There’s something fun about going a bit wild when spec’ing a car. It tells the world that these are the colors and shades you love, that resale value isn’t top-of-mind, and that you’re a bit too discerning to simply buy off the lot. More importantly, it means you get to walk out in the morning to a car you really love that little bit extra, and who would I be to disagree with that? On the more outlandish side of things, murmurs of a shockingly white interior for the BMW M3 has been going around, but I’m afraid there’s some bad news if you’re enthused by such a proposition.
First, just take a look at this screenshot from BMW’s own configurator, because it’s wild. Just about everything inside this M3 is a blinding shade of printer paper white. The seats, the steering wheel, the bezels around the window switches, the sun visors, it’s like Tony Montana specced it out with no concern for usability or required upkeep.
While this might look striking, light-hued dashboards can cast horrible reflections in the windshield, causing a proper safety issue in the sun. Also, anyone with kids or dark jeans can picture this interior being immediately ruined from the first moment of human contact. Clothing dye transfer, spilled coffee, the sort of bodily fluids parents of young children encounter from time to time, all of this could conspire to turn a white interior grey.
However, before you go sharing this with your friends, there’s something you need to know. Despite what Reddit and some other outlets have reported, this upholstery choice is not real. Not just in the sense that nobody’s bought an M3 with a bright white interior, in the sense that BMW isn’t offering it on the normal options list.
Unique All White Interior BMW M3 Edition 50 Jahre BMW M.
byu/Ajr0116 inBMW
See, the myth of the white M3 interior has propagated far and wide. This Reddit post from three years ago shows a rendering of this cockpit with the title “Unique All White Interior BMW M3 Edition 50 Jahre BMW M.” However, the M3 Edition 50 Jahre BMW M actually came with black leather accented by M stripes, about as far from a snow-white interior as you can get. However, the rumor of the “Miami Vice”-tier interior is making a comeback. Earlier this week, CarScoops reported that “South Africa Gets The Whitest BMW M3 Interior We’ve Ever Seen”. As the outlet wrote:
A recent post made to the BMW page on Reddit reveals that in South Africa, the M3 Touring is available with all-white leather upholstery as a no-cost option. The performance estate is available in other markets with seats clad in white leather, but this is the first time we’ve seen an option that includes this much white leather.
However, if we go to the M3 Touring configurator on the BMW South Africa website, we see that the all-white virtual sample is simply called “Individual Special Leather Upholstery.” What you see here isn’t what you’d receive, because the all-white rendering is actually a placeholder. Clicking this box results in a pop-up appearing explaining that you’re actually selecting Tartufo, a rich truffle brown that in this case, comes as Merino leather from BMW’s Individual division.
I’m sure that if you want and have extremely deep pockets, BMW Individual might upholster your new M3 in leather that makes an iceberg look grey, but for now, the blindingly white BMW M3 interior is not real. It cannot hurt you.
Top graphic image: BMW
Support our mission of championing car culture by becoming an Official Autopian Member.
The post This All-White BMW M3 Interior Is Actually Just A Weird Error appeared first on The Autopian.
