BMW

Which BMW M to Pick

A BMW M rental is the one on this site that gets booked for the driving before the arrival, and the choice is about doors and seats. Rent a BMW M for a weekend of canyon driving with a partner and the M4 Competition is the car. Rent one because 3 friends or a child seat are coming and the M3 Competition is the same car with 4 doors and a back seat that works. Rent one for the occasion and the M3 CS is the rare one. It is the sports car rental people book as a test drive with a weekend attached.

The M4 Competition reads as a sports car to anyone who does not follow cars, and that is the point of the 2-door body. It is the birthday car and the photo car. The M3 Competition is mechanically the same, with 2 extra doors and a rear seat adults fit in, so it is the one people book when they are seriously considering buying one.

The M3 CS is the connoisseur's M3. Yellow daytime running lights, a frameless grille with red contour lines, carbon body panels and carbon bucket seats as standard. The buckets are the thing to know about. You climb over the carbon rather than into it, and whether they are comfortable depends on your build and your back, so tell us who is riding along.

The M5 Competition is the sleeper, a 4-door that carries 5 people and passes as a large fast sedan until it does not. The M8 Competition is the grand tourer, 2 doors, a low wide body, and a cabin tuned toward the freeway, which makes it the pick for a Palm Springs run or a long coastal day.

What a BMW M Says

Strangers read an M car as fast, expensive and driven by someone in a hurry. Nobody rents a BMW M to be read as courteous. For a weekend the stereotype is the asset. Other drivers leave you room, and the grille is the first thing anyone comments on. The grille has its own story. It was the most argued-about front end in years, and owners say the same thing about it every time, that the photographs misrepresent it and that the metal converts people.

Underneath the read is the truth of who books it. The 20-year-old finally driving the M4 that was his phone wallpaper at 15. The dad who wants the fast one but there are 4 of them. BMW M is the car most people wanted first, and that is what an M rental is for.

Where the Character Comes From

The mechanism is 2 red buttons on the steering wheel marked M1 and M2. Each one recalls a complete stored configuration, engine response, steering weight, damping, drive split, brake pedal feel, exhaust and traction, in a single press. Set M1 for the boulevard and M2 for the canyon and the whole car is 2 buttons. The setup menu goes deep enough that brake pedal feel is its own line item, which lands on everyone who discovers it.

The M3, M4 and M3 CS run a twin-turbo inline-six with well over 500 horsepower. The M5 and M8 run a twin-turbo V8 with more than 600. The M8 puts the same speed in a wider, lower body and tunes the dampers so the spread between comfort and sharp is the whole range of the car.

BMW M Rentals Across Southern California

BMW M is often the first exotic rental someone books, usually because he has wanted this exact car for a decade. The roads are the point. Ortega Highway and Santiago Canyon are the Orange County version, Angeles Crest is the full day, and Palomar Mountain is the San Diego version. An M3 or M5 does the Palm Springs run with 4 people and luggage without anyone suffering, and the M8 is the car for the long coastal day from Santa Monica up through Malibu and back at dusk. The M4 gets booked for birthdays and photo days, and the parking structure at sunset with the carbon roof in the drone shot is its own genre.

We deliver BMW M cars across Los Angeles, Orange County, San Diego, the Inland Empire and Palm Springs, to hotels, residences and the curb at LAX, SNA, BUR, LGB, ONT, SAN and PSP. BMW M rentals run from $495 to $795 a day depending on the car, with the M3 and M4 Competition at the lower end and the M8 Competition at the top. Longer bookings cost less per day.

Drive a BMW M

At parking speed an M3 is quiet and unremarkable. Then you press M2. The steering weights up, the dampers firm, the throttle sharpens and the exhaust opens. Under load the inline-six fills the cabin, the shifts crack through, and the chassis makes sense within the first corner.

The M5 is the same trick with 4 people aboard, nothing happening, then everything happening. The M8 is settled and heavy at cruise and wide in a garage. The CS is the one that makes you climb over the seat bolster to get in, and then makes you glad you did. Public roads only. Track use is not permitted.