First look: BMW M3 grows two extra doors

BMW has extended the M3 range with a four-door sedan.

Known as a coupe-only muscle car in Australia, the new E90 M3 will soon be offered with the two extra doors in Europe.

BMW Australia managing director Guenther Seemann said the company had not yet decided whether to offer the more practical M3 locally.

“BMW is currently evaluating the local sales potential of the M3 Sedan and if customer demand warrants we will bring the car to Australia. That said, it would be at least 12 months before this could be realised,” he said.

The news of the four-door M3 sedan has broken four days before the M3 coupe will be officially launched at the Sydney motor show on Thursday.

The M3 sedan runs the same 4.0-litre V8, which pumps out 309kW and 400Nm, as its coupe sibling.

It is slower, but only just, taking an extra 0.1 seconds to hit 100km/h - in just 4.9 seconds.

The M3 sedan is visually identical to the coupe at the front, but has different side gills, side sills and a unique rear bumper extension.

It runs a different chassis set-up with what BMW refers to as ‘weight optimised components’.

GoAuto understands the M3 sedan will run different damping and spring rates to suit the different four-door body structure, which is is a total of 25kg heavier than the coupe version.

BMW had offered a sedan version of the E36 M3 in Europe in the 1990s, but the car was not sold in Australia.

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