BMW M3 (E90/E92)
Why 6.3: The only V8 M3 — a free-revving anomaly between straight-six eras, with a rod-bearing ritual its owners budget for. Driven and tracked in numbers the values haven't punished yet.
Layout
Natural habitat
Ride comfort
Sound
The S65 is a naturally aspirated 4.0 V8 derived from the S85 V10, and it climbs metallic and hard the whole way to 8,400 with nothing in the exhaust path. But it is cross-plane, so this is intensity rather than a flat-plane shriek. Among BMW's best.
8-cylinder · naturally aspirated · 8,400 rpm redline · rated 8.5 / 10 for engine sound
Market value
Median asking price, good condition · €55k (2009) → €55k (2026), trending up · illustrative data
Child seats · ISOFIX
ISOFIX standard on the two outer rear seats (coupe's 4-seat layout has no middle position); some owners report the anchor points sit deep in the bolsters, making bases fiddly to click home.
Unusual for an M car: the E90/E91/E92 3-Series generation offered a factory front-passenger ISOFIX bracket as an option. Not standard, and not guaranteed on cars fitted with M sport seats.
The front-ISOFIX option is a genuine E9x-generation quirk that didn't carry into the following F-series M3/M4.
BMW E9x-generation front-ISOFIX option (owner forums); OEM ISOFIX anchor-cover parts listed for E92/M3, 2005-2013 fitment (owner-community sourced, not manufacturer documentation)
The long version
This generation bottomed out hard enough in the mid-2010s that buying one became almost a rite of passage for enthusiasts priced out of newer M cars, and the crowd that piled in came with the DIY instinct to match — rod bearings inspected on a schedule, not a warranty claim. Values have since recovered without pulling the cars off track-day entry lists, because the ownership base that formed during the cheap years never really left. It is the M3 generation where badge and community still line up: bought to be revved to 8,400 rpm, not admired at idle.