Price confirmed on BMW's new M3

Want to put of the UK's first V8-powered BMW M3s in your garage? You'll have to part with at least £50,625. That's the official base price of the new 414bhp M-division coupe, as confirmed by BMW UK today; deliveries will start in September.

That price makes the new M-car £6.5k more expensive than the last M3 coupe was when it was discontinued. However, it also happens to be a piffling £50 less than you'll pay for a new Audi RS4 saloon, a fact conceived to go unnoticed by few who have to decide between the two performance cars, or indeed anyone at Audi's UK headquarters in Milton Keynes.

BMW has also confirmed a few other technical details about the new super-coupe. It will, apparently, crack 62mph in just 4.8sec and hit a limited top speed of 155mph. The surprise news comes with the fuel consumption claim; BMW says, thanks to brake energy regeneration and an enhanced double-VANOS valvetrain, the new M3 will return 22.8mpg on the combined cycle. That makes it eight per cent more frugal than the last M3, as well as a good twenty-five per cent more powerful.

source: www.autocar.co.uk