{"id":41143,"date":"2023-01-24T18:04:56","date_gmt":"2023-01-24T23:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=41143"},"modified":"2023-01-24T18:04:56","modified_gmt":"2023-01-24T23:04:56","slug":"bmw-m3-cs-m4-csl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=41143","title":{"rendered":"Photo Comparison: BMW M3 CS vs BMW M4 CSL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Now that the BMW M3 CS is here<\/a>, it\u2019s naturally going to be compared to the M4 CSL<\/a>. With both cars being lighter-weight versions of the M3\/M4 and sharing similar names, they\u2019re going to ride into BMW\u2019s history books together. However, as similar as they are in many ways, they\u2019re also very different. So let\u2019s take a look at how they compare back-to-back.<\/p>\n

Up Front<\/h3>\n

Both cars have extremely similar faces. That\u2019s no surprise, really, as their standard versions look alike as well. They both feature the same frameless grille, with lateral \u2018Y\u2019 shaped grille inserts, the same aggressive from air intakes, and the same carbon fiber front lip. The headlights are the same as every M3 and M4, not just the CSL.<\/p>\n

However, the only real difference is with the stripes on the hood. The two strips on the hood of the M4 CSL are black with red accents, while the exact same stripes on the M3 CS are just black, no red accents. Riveting stuff, I know.<\/p>\n

From the Side<\/h3>\n

OK, so this one is sort of nonsense because one is a sedan (M3 CS) and the other is a coupe (M4 CSL). Aside from their door count, though, they\u2019re very similar cars in profile. They have the same wheels (although they can come in bronze on the M3 CS), the same side skirts, the same side mirrors, and even the same Air Breather front fender vent. It\u2019s like BMW just copied and pasted the M4 CSL\u2019s design cues onto the M3 CS.<\/p>\n

Out Back<\/h3>\n

This is where the two cars differ the most. For starters, they have drastically different taillights but that\u2019s due to the 3 Series and 4 Series having different lamps. They also have very different rear spoilers. The M3 CS\u2019 is just a little carbon fiber lip spoiler that was tacked onto the truck lid, while the M4 CSL\u2019s spoiler is an integrated ducktail that\u2019s built into the truck, a la the E46 M3 CSL<\/a>. Obviously, the M4 CSL\u2019s spoiler is more interesting and more expensive looking than the M3 CS\u2019 little glued-on piece of plastic.<\/p>\n

Inside<\/h3>\n

BMW really copy and pasted here. Aside from the back seats being obviously different, as the M3 CS is a sedan with a rear bench seat and the M4 CSL is a coupe with a rear seat-delete, the two cars are virtually identical inside. They both have black and red color schemes as their only options, both have Alcantara steering wheels, and both have carbon fiber sport buckets. The M4 CSL can be optioned with manually-adjustable racing buckets and the M3 CS cannot. And the M3 CS\u2019 seats have more accents, but they\u2019re mostly the same. Even the center armrest, or lack thereof, is the same.<\/p>\n

This shouldn\u2019t be a surprise, though. The two cars have similar names, similar purposes, and similar performance, so it make sense that they also look similar. However, under the skin, they couldn\u2019t be more different. The M4 CSL is far more hardcore, more stripped out, lighter, and rawer. While the M3 CS is a bit heaver, more comfortable more practical, and comes with all-wheel drive. So as close as their designs are, there are very specific reasons to buy one instead of the other.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Now that the BMW M3 CS is here, it\u2019s naturally going to be compared to the M4 CSL. With both cars being lighter-weight versions of the M3\/M4 and sharing similar names, they\u2019re going to ride into BMW\u2019s history books together. However, as similar as they are in many ways, they\u2019re also very different. So let\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":41144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=41143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/41144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=41143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=41143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=41143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}