(July 14, 2015) CHICAGO — Cars.com has named the 2015 BMW M4 the winner of its Luxury Performance Coupe Challenge. The challenge pitted three luxury performance coupes against each other in a series of tests to determine which was the best. In addition to the BMW M4, other cars tested were the 2016 Cadillac ATS-V and the 2015 Lexus RC F.

"There's a small group of cars that are as at home on the track as they are on the daily commute," said Patrick Olsen, Cars.com Editor-in-Chief. "Our goal with this Cars.com challenge was to test three of them against each other — on the street and on the track — and find out which one came out on top. The overall top spot went to the BMW, which is an established contender, but the other two were all-new."



The three performance coupes went through a week of testing that included:

    • 160+ mileage drive on a mixture of roads to determine real-world MPG

    • Round-robin testing where each expert drove each car back-to-back on the same course to evaluate ride, handling, comfort, acceleration and more

    • Testing by an actual consumer in the market for a performance coupe

    • Zero-to-60-mph testing, quarter-mile time and speed testing and 60-to-zero-mph braking distance tests, all on a closed track

    • One day of closed road course testing to assess handling

"The BMW M4 delivers all of the go-fast goods an enthusiast should expect," Olsen said. "Right off the bat, it feels like a race car that can perform on the track but also act as a fun-to-drive, everyday car."

 From all of that, we found our winner. Our judges were: Joe Bruzek, road test editor for Cars.com; Mike Hanley, senior editor for Cars.com; Joe Wiesenfelder, executive editor for Cars.com; Brian Robinson, producer for PBS' "MotorWeek;" and Tim May, our in-market shopper, who is 40 and an equipment operator from Naperville, Ill.

The scoring broke down this way: 60 percent from the judges' scoring, 30 percent from the quantitative tests on the drag strip, and 10 percent from the mileage drive.