The black sports car was swept off the sands in St Agnes, Cornwall, with a group of passengers inside.
The local Coast Guard’s search and rescue team were called to Trevaunance Beach just before 8.30am today.
They made sure that all the occupants of the vehicle were safe before beginning the recovery process.
The passengers remained inside the car as it was pulled from the water just under two hours later.
No injuries were reported.
It is unclear how the car, which appears to be an M4 convertible, got out to sea, but a video from the scene shows it drifting quite a distance from the coastline.
In the clip, it can be seen sitting in the water, part-submerged, as the wave lap against the windows.
The footage also shows water dripping in a steady stream out of the exhaust system and doors after it was back on dry land.
The vehicle has since been towed away.
The Coast Guard posted the case on their Facebook page, prompting scores of largely unsympathetic comments.
One social media user wrote: “Ah, the silly season has well and truly arrived.”
Another added: “Did someone forget to tell the tide that BMWs can park anywhere they want?”
Meanwhile, a third joked that the driver was just finding an inventive way to wash their car as there is a hosepipe ban in force covering Devon and Cornwall.
It comes after a holidaymaker was forced to watch helplessly as his car sank into the sea after parking his seven-seater van too close to the water in Weston-Super-Mare, Somerset.
3