: "The M3 bows at 100,000DM in Germany, and that translates to $51,000 U.S currently - but we are not going to do that. We will take approximately ten percent out of the dollar cost, so we are definitely aiming under $50,000. Sure, it's a step up from the $45,000 that most old M3s average at out showrooms, but this time U.S. customers are getting an awful lot more power than before.

: Also, Gerhard Richter (the president of engineering at BMW Individual), is quoted as saying about the power of the M3,

: "Because of U.S. emission legislation, we do lose some power in the 50-state format, as we must have closed-loop pre-cat installation. The other difference to European specification is that we are required to have the on-board diagnostics (OBD), but otherwise they are the same."

: The article also reports the 330hp US figure versus 343hp Europe, and quotes a "Munich engineer" as stating that "the torque is clipped to around 255 foot-pounds" (as compared with 269 ft-lbs in Europe.

: So, it looks like we can expect a base price of around $45.5K, and that the lower power of the U.S. version is real (not just an artifact of Europe-to-US power conversion formulas).