Your starter for 10: what is this car? Few can figure out the logic of BMW’s line-up, but the car itself’s a cracker. By Ben Barry
ALEX TAPLEY
SHORTLY BEFORE CAR’S new long-term BMW 440i Gran Coupe test car arrived, some HELLO friends provided a useful bit of context. They MONTH 1 were choosing between a previous-generation BMW 440i 3-series and slightly used 4-series, and thought a 4 was bigger than a 3 but smaller than a 5. Which is completely logical but, of course, wrong. Since 2013, BMW has been applying the 4-series name to cars previously known as 3-series coupes and convertibles. Presumably this makes these models seem more special than the bread-and-butter saloons and estates. In 2014 it added an all-new body style, the 4-series Gran Coupe, essentially a 4-series coupe with rear doors, more elegant frameless glass, and a hatchback rear. That’s what we’re testing. Recently, the entire 3- and 4-series line-up was given a midlife tickle. The most obvious tweaks for our Gran Coupe relate to the replacement of xenon headlights with LED headlights and tail lights. There are also new wheel designs, an updated interior with gloss black trim, a double-stitched dashboard, some electroplated trim and updated infotainment too. The latter includes a tile layout for functions such as sat-nav, radio and telephone, which are highlighted as you scroll over them using the rotary control near the gearstick. We discovered in the X3 test last month that this works very well. Chassis updates also include an increase in suspension stiffness. BMW claims better straight-line stability, more communicative steering and better handling, all with no loss of
ride comfort. We’ll see about that. You can get in a 4-series Gran Coupe for LOGBOOK BMW 440i GRAN COUPE £33k, but that’s for the 420i (despite the upper-crust positioning, you still get prole-spec > Engine 2998cc 24v turbo 6-cyl, 322bhp @ 5500rpm, 332lb ft @ 1380rpm engines). We’ve gone for the 440i Gran > Gearbox 8-speed auto, rear-wheel Coupe, the next best thing to an M4 or M3; drive > Stats 5.1sec 0-62mph, 155mph there is currently no such thing as an M4 (limited), 41.5mpg, 159g/km CO2 > Price Gran Coupe from M division. £45,490 > As tested £57,605 > Miles this month 372 > Total 2999 > Our mpg Our car’s vital stats are 322bhp and 322lb 31.5mpg > Official mpg 41.5 > Fuel this ft, and we’ll see how close we get to the month £66.17 > Extra costs None official 41.5mpg while dipping into that performance and enjoying the chassis. While xDrive all-wheel drive is available for most Gran Coupes including the comparable 435d diesel, the 440i comes only with rear-wheel drive. An eight-speed auto is also standard. So if you want a six-cylinder, petrol Gran Coupe, your options narrow to this, the rear-drive auto 440i. It costs £45,490. On top of that, our test car gets £12k of options – that’s £1k more than the entire cost of the 2009 320i Touring we bought three years back. The most obvious is Frozen Silver metallic paint, which looks pretty fantastic but makes me fear for car washes, especially at £1880. I’ll certainly only be hand-washing it. It’s complemented by no-cost Cognac (brown) leather, which I like. The remainder of the list breaks down as extra piano black trim (£375), heated steering wheel (£155), leather instrument panel (£815), glass sunroof (£895), split-folding rear seats (£170), lumbar support (£265), active cruise with stop-and-go (£620), surround-view camera (£500), adaptive LED headlights (£1050), digital cockpit (£295), Apple CarPlay (£235), and many things to which the word ‘package’ is appended, namely advanced parking (£545), active security (£995), driver comfort (£720), dynamic (£600) and the M Sport Plus package (£2000). It’s a meaty list, and we’ll debate the pros and cons over the coming months. But as our 440i Gran Coupe aced a recent Giant Test against the Audi S5 and Kia Stinger GT, it’s off to the best possible start. @IamBenBarry
February 2018 | CARMAGA ZINE.CO.UK 137