Bet you wouldn’t say the same about the BMW 4-series Gran Coupe but looking at the pictures of the 8-series version of a “coupe with four doors”, you’d find yourself struggling to argue otherwise.
When stretching out a body that’s purposefully designed to be a coupe, often times car brands miss the mark by a significant margin.
Take the Panamera for example, look how long it took Porsche to get it right and even out the proportions and arguably, they’ve nailed it with the Sport Turismo which essentially looks like an elongated hatch and not a stretched 911 – it just doesn’t work.
Most of what you see on the Gran Coupe in terms of features and specifications are essentially offered in the 8-series Coupe and Convertible but there are notable differences with the four-door model.
The roofline for one, is the biggest difference as the Gran Coupe is taller by 61 mm compared to the Coupe to offer better headroom both in the front and at the back.
As such, the rear windscreen is also more upright which also helped with luggage space. To accommodate the rear doors, the Gran Coupe is 231 mm longer in length and 201 mm longer in wheelbase compared to the Coupe.
Even the Hoffmeister kink is almost vertical to accommodate the increased size of the C-pillar. The wide hips of the Coupe has been retained by widening the rear track by 28 mm, the widest on any production BMW. This also increased the car’s width by 30 mm.
Due to the added dimensions, BMW had to make a few weight-saving measures to compensate for the added weight from the longer body and extra doors.
While aluminium components are still the main ingredient, the use of a plastic boot lid, magnesium dashboard support and carbon fibre centre tunnel means the Gran Coupe only weighs 70 kg more than the coupe.
As for the most important detail, the Gran Coupe features a new entry-level petrol variant, the 840i, where 340 hp and 500 Nm is extracted from a 3.0-litre turbocharged straight-six that’s paired to an 8-speed automatic gearbox to drive the rear wheels.
0 to 100 km/h? Done in 5.2 seconds but if you opt for the all-wheel drive option, expect at least 0.3 seconds shaved off.
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