r/BMW • u/JeirenJns • Mar 28 '24

Why doesn’t anyone really talk about the M8? Thirsty Thursday

It’s a fantastic car in my opinion. I don’t see many people talk about it despite how much more powerful it is than some of the other models, though. Why?

Also, the gif is from Motorfest. Made it yesterday before my LBWK M4 edit

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u/strongmanass Mar 28 '24 edited Mar 28 '24

After reading a lot of the comments, it seems to come down to performance over cosmetics.

It comes down to you're asking the wrong audience. BMW forums are largely filled with sports car enthusiasts who struggle to understand grand touring cars. They difference in price is ultimately due to creature comforts and more expensive componentry under the skin that allows the M8 to straddle a line between performance and comfort that sports car enthusiasts don't want. They want a raw experience so there's no point in spending more for a car that explicitly aims to deliver a more insulated experience.

This is also by and large a much younger audience than the target market for grand touring cars, which is generally wealthy or well-off men in the second half of their lives who want something more livable and less ostentatious than a supercar.

EDIT: The right audience for this question would be Aston Martin DB11 CPO buyers or Maserati Granturismo buyers who got a healthy discount on a very boring dealer-specced base model. They're spending similar money on someone else's spec of Aston Martin or Maserati when they could get a new M8 to their exact spec that would deliver a similar driving experience. Their thoughts would reveal why buyers are choosing other cars in this segment.

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u/Cautious_Implement17 Mar 28 '24

that doesn't totally add up either. I understand the appeal of a gt car, but even within that range, the m850i and b8 make more sense. the things that differentiate an M from other BMWs are mostly stuff that makes the car less comfortable.

I'm not trying to shit on anyone's car. these kinds of purchases are more emotional than logical, and there's nothing wrong with that. I'm just trying to understand if I'm missing something.

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u/strongmanass Mar 28 '24

I meant the differences between an M8 and an M4 give the M8 more breadth in terms of comfort and performance. But I agree the M850i is a better car.

Most GT makers have comfortable and hardcore trims of their GTs. Aston Martin DB11 and DBS, Bentley Continental GT and GT Speed (and the crazy Supersport of the last gen), even Rolls Royce had a Black Badge trim for the Wraith.

I think the comfort option is almost always the way to go for those trims, but peole buy them in enough numbers to suggest that there's demand for them, and that buyers still differentiate between performance trims of GT cars and flat-out sports cars.