New BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe revealed
Faster, more economical second-generation mid-size four-door ‘coupe’ keeps 4 Series nose as its body growsUPDATED 09/06/2021 11:00am: BMW Australia has confirmed the new BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe will arrive Down Under in the fourth quarter of this year, before which local pricing and specs will be announced.
As per the BMW 4 Series Coupe, the four-door Gran Coupe will be available here in three automatic variants: 420i, 430i and, for the first time, M440i xDrive with 285kW/500Nm 3.0-litre turbo six.
So far there's no sign of an M4 Gran Coupe to go with the new M4 Coupe and M3 sedan.
Original article published 09/06/2021 8:00am: The second-generation BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe has been revealed ahead of its release later this year.
Once again slotting in between the 2 Series Gran Coupe and 8 Series Gran Coupe, the all-new mid-size four-door ‘coupe’ can be viewed as a less practical version of latest BMW 3 Series sedan or a more practical version of the controversial-looking four-door 4 Series Coupe.
The 2022 BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe, which forms the basis of the all-electric i4 Gran Coupe that will arrive here in early 2022, is longer, wider and taller than the original 4GC and will launch with three petrol engines producing up to 285kW, plus a single turbo-diesel.
However, the new 4 Series sedan, which replaces a niche model that was surprisingly well liked by BMW fans, will lack a plug-in hybrid powertrain.
Instead, all four powertrains will employ an 8kW mild-hybrid system, based on an integrated starter-generator system, to recover energy and add extra oomph at low engine speeds.
BMW claims the second generation 4 Series Gran Coupe has improved handling, better design and a lift in the quality of interior trim materials.
Bigger
The second-generation BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe will be 143mm longer than the original model launched in 2014 and facelifted in 2017.
The odd part of the new model (codenamed G24) is that it isn’t actually that much grander than the two-door 4 Series.
Its overall length of 4783mm is only 15mm longer than the G22 Coupe, and it shares the two-door’s 1852mm width while being 69mm taller at 1442mm.
Even the wheelbase, which sits the axles 2856mm apart, is just 5mm longer than on the coupe, which doesn’t promise much of a gain in legroom for the rear occupants.
BMW claims part of the handling advantages of the new car come from pushing the wheels out by 50mm at the front and by 29mm at the rear, which now sits at 1623mm.
It’s also bigger than the 3 Series sedan, adding 5mm of wheelbase over the big-selling four-door sibling, and its track widths are wider than the mainstream car as well.
Cargo capacity has grown by 39 litres to 470 litres in standard form, or up to 1290 litres with the 40:20:40-split rear seat back folded down.
The extra doors add weight for the longer car, too, with the base BMW 420i Gran Coupe tipping the scales at 1620kg – 95kg heavier than the two-door version with the same powertrain.
The BMW 430i Gran Coupe, with a powered-up version of the same 2.0-litre engine, adds another 25kg to sit at 1645kg, while the M440i’s heavier six-cylinder leaps the weight figure up to 1825kg.
The diesel 420d version weighs 1705kg in rear-drive form, while the all-wheel drive system in the 420d xDrive raises that to 1760kg.
All 4 Series Gran Coupe variants use the same eight-speed automatic transmission and ride on standard 17-inch alloy wheels, with the exception of the M440i with its larger 18-inch alloys. Wheel and tyre packages measure up to 20 inches.
Oily bits
The base BMW 420i Gran Coupe is a rear-drive machine with 135kW of power (from 5500rpm to 6500rpm) and 300Nm of torque over 1350-4000rpm.
It’s enough to hurl the 1620kg body to 100km/h in 7.9 seconds and on to a 235km/h top speed.
That’s no match for the 430i Gran Coupe, which extracts 190kW from basically the same 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine, and adds 100Nm of torque (400Nm).
It hauls to the standard sprint to 100km/h in 6.2sec and on to a 250km/h top speed.
Meanwhile, the top end of town is accommodated in the M440i xDrive, the only petrol-powered 4 Series Gran Coupe with all-wheel drive.
It squeezes 285kW from its 3.0-litre inline six-cylinder engine, along with 500Nm of torque, and it uses it to punch to 100km/h in 4.7sec. An electronic limiter chokes its speed down to 250km/h.
The 420d Gran Coupe diesel, which won't come Down Under, delivers 140kW/400Nm in both rear- and all-wheel drive arrangements – enough to hit 100km/h in 7.3 and 7.6sec respectively.
On the upside, the rear-drive 20d is the most economical, by far, with a best of 4.8L/100km on the WLTP cycle.
BMW claims 6.6L/100km for the 420i, 6.8L/100km for the 430i and 8.0L/100km for the M440i.
The added doors lose a bit of performance, too, with the two four-cylinder petrol motors adding 0.4sec to their 0-100km/h sprint times and the rest adding 0.2sec.
About 40 driver assistance systems accompany the 4 Series GranCoupe, says BMW.
Inside
The addition of soft, raised knee pads on the side of the centre console for the front-seat occupants shows you much of what you need to know about BMW’s idea of trimming the 4 Series Gran Coupe.
The five-seater boasts more headroom than before, particularly in the front seats, and far more rear legroom.
The steering wheel is trimmed in leather in its standard form, and there are two front cup-holders under the centre console’s cover, plus the front passengers have two USB ports, a host of storage areas, wireless phone charging and a Bluetooth interface for both Android Auto and Apple CarPlay.
All models come with standard acoustic glass, and there is also a three-way climate control air-conditioning system to counteract the optional 102mm glass roof.
All versions of the 4 Series Gran Coupe come with BMW Live Cockpit Plus, delivering 100 Watts of output through six speakers and a DAB+ digital radio tuner, while that can be bumped up to 10 speakers and 205W or a 16-speaker, 464W Harman Kardon system.
Thankfully, BMW has eschewed the trend towards touch-only screen navigation and retains its circular controller device on the centre console.
That gives it an extra level of redundancy, with controls operated by multifunction steering-wheel buttons, gesture control and voice control as well.
It is connected, so its occupants can listen to online music, and there is also the BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant, which is BMW’s version of ‘Hey Siri’.
In Europe, the standard multimedia display is 8.8 inches, with a 5.1-inch colour screen in the instrument cluster. BMW Live Cockpit Professional, which will be standard in Australia, ups the ante with a 12.3-inch digital cluster and a 10.25-inch multimedia display.
There are two USB ports, plus a WiFi interface, built-in SIM with 4G LTE connectivity, real-time traffic alerts and over-the-air updates.
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