[fecurtis]

http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/...8_first_drive/

Sticking with the superlatives, I feel the Roundel brand’s new $136,625 3-cylinder, carbon-fiber, plug-in hybrid sports car is the most important BMW of all time.. How’s that for overselling it?

It concludes:

Back in the day, BMW’s M Division was innovative. The M1 was the first mid-engine German supercar, the M5 and later M3 defined genres. . These days? I guess the X6 M is kinda novel, but everything else is just monkey see, monkey do. The new M3? C63 AMG, RS4, RC-F, ATS-V (soon enough). M5? E63 AMG, RS7, CTS-V, XF-RS, GS-F (coming soon). X5 M? ML63 AMG, Porsche Cayenne Turbo, Range Rover Sport 5.0 Supercharged. Competition’s great, and imitation is sincere flattery, but why would you buy a BMW over any of those others? The M Division is paint by numbers these days -- BMW’s version of AMG/quattro GmbH/Caddy V/Lexus F -- who cares? The only reason BMW’s bringing over the Alpina B6 Gran Coupe (for instance) is because they’re hamstrung by their own history -- no AWD M sedans! Yet people that live in the snowbelt are lapping up AWD AMGs and fast Audis like there’s a shortage. Jaguar has doubled its volume of sedans in the northeast simply by offering AWD. You can’t innovate when you’re trying to appeal to single issue voters; you can’t even compete with the brands you’re marching along in lockstep with.

This new i brand however, and this product in particular, is something else altogether. It’s brilliant, it’s important and it’s game changing. In fact, lots of technology from the i8 and i3 will be trickling its way down to the M Division. Things like the lightweight material behind the dash for the HVAC system and carbon fiber technology. How ‘bout them apples? More importantly, like the original M cars back in the 1980s, other manufacturers are going to start copying BMW’s new division. They’re going to have to. You can’t stop progress, but for now BMW has found a way to harness it.