I had occasion to transport my daughter in the M3 this weekend. No surprise here: coupe-u-lar body styles make inserting and extracting a child seat and said child more difficult. At least the M3 has a couple tricks up its sleeve.
Besides showing how well the M3's oh-so-sumptuous red leather seats have (not) worn over the past 6 years, this photo illustrates how little room there is between the B-pillar and the seat back. Luckily, when you pull the all-too-obvious release handle (that also doubles as a seatbelt retainer), the seatback not only tilts forward, but the entire seat assembly also "jumps" up and forward in a sort of parallelogram-like motion. Neat.
While it's still not as easy on my back as a sedan, this thoughtful feature does make life a little easier.
But here's the kicker: When you push the seat back, it falls into its original adjusted position, not some vertical-and-all-the-way-forward default position like we've witnessed on some recent coupes we've seen. Even our 2008 BMW 135i can't match the trusty ol' M3 in this regard.
As Karl discussed here, the 135i's seat back tilts forward and back manually (to its original position), but you need to motor the seats forward and back with a button.
You see? Some things don't get better when they're digitally remastered and reissued.
Chris Walton, Chief Road Test Editor @ 57,890 miles
estreka says:
12:06 PM, 06/23/08
I had no idea Simpson made a child safety seat.
Awesome.
joefrompa says:
01:43 PM, 06/23/08
Wow, I can't believe that's the original red leather 6 years out. Looks less than a year old, if that.
Show the driver's side.
Did the previous owner redo that? Rub it with leatherique every week? Zymol? AeroSpace 303? Zaino Leather care products?
Jeez.
I thought my 06 Civic SI seats looked good at 45k miles....
Joe
jriz says:
01:50 PM, 06/23/08
The former owner weighed 95 pounds and exclusively wore white linin pant suits.
m_thrizzle says:
02:07 PM, 06/23/08
The M3 seats' movability are great because they allow quick access to the back. I tend to use the shoulder lever to tilt the seat forward and put stuff in the rear footwell. I used to have a 2004 G35 coupe and I didn't do this because of 2 reasons: 1) the seat would motor forward & backwards slowly, and 2) you'd have to re-adjust your seatback angle afterwards because it defaulted to the most upright position. With the M3, I just flick the lever, grab my stuff (or put stuff in the back), and flick the seat back into the original position.
pengwin says:
05:40 PM, 06/23/08
...or you can buy a 4 door M3.
vacagrande says:
06:50 AM, 06/24/08
You couldn't in 2002. Hence why I have a 330i instead of an M3. You can't fit two big dogs in the back of an M3.
pengwin says:
07:34 AM, 06/24/08
then they should've gotten the E36 instead of the E46 :)
roadburner says:
11:34 AM, 06/24/08
"Wow, I can't believe that's the original red leather 6 years out. Looks less than a year old, if that."
The leather bolsters on my 113000 1995 318ti only show slight wear, while the seats on my wife's 2004 X3 still look brand new after 64000 miles. I've never treated the sets in the X3 and I think I might have treated the 3er's seat 2-3 times at most. If you are a "wide body" and/or lazy about getting in or out of the car the BMW sport seats will show wear on the bolsters.
drmillerM3 says:
01:35 PM, 02/13/09
The only part that surprises me is no wear on the bulster. The driver side must have wear there. Just from getting in and rubbing up against highly bolstered seats causes wear on the seam.