My Club Sport needed an Oil Service as well as brake fluid and cooling system flushes, so my service advisor nabbed a 428i xDrive Gran Coupe loaner for me. After two days here is my take on the "Coupe":
First off I'll state for the record that I would never, EVER own a Gran Coupe optioned like my loaner; the AWD and lack of the M Sport package would be deal-breakers. Now, having said that it's a pretty decent car. I still don't know why Munich has decided it needs to offer two four door 3ers, and one four door 4er, but the Gran Coupe is my favorite.
The driving experience is standard-issue 3 Series. The turbo four seems to have a smoother/flatter torque curve than the one in my Mazdaspeed, but that may be a function of the eight speed ZF autobox smoothing things out a bit. The four isn't especially inspiring to listen to, and in that regard it is identical to my Mazdaspeed. I do like the automatic, but I wish BMW would let Dodge tune it- in the Charger and Challenger you can hold a gear to the rev-limiter without a forced upshift. Mileage was little if any better than the Mazda: 23.5 mpg in town low 30s on the Interstate.
Handling is adequate and-as usual-steering feel is MIA. In order to make the platform as idiot proof as possible BMW has tweaked the rear suspension to increase understeer without having to result to staggered tires. Not awful, but not terribly much fun either. The xDrive is virtually transparent and there are worse choices if you need an AWD daily driver(I don't- thankfully).
I'm still pleasantly surprised that the car has a true handbrake; the only reason for resorting to a button or switch is to impress the "Oh look! It's different so it must be COOL!!!" crowd(see also: beer tap shifter). Brakes are decent if a little wooly- like the steering, there's some insulation built in that detracts from your ability to tell what the binders are doing.
The base seats are flat and hard. Just about as bad as the seats in my wife's E90- the seats in my Mazdaspeed, Club Sport, and the '02(E21 Recaros) are infinitely more comfortable and supportive. Otherwise, the interior is very nice; I still don't like the "tablet super glued to the dash" display, but I can live with it
To sum up: There's nothing wrong with the Gran Coupe that 50 hp, the M Sport Package, and a hydraulic steering rack wouldn't cure. My friend Steve Dinan and the option sheet can correct the first two issues, but the last problem has yet to be resolved. Too bad- because otherwise I could actually see myself owning one...
First off I'll state for the record that I would never, EVER own a Gran Coupe optioned like my loaner; the AWD and lack of the M Sport package would be deal-breakers. Now, having said that it's a pretty decent car. I still don't know why Munich has decided it needs to offer two four door 3ers, and one four door 4er, but the Gran Coupe is my favorite.
The driving experience is standard-issue 3 Series. The turbo four seems to have a smoother/flatter torque curve than the one in my Mazdaspeed, but that may be a function of the eight speed ZF autobox smoothing things out a bit. The four isn't especially inspiring to listen to, and in that regard it is identical to my Mazdaspeed. I do like the automatic, but I wish BMW would let Dodge tune it- in the Charger and Challenger you can hold a gear to the rev-limiter without a forced upshift. Mileage was little if any better than the Mazda: 23.5 mpg in town low 30s on the Interstate.
Handling is adequate and-as usual-steering feel is MIA. In order to make the platform as idiot proof as possible BMW has tweaked the rear suspension to increase understeer without having to result to staggered tires. Not awful, but not terribly much fun either. The xDrive is virtually transparent and there are worse choices if you need an AWD daily driver(I don't- thankfully).
I'm still pleasantly surprised that the car has a true handbrake; the only reason for resorting to a button or switch is to impress the "Oh look! It's different so it must be COOL!!!" crowd(see also: beer tap shifter). Brakes are decent if a little wooly- like the steering, there's some insulation built in that detracts from your ability to tell what the binders are doing.
The base seats are flat and hard. Just about as bad as the seats in my wife's E90- the seats in my Mazdaspeed, Club Sport, and the '02(E21 Recaros) are infinitely more comfortable and supportive. Otherwise, the interior is very nice; I still don't like the "tablet super glued to the dash" display, but I can live with it
To sum up: There's nothing wrong with the Gran Coupe that 50 hp, the M Sport Package, and a hydraulic steering rack wouldn't cure. My friend Steve Dinan and the option sheet can correct the first two issues, but the last problem has yet to be resolved. Too bad- because otherwise I could actually see myself owning one...
