2015 BMW 428 Gran Coupe: What's New

Vehicle Overview

There are some things you can never have too much of. Money, chocolate and apparently, according to BMW, car-model variants. That’s the only explanation we can come up with for the introduction of this latest compact car from the German luxury brand, the 4 Series Gran Coupe.

What exactly is it? Well, take the 4 Series coupe, stretch the roofline slope about 4.4 inches, raise the roof a half-inch, add two doors and voila: The 4 Series Gran Coupe is born. With the exact same length, width, wheelbase and track as the two-door coupe but featuring a bit more headroom, the 4 Series Gran Coupe sports a tall hatchback sedan profile and a full 45.9 cubic feet of total luggage space inside. Sound like a “coupe” to you?

Shall we confuse things even more? BMW also makes the 3 Series Gran Turismo, which looks almost identical to the new 4 Series Gran Coupe and features the same powertrains and interiors, but has an even taller roof, longer wheelbase and higher hatchback. Baffled? So are we.
Exterior
BMW’s not kidding when it says that the 4GC’s dimensions are the same as the coupe. It uses the coupe’s sheet metal too, with a more aggressive front bumper design and larger fender ornamentation; it also wears the coupe’s taillights. It’s as if someone at BMW looked at the 3 Series Gran Turismo and said, “That roof is just too tall — let’s cut it down to halfway between the GT and the sedan and go with that.” Admittedly, it does look better than the truly awkward 3GT, but calling this a coupe alongside the truly good-looking 4 Series coupe is a stretch.
Interior
Inside, it’s a standard 4 Series — which is to say, it looks like the 3 Series sedan. BMW’s layered cockpit look is attractive, with its monolithic iDrive display mounted high and center on the dashboard for easy legibility and high-quality materials used throughout. The most notable difference is in headroom, which BMW says is better for all passengers, and the 40/20/40-split rear seatbacks, which can be folded down to create significant cargo space (but less than the taller 3GT’s 56.5 cubic feet of available room).
Under the Hood
Powering the 4GC is a choice of two engines. The rear-wheel-drive 428i features BMW’s excellent 240-horsepower, turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine. Stepping up to the 435i swaps the 2.0-liter for the even better 300-hp, turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six-cylinder engine. Both engines are mated to an eight-speed automatic, and the brand’s xDrive all-wheel-drive system is optional on either model.

BMW says that the suspension setup is the same as the coupe, but that tuning has been adjusted to accommodate the slightly higher weight of the 4GC. The Gran Coupe should handle differently than the 3 Series GT, however, given that it retains the wider track and 4-inch shorter wheelbase of the coupe versus the GT. BMW’s Driving Dynamics Control is also available; it’s an electronic driver-selectable adjustment system, which modifies suspension settings, steering effort, throttle response and stability control thresholds based on the driver’s desire for comfort, sport or eco-friendliness.

An optional M Sport trim package brings more aggressive parts to the 4GC as well, with firmer springs and dampers, larger anti-roll bars, bigger wheels and tires, and larger brakes.
Safety Features
The 4GC has a host of available safety features, including collision alert systems with pedestrian functions, distance keeping cruise control, blind spot detection and lane departure warning, full LED headlights with automatic high-beam shut-off, park distance control sensors and automatic parallel parking function.