Over the past few years, one might get the impression that BMW has been dissing the buying public. There was the Bangle-ized redesign of the 7 Series, which garnered a tremendous amount of negative attention and calls for a return to more conservative styling. BMW soldiered on unabated, and actually rolled out the tiered, bubble-butt look to other cars in its lineup. And then there’s iDrive, another BMW creation that resulted in more thumbs down than a nursing home bikini contest. Finally, the M line took a hit when the Z3 gave way to the Z4, and BMW seemed to be oblivious to the cries of new-car-buying enthusiasts.

Well, friends, your words and tears have apparently made their way to Munich. The polarizing styling has been massaged to be more palatable, to the point that it’s mimicked by everyone from Hyundai to Lexus. IDrive still exists, though has been somewhat simplified for us, the ignorant masses. And car guys and gals will get their wish, as the M line will soon be bolstered by three new vehicles, one of which is the 2006 Z4 M Roadster, a 330-horsepower soft-top that aims to fulfill its duty as the Ultimate Driving Machine.