including the Gran Coupe were recalled in the US in 2023 to put right an electrical fault which allowed the windows to close themselves even when the ignition key was removed, but as far as we can make out the Competition models that we got in the UK weren’t included in that. Recalls for an airbag fault, incorrectly welded brake system components and potentially damaged transmission wiring harness also seem to have fallen into this same non-Comp category.
INTERIOR
It’s a great interior. The optional carbon-backed M sports seats were brilliant, and better than the already excellent regular 8 Series sport seats. Full extended leather was standard in the M8.
There were five seatbelts in the Gran Coupe but the fifth passenger needed to be a special kind of person as the centre console came all the way back into the rear compartment at largely undiminished height, spreadeagling the unlucky one who found themselves perched on the hard-cushioned rear centre ‘seat’ – the only one in the GC not to be heated.
Otherwise, it was very comfy in the back with plenty of leg and knee room, and you certainly didn’t get much of either of those in the Coupe. Having said that, you may have noticed that the Gran Coupe does have Coupe in its name which means that headroom for any adult of above-average height is marginal. There was more room generally in the back of a Porsche Panamera, but those in the back of the GC had at least as many nice buttons to press to control their environment.
Voice control wasn’t that responsive, but gesture control worked okay and Android Auto had finally become part of the iDrive system by this time. It connected wirelessly. There was wireless phone charging too although the hole for it wasn’t big enough for a typical modern smartphone with a protector on it. The digital dials in Audis were arguably superior to the ones in the M8 but the BMW’s ambient cabin lighting was lovely. Standard sounds were provided by Harman Kardon but if you find a car with the Ultimate pack on it you will get a stonking Bowers & Wilkins system with beautiful aluminium speaker trim panels backlit with ‘light tornados’. Bought separately, adaptive cruise was a £1,500 option, which seemed a bit miserly on a £120k car.
PH VERDICT
The M badge has always meant storming performance and you certainly got more than enough of that in the M8 - but when the M parameters were applied to something like the Gran Coupe saloon the result was different and exciting. You had rampant thrust on demand but you could also take your family somewhere nice at major speed and in comfort. Obviously you’ve always been able to do that in the M5 and in AMG Mercs - and yes, a 911 Turbo S was 280kg lighter - but it was cool to have that sort of performance plus full four-seat practicality in something as smoochily styled as the Gran Coupe.
Realistically of course you could pick up an M850i Gran Coupe for under £50k, but that was 100hp down on the M8 and since when did realism play any part in buying a ‘proper’ M car anyway. You don’t have to fear the prospect of unwelcome glitches either. So far at least there has been very little evidence of anything major, or even minor, going wrong with any of the M8 variants.
As we mentioned earlier the GC’s relative popularity makes it easier to find, and cheaper, on the UK used market. Of the ten M8 Competitions for sale on PH Classifieds at the time of writing in May 2024, seven were Gran Coupes, two were Coupes and one was a Convertible. The most affordable M8 Comp of any kind on PH at the time of writing in May 2024 was this 18,000-mile Gran Coupe at £59,500. Against that, this 2021 30,000-miler at £10k more might seem expensive but it had the Ultimate pack which gave you just about everything you could possibly want, up to and including B&W sound, ceramic brakes, and electric blinds for the side and rear windows. Just the job for those Simon Cowell moments with your mate laughing his socks off up front while wearing a dodgy chauffeur’s cap.
For the large bucks here’s a ‘23 update with the Comfort and Visibility packs and painted in BMW’s stunning Isle of Man Green. A small number on the odometer, 9,000, but a big ‘un on the price tag – £94,980.
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