To some purists the idea of a four-door car being called a coupe isn’t acceptable, but things change and the BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe with four doors has been announced.
Joining the BMW 8 Series two door Coupe and 8 Convertible, the Gran Coupe is longer, wider and higher and sits on an extended wheelbase. This provides space for four individual seats, with good legroom headspace front and rear.
However, a tiny third seat is squeezed between the two outer seats and has virtually no legroom. So BMW describes the 8 Series Gran Coupe a 4+1-seater.
The optional panoramic glass roof is an unbroken glass surface extending from the windscreen to the rear window.
The car’s luggage area has a 40:20:40 split/folding rear backrest, whose individual sections can be folded down from the boot using a lever. With a capacity of 440 litres, the boot is big enough to accommodate three golf bags.
Four model variants are available:
M850i xDrive is powered by a 4.4-litre V8 petrol engine which delivers 390 kW/530 hp.
840d xDrive Gran Coupe has a 235 kW/320 hp six-cylinder in-line diesel.
BMW 840i Gran Coupe and BMW 840i xDrive Gran Coupe have a straight-six with 250 kW/340 hp.
The 840i Gran Coupe goes from rest to 100 km/h in 5.2 seconds, the new BMW 840i xDrive Gran Coupe in 4.9 seconds.
The braking systems on all versions have four-piston, fixed-calliper brakes at the front and single-piston, floating-calliper brakes at the rear. Standard on the BMW M850i xDrive Gran Coupe includes powerful M Sport brakes, which are also part of the M Technic Sport Package available for the other model variants.
The new BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe comes as standard with BMW Live Cockpit Professional. It comprises a navigation and multimedia system, plus a fully digital, high-resolution instrument cluster behind the steering wheel with a screen diagonal of 12.3 inches and a Control Display measuring 10.25 inches across.
The BMW Intelligent Personal Assistant is activated with the spoken prompt “Hey BMW” and helps the driver to use vehicle functions.
The worldwide launch of the new four-door BMW will commence in September 2019. Australian deliveries will take place before the end of the year. Local models and prices will be set then. It seems unlikely we will get the turbo-diesels here, but who knows.
Stay tuned for further details as we receive them.
