BMW 4 Series: 'Everybody loves it'

The controversial face of the new BMW 4 Series Coupe is being greeted more positively in Aussie dealerships than by social and motoring media.

That’s the feedback from BMW Australia which rolled the all-new BMW 4 Series family into dealerships last month and staged media drives this week.

The new 4 Series comes with the most dramatic and expressive BMW kidney grille ever seen in production.

The design is both a tribute to the pre-war 328 sports car and an attempt to distance it from the BMW 3 Series sedan upon which it is based.

There’s no doubt it’s stirred up plenty of controversy from the time the design was first hinted at in concepts. But the appearance of the production car in showrooms is changing things, BMW insists.

“I haven’t spoken directly to customers – our dealers talk to directly to customers – but our dealers say everybody loves it and I haven’t heard one negative thing,” said BMW Australia head of product and market planning Brendan Michel.

Michel described the BMW 4 Series face as “the biggest change in the kidney grille ever”.

“They have hit it out of the park in terms of change in the design of the kidney and this is probably the right segment to do it. You wouldn’t do it with the 3 Series, which is historically our bread and butter,” he said.

“If you do something radical like that you would do it with a lower-volume 4 Series Coupe.”

He said social media contributors were also softening in their stance on the look.

“I can only go from what I read on the forums and it looks like a 50:50 split between people loving and hating it,” he said.

“Even now, when people see them on the road here in Australia, they say it doesn’t look that bad.

“So I think it’s maybe the angle of photographs might turn up people’s noses.”

The Australian launch range comprises two four-cylinder models – the BMW 420i and 430i (priced from $70,900 and $88,900 plus on-road costs respectively) – and the range-topping six-cylinder BMW M440i xDrive, which is set at $116,900 plus ORCs.

The 420i holds its price close to its predecessor and is expected to be the big seller, while the other two models rise substantially in price.

The coupe range will be topped by the new BMW M4 in the first quarter of 2021, with manuals arriving in the second quarter and additional all-wheel drive xDrive variants in the fourth quarter.

The 4 Series Convertible also arrives in quarter one 2021 and the four-door Gran Coupe in the second half of the year.

Look out for our first drive of the 4 Series Coupe range on Wednesday, December 9.