Convertibles have always had a complicated case to make in India. The weather is against them for most of the year, the roads are not kind to their lower ride height, and perennial parking problems don’t help your case when you are the one with a fabric roof. Thankfully, none of that stopped BMW from bringing the M440i xDrive Convertible here. After spending time with it across NCR city streets and the nearby expressways, I am glad they did.

Kidney and Kin

The M440i Convertible’s face is not going to settle any arguments. BMW’s large kidney grille has divided opinion since it first appeared in this size, and this car wears it in full. The front is bold to the point of being confrontational – sharp, adaptive LEDs flanking a grille that dominates everything below the bonnet line. The rear is a different, and calmer story.

The CSL-inspired taillights with their woven laser pattern are the kind of detail you notice once and can’t stop noticing. The two ends don’t always feel in complete conversation with each other, but the convertible’s cleaner silhouette, free of the visual weight of a fixed roof, gives the car a more balanced, planted stance.

The 19-inch bi-colour M alloys fill the arches well, and the panel-bow soft-top sits flush and taut when closed, looking nothing like the saggy fabric hoods of a previous era. Whether you like it or not, you definitely cannot ignore it. Heads turn in traffic, and phone cameras are out in a flash.

Buttons, yay!

Step inside, and the cabin continues that same conversation between restraint and occasion. The 14.9-inch curved display is present and well-executed, but thankfully, BMW has stopped short of surrendering every function to it. Physical controls remain for the things you reach for without looking. Sitting inside doesn’t feel like you are surrounded by screens like a display wall in a consumer electronics store. It feels, refreshingly, like a car.

The flat-bottomed M steering wheel is confidence-inspiring in the hand. The perforated Sensatec seats hold without clamping, and on longer runs, that distinction matters. Harman Kardon’s 12-speaker sound system is impressive, but I’ll be honest, I was happier with the music from the straight-six. The rear seats aren’t spacious, but they will fit two adults for reasonable distances. The boot, surprisingly, is spacious enough to fit two large suitcases for that trip to Goa.

Roof up, and we know in India, the roof is up more often than you would like; the soft-top seals properly. Headroom is adequate for average Indian height, the cabin cools well, and the exhaust note drops to a low growl rather than disappearing entirely. In the real world, living with a soft-top carries no real penalty, as long as you have a secure parking spot. On the safety front, six airbags, ABS with brake assist, dynamic stability control, a 360-degree camera, tyre pressure monitoring, and ADAS functions including adaptive cruise control and lane-keep assist are all standard. However, the cabin shares considerable DNA with the 3 Series, and at this price, that is something you notice.

More Than the Sum of Its Parts

If you have driven the M340i — one car from the current BMW stable, I really like — you already like this engine. The B58 3.0-litre straight-six — 369 bhp, 50.9 kgm, 48V mild hybrid assist — is a peach. Yet, despite all the similarities, and there are many, behind the wheel, it feels more special in the M440i.

In the M340i, brilliant as it is, the engine performs behind glass. In the M440i, with the roof folded away and Sport mode selected, the B58 speaks, or rather sings, directly to you. The induction note, the surge through the mid-range, the way each upshift from the eight-speed Steptronic lands with a small, satisfying thud - it feels like the same engine having an entirely different conversation. Effortless in city traffic, urgent when you ask, and always with something to say.

The paddle shifters behind the M steering wheel are worth reaching for when you want to be involved, which isn’t often, as the gearbox doesn’t miss much. On a clear stretch, with the throttle pinned down, the claimed 4.9 seconds to 100 kph feels believable, though I did not test it. The mild hybrid system doesn’t change the engine’s character, thankfully, but helps reduce any flat moments at any speed, in any gear. In the city, the Adaptive M suspension in Comfort mode absorbs what comes its way without drama or complaint.

City, Highway, Sky

On the highway, the car reveals itself more fully. Sport mode firms up the responses, the throttle sharpens, and the M Sport differential begins making its presence felt. Nothing about the transition is jarring; it is more like a conversation deepening than a personality changing. The xDrive all-wheel drive works without announcement, distributing grip where it is needed. The steering is accurate and well-weighted for most of the time, but I did find it a tad lighter than I would have liked at higher than legal speeds. It is direct enough to place the car with confidence, consistent enough that you stop thinking about it and simply use it.

And then, when the road opens up and the moment is right, you press the button. The roof peels back in 18 seconds. The sky arrives. And whatever you thought you were driving reintroduces itself. The exhaust note, no longer filtered through the headliner and glass, surrounds you. It is the kind of moment that reminds you why internal combustion, for all the obituaries being written about it, still has things to say that nothing else can.

The Real Argument

We are in the middle of a quiet but thorough transformation of what cars are. Most new cars are efficient, capable, and eerily silent about the whole business of moving you around. They are very good at their job. They are also, if you spend enough time in them, a bit like appliances.

The M440i xDrive Convertible is not interested in being one. It has an engine that responds to the exact weight of your right foot. A chassis that tells you what it’s doing rather than just handling it. A roof that, when conditions allow, turns a drive into something you’ll be glad you went on.

For the last decade or so, I have often felt that BMW is going soft and trying to be more like its Stuttgart-based rival. It is heartening to see their heart, pun intended, is still in the right place with the M440i.

Impractical? In parts, maybe. Expensive? At ₹1.09 crore ex-showroom, unambiguously. But behind the wheel, roof up or down, the M440i never once feels like anything other than exactly what it is supposed to be. A pure source of unfiltered happiness.

© TheMotorGram

Published on May 8, 2026