IS BMW GOING THE WRONG WAY?

The internet has spoken. And the internet detests the look of the new M3. We all know why: it’s that double grille, which has swaggered over from the 4-Series. The online commentariat didn’t like it there either. Everyone knows what the front of a BMW should look like, and a pair of blacked-out octagons approximately the area of Wales isn’t it.

But the internet doesn’t buy M3s. M3 buyers do. They seem to be a remarkably loyal bunch, and no-one knows them better than BMW does. After all, BMW has been at it for six generations now. M’s product manager Hagen Franke, who sets the cars’ spec and characteristics, says that what M3 customers asked for was clear: a greater visual distance between the M340i and the M3. Job done. Even beneath this unique-to-M reptilian