I’ve always felt convertibles are not as ‘pure’ as coupes when it comes to being true-blue sportscars. Wind-in-the-hair is nice, but reinforcements add weight, besides which the folding roof consumes precious real estate. Add to that the fact that our country’s driving conditions are not among the best for top-down motoring. But at times, car manufacturers make convertibles that have me reconsider my thoughts. Like the BMW M440i Convertible. It has the same, 3.0-litre straight-six turbocharged petrol engine as the M340i under its hood (codenamed B58), which is an engine enthusiasts worship. Heck, many even consider it to be the modern-day 2JZ, so the M440i has a lot going for it, starting with the powertrain!
A lot of the M440i’s design cues come from the M4 Competition, especially that large grille and headlamps. Admittedly, the grille design has grown on me, besides which I feel BMW has cleverly used this particular grille on cars that are grin-inducing. So even if you’re not a fan of the design, you’re focused on enjoying your time behind the wheel than trying to make up your mind about the grille! India also gets gloss black highlights on the grille and air dams at the ends of the bumper as standard, which add to its appeal. Wing mirrors, exhaust tips and the faux diffuser at the rear get the treatment too. The headlamps look sharp and aggressive, and the M440i runs on the same, tastefully designed 19-inch wheels as the M340i. The low-slung stance helps it complete the sportscar look, and putting the top down has the M440i Convertible look achingly gorgeous from the sides and rear three-quarter.
The rear looks equally arresting given the tail lamp design, the exhaust tips and also the fatter, 255/35-section rear tyres (front tyres are 225/45-section). The cabin is standard BMW affair though, and I would have liked a more stylish design to go with the convertible body style. That said, the cabin does have a sense of classiness to it given the choice of materials, surface finishes and also the flat-bottomed steering wheel with the brushed metal finishes, especially on its bottom spoke. The front seats are the same sports seats as the M340i which are well-bolstered, and the rear seats are surprisingly spacious for adults to get into, at least for short drives. What’s also worth noting is that BMW has launched the M440i in a single, fully-loaded trim in India.
You get the same curved glass panel as the M340i housing the 12.3-inch driver display and 14.9-inch touchscreen, adding a sense of familiarity. The user interface could be better though, as navigating through menus and sub-menus while driving is a challenge. The list of features includes pretty much everything you need including wireless charging, multiple Type-C USB ports, wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity and some ADAS features. The 12-speaker Harman Kardon music system deserves a mention too, for its excellent audio quality. The roof can be opened or closed in about 18 seconds, even on the go, at up to 50kmph, and makes for a sense of occasion besides grabbing eyeballs, every time you operate it.
The star of the M440i’s show though is the B58 straight-six engine which uses a twin-scroll turbocharger. It offers the same 374PS and 500Nm as the M340i, sent to all four wheels via BMW’s xDrive all-wheel drive system. That’s a potent setup, and interestingly, claimed 0-100kmph time for the M440i Convertible is just 4.9 seconds, which is just half a second slower than the M340i, despite the sedan being around 200kg lighter! I suspect the M440i Convertible will clock close to 4.5 seconds to 100kmph though, which is quicker than the claimed time, as this is something BMW is known to do: understate its cars’ performance. A bit of a letdown is how much more the engine is muted now due to ever-tightening emissions norms, a fact we’d discovered with the updated M340i last year. And yes, some of the engine sound is played through the car’s speakers here too.
This being a convertible though, you have better access to the exhaust note and despite the lowered tone, the engine sounds really good. I can only imagine how much sportier and more sonorous the exhaust note would be with a free flow exhaust system! The 8-speed ZF-sourced automatic gearbox is a delight as always and adds to the joy of giving the B58 the stick with its alacrity and intuitiveness, and also how quickly it responds to inputs via the throttle and paddle shifters. xDrive helps you harness engine’s performance really well too, and also ensures things are always in check despite the rear wheel bias. Driving modes help you tailor throttle responses, steering feel and the suspension to suit your driving style, and my favourite mode is Sport Individual which lets you adjust the drivetrain, steering and damping individually.
Sport Plus ESC is the most fun, especially once you turn traction control off, to turn the M440i into a drift machine! It’s ever happy to have the tail step out, and catching a slide back or holding a drift is easy, thanks to the car’s progressive throttle responses and direct steering. In fact, the M440i is proof yet again that BMW’s steering systems are among the best in terms of responses, feel, feedback and weightedness. A bigger highlight though are the M440i’s adaptive dampers. They’re a pleasant surprise in terms of how well they soak up undulated roads, though obviously there’s an underlying sense of firmness to it all. Needless to mention, the suspension does an excellent job of having the M440i live up to being a performance car from BMW on the handling front, as it holds its line around fast corners and feels supremely stable even well above 100kmph.
Prices weren’t announced when we tested the M440i Convertible, and I was pleasantly surprised when BMW launched the car at ₹1.09 crores ex-showroom. That’s a steal considering the now-iconic B58 engine under its hood, the unmistakeable road presence of being a convertible (with four seats at that!), and the remarkable dynamics. The M440i also feels surprisingly usable and reasonably comfortable as a daily driver, which isn’t something many convertibles can boast of. We’ve known BMW to offer some of the best driving machines positioned as luxury cars for long, and the M440i Convertible doesn’t just join that list, it stands out. And that’s because it isn’t just a convertible, it’s also a driver’s car that truly lives up to the M in its name!
Words Abhay Verma
Photography Swapnil Dhawale
