Next-gen BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe Debuts As A Bigger And Bolder Four-door Sedan

• It is 143mm longer, 27mm wider, 53mm taller and has its wheelbase extended by 46mm compared to its predecessor.

• Gets a slick body, aggressive bumpers and retains the abnormally large kidney grille.

• Cabin features include a 12-3-inch digital drivers display, a 10-25-inch touchscreen infotainment system as well as a variety of driver assists.

• Can be spec'd with 2.0-litre petrol and diesel engines as well as a flagship 3.0-litre petrol engine with a 48-volt mild-hybrid setup. 

Just a year after the BMW 4 Series got a generation update, its four-door sibling, the 4 Series Gran Coupe has also gotten a new iteration. This second-generation niche offering from the Bavarian carmaker is now bigger, bolder, and comes with more tech than before.

Like its two-door sibling, the 4 Series GC has grown quite a fair bit. Measuring 4783mm long, 1852mm wide, 1442mm tall and having a wheelbase of 2856mm, it is 143mm longer, 27mm wider, 53mm taller and has its wheelbase extended by 46mm compared to its predecessor. Even its track widths have grown to 1595mm at the front (+50 mm) and 1623mm at the rear (+29 mm). 

Dimensions aside, the 4 Series GC looks largely identical to its two-door sibling as well as the four-door all-electric i4 sedan with a slick body, similar bumpers and of course that controversially large front kidney grille. What separates the 4 Series GC with the i4 is that its grille isn’t closed-off, and it gets actual exhausts with a revised diffuser at the rear. 

It's not a surprise, then, that the 4 Series Gran Coupe’s cabin layout is a straight lift from its two-door sibling. The dash setup includes a 10.25-inch central touchscreen with BMW Live Cockpit and iDrive 7.0,  as well as  a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster. Other features include wireless Android Auto and Apple Carplay, smartphone integration, digital key and BMW Gesture Control.  It also comes equipped with a dearth of driver assists such as active cruise control with automatic speed limit assist, traffic light recognition, as well as parking assist with a 360-degree camera.

Powering the four-door sedan are a range of petrol and diesel engines. Petrol options include a 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder motor in 184PS (420i) and 245PS (430i) states of tune and the flagship M440i 3.0-litre turbocharged inline-six motor, combined with a 48-volt mild-hybrid setup making 374PS. The diesel mill is a 2.0-litre turbocharged inline-four mill making 190PS of grunt. All engines are paired to an 8-speed Steptronic transmission, with only the M440i getting the xDrive all-wheel drivetrain. 

Other performance trickey comes in the form of the lift-related dampers, adaptive M suspension as well as electronically controlled, rear locking differential to aid the four-door sedan’s cornering prowess. 

The addition of the next-gen BMW 4 Series Gran Coupe completes the generational update of the 4 Series lineup. There’s no word on either of the updated 4 Series lineup back home as we don’t get either of these models.  But we hold a bit of optimism that the Bavarian brand brings over one of them here since BMW did offer the previous iteration of the M4 in the country.