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BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe Review

OUR TEST CAR: BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe 640d 2012

 
BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe - Page - 1
Ever since the first four-wheeled creation wearing a BMW badge came to the world, the German carmaker showed a conservative attitude when it came to classifying its vehicles. For BMW, coupes were coupes, sedans were sedans and so on. However, the Bavarians have dramatically changed this principle in the modern era, with the company now placing niches high on its list of priorities.

Thus, BMW couldn't resist not creating a model that would fall into what has to be the most popular niche of all times: four-door coupes. In fact, this area has expanded so much that it's starting to look more like a fully-grown segment.

The start-up credit goes to Mercedes, which relied on the first generation of the CLS to bring customers to this segment, but now the list of names that play this game ranges from the lower tier, where VW (with the CC) plays for the moment and Kia is set to arrive later (the K9 Concept), through the premium one, where we find the Audi A7 and the second-generation Mercedes CLS, as well as the  Porsche Panamera, to the luxury one, which, for now, only includes the Aston Martin Rapide.

However, the Bavarians didn’t take any risks with the launch of their first four-door coupe. Like we said, the segment is now established, the new 6-Series Coupe was already on the market and the Gran Coupe is just a version of this that has gained a two doors. Or is it?

BMW’s Head of Design, Adrian von Hooydonk took this as a challenge and, together with his team, incorporated centuries of experience (no, they’re not vampires, that’s the final result you reach if you add up each designer’s years of work) into giving the Gran Coupe its own flavor. The engineers were also called in to make sure that, again, the car has personality and it’s not just a 6-Series Coupe built for China (read: long wheelbase).

Have all these efforts paid out? Install yourself in one of the individual rear seats, let’s go for a drive and find out. What? Yes, this is the diesel version (640d), so let's see if we can avoid the pump while going fast.

Good morning ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the first day of a project that marks a new chapter in the history of our company. We’re building the future, right here, right now: BMW’s first four-door coupe.

So, let’s get straight to the point: to your left, you’ve got the 6-Series Coupe - most of you took part in its development, so you’re more than familiar with it. However, it’s the other end of the room we have to focus on. Yes, those are two 5-Series doors and together, we mist find a way of fitting them to the coupe and making everything work.

We’re imagining that BMW design boss Adrian von Hooydonk’s briefing for the 6-Series Gran Coupe was a bit more elaborate than that, with the end result of his and his team’s work standing as a proof for that.

You see, on paper, the “Gran” moniker adds 4.5 inches (11.43 cm) of wheelbase, two doors and proper rear seats to the 6-Series coupe, but in reality, it’s the proportions that make or brake a car like this and we have to tell you that the end result is something that makes the word “jackpot” look like an understatement. OK, OK, we know you’re curious: the Gran Coupe is 4 inches (10.16 cm) longer than the 5-series and 2.7 inches (6.9 cm) shorter than the 7-Series

This is one of the most attractive BMW we’ve ever seen and this is not just our opinion. During our test drive, it seemed like the Gran Coupe climbed to the podium of public attention. Everybody, and we do mean everybody, stopped to behold the masterpiece. We have to credit both the lines of the car and the Frozen Bronze Metallic paint, that comes with a bewildering matte look, but we’ll talk more about this in the “tech side” chapter.

From the front fascia to the end of the A pillars, the car is identical to its two-door sibling, but from there on, it comes with an original design, one that doesn’t rest on the laurels of elegance, but also throws a certain degree of practicality in.

And you don't even need to look at the entire car to realize that this is one for those who want to be seen, the details are enough. Want some examples? The lateral windows use a frameless setup, the third brake light runs the entire length of the rear window (thank you Bentley) and the C-pillar proudly displays a generously-sized "Gran Coupe" emblem.

If there’s something we’d like to change on the car, we’d like the headlights to be different. They’re to massive for the elegant silhouette, the Gran Coupe needs something with a bit more finesse.

All in all, the Gran Coupe really feels like a coupe, it doesn’t give you the impression of a saloon that has put on an evening attire.

We, automotive journalists, will tell you that this is a four-door coupe with a 2+2 seating arrangement, but BMW claims that it is a 4+1 seater, while the car itself will be eager to show you that it's better than any of the aforementioned titles, as it can also fold its rear seats.

We climb aboard, in the driver’s seat, an it all feels like it’s 6-Series Coupe all over again. Of course, we’ve got the same dashboard, and a revised center console that stretches out to the back of the car - this is why, in reality, you’ll only going to be able to use two of the three seatbetls in the back.

In fact, since the rear is where all the Gran Cope madness all started, we’ll treat this area first. The access is a bit difficult, but the two individual seats, which can also be folded, are comfortable and there’s enough space for all your extremities. In fact, having rear comfort like this is a dream for any car that includes “Coupe” in its designation.

Now that we’re in a four-door car, the extremely low driving position has a much greater impact on us than it had in the two-door coupe. While this gives you a feeling of refinement, the overall visibility is affected by it, as well as by the shape of the windows.

Despite the fact that we felt a bit isolated (we got used to this after a while and it didn’t bother us anymore), we enjoyed this thanks to the optional comfort seats. These might feel a bit firm when you first meet them, but take a long trip and you’ll notice that they’re a good balance between the cruising and “speeeed” moments.

The cabin of our test car looked and felt as if a sorcerer had coughed all over his magic dust bag, as we enjoyed goodies like Alcantara on the headliner and rear shelf (thanks to the optional BMW Individual composition, and the, also optional, ceramic button surround. However, the color combination chosen was questionable, but this is a matter of taste.

At the back, the swooping lines hide a generous boot, but this comes with a small and high-placed opening, which makes access difficult. By the way, a gentleman should go for the optional power closing system.

So’ let’s see, you guys want me to be almost as big as the 7-Series, borrow the face of the 6-Series, get close to the latter’s performance and look as if I was designed in Gotham city? No problem, consider it done. What? I also have to be driven through the cities often? Do you really think that adding this to my task list is a reasonable thing to do?

We really couldn’t blame the Gran Coupe if it came up with a little speech like the aforementioned one. After all, how can you expect to elongate a large coupe like the 6er, use crazy styling cues to make it look pretty and not affect the visibility and the size, the two key assets that define a car’s ability to tackle urban traffic.

Fortunately, the 6-Series Gran Coupe has a few aces up its fascia that allow it to adapt to the city driving frenzy. If you opt for the surround view camera system, you won’t have to worry about visibility so much (it’s a shame that BMW hasn’t also fitted a camera to the front of the car). However, the low driving position and the complicated design of the car does take some time to get used to and you’ll never going to actually be able to make the car dance through the agitated city In a perfect manner.

The twin-turbo straight six diesel, together with its efficiency minions, the eight-speed automatic, the start-stop system and the braking energy recuperation system, keep the fuel gauge from fainting during every longer urban trip and considering the size and the muscle of the car, this gives you a great satisfaction.

The interior of the car acts as a shield, with the smooth Alcantara headliner and the perforated leather on the seats making you feel that you’ve got a solution for tackling the urban jungle and this too manages to compensate a bit for the car’s size and lack of visibility. You might think that we’re too obsessed with cars, but these little details are just like an Espresso – sometimes, they manage to put a smile on your face in the morning.

So, don’t expect the Gran Coupe to excel at the urban game, with the only exception being the efficiency, which is pleasing for a car of this size.

Like we said in the “Tech Side” chapter, versatility is the name of the Gran Coupe 640d’s game. We’ll start our journey under the long bonnet of the car, where the twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter unit gives us its heart right from 1,500 rpm.

If you ever get a change to drive this car, we’re inviting you to surf the torque vawe: put the eight-speed auto (this is the only available transmission) into fourth gear once you’ve gathered enough speed and then put you foot down, but without activating the kick down function. Keep squashing the throttle as if it was a drug and you see how linear and vigorous this engine is.

The powerplant is ready to do anything you want, whenever you want, and so is the gearbox, but before we can give you some examples, we have to talk a bit about the other tech goodies our car was fitted with.

Like in many other contemporary BMWs, you get five driving modes as an optional feature: Eco Pro, Confort Plus, Confort, Sport and Sport Plus. These put a leash (or release it) around the neck of the suspension (adaptive dampers) and/or the powertrain.

While most owners will choose Sport of Comfort (in this order) for their daily use, the car is much more complex than that. For example, you can use the Eco Pro to cruise around in the extra-long eight gear, with the climate control system set to a softer mode and sip significantly less fuel, or you can enjoy a relaxed long drive in the Comfort Plus mode, with the transmissions going through all eight gears almost seamingless.

The beefy engine allows you to perform effortless overtaking so you don’t necessary have to put the pedal to the velour floor mat and hit your passengers’ heads on their headrests when you pass another car. Just press the throttle past the midway point and the box will downshift gently, with the vehicle easily pulling away. However, if the driving conditions require a swift overtaking maneuver a good kick down will do the job, with the lag being pretty limited, no matter what speed/gear you’re in.

The sound of the six cylinders during generous throttle applications will make you want to switch to the Sport Plus mode and put the gearbox in manual. In this mode, the transmission won’t upshift until you tell it to using the steering wheel-mounted paddles or the joystick shifter and the force of the engine makes you happy you’ve got so many gears - this way, you can start climbing the rev counter over and over again.

As for the moments when you want to loose all that speed, the brakes, which you can tell mean business just by looking at their construction through the spokes of the rims, are more than capable, both in terms of stopping power and fading resistance.

Now that we’ve convinced ourselves that the Gran Coupe 640d is brilliant at handling longitudinal G-forces, let’s see how it handles lateral acceleration. We’ll get straight to the point: it’s not as good.

Yes, the suspension can be set up in three different ways, but we expected Comfort Plus to be a bit better at handling road imperfections. The car does settle and absorb moderate bumps well, but the initial shock when encountering a more serious rolling surface issue, like a speed bump, is pretty serious.

Traveling to the other end of the scale, we found Sport and Sport Plus capable of holding the body roll back enough to offer the feeling of balanced fast driving, but only up to a speed of about 160 km/h (100 mph). Past this point, the dampers and the anti-roll bars, despite their adaptive nature (Adaptive Drive and Dynamic Drive, respectively), just can’t seem to constraint the body’s movements well enough if you change direction swiftly and repeatedly.

The rear-wheel drive chassis, the DTC and DSC electronic nannies make a good team and keep things under control , but you get a floating feeling that has no place in performance driving. So, if you drive this car up to eight tenths, it feels safe, but past that point it doesn’t, despite the fact that it won’t actually oversteer. However, we do expect the petrol versions to be set up in a tighter manner that solves the problem.

If you completely deactivate “driving stabilization” (we’re using BMW language here), you’ll find a predictable oversteer after the ton of grip is overcome – this is a nice car to play with, and, of course, you can have more fun than in an xDrive-fitted model.
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autoevolution Jun 2012
76
History
6
Exterior
7
Interior
8
In the city
7
Open road
7
Comfort
8
Tech facts
8
Gadgets
9
Safety
9
Conclusion
7
57user rating 180 votes
Rate this car!
 
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