Test drives don't come any more rigorous than this over the next three days I'm going to
be covering over 800 miles in the BMW 4 Series to get under the skin of this new breed of
BMW and find out what it's like to live with every day.
Starting here just outside of inverness in Scotland the route will be taking a scenic
military road for a good dynamic test then down to edinburgh to examine the GT credentials
and the practicality.
Finally we'll be heading to take in some sights in York and Liverpool before the last, long
leg down to London.
Wish me luck.
Now that I've got comfortable let me tell you a bit more about the car that we've got
to drive.
It's a 4 series 420d SE so it's the entry-level and entry-spec diesel model.
This is the heart and soul of the range and this is the car that people are actually going
to buy and we do have the spec sheet here and BMW have been a little big generous with
the options so we've got some extra kit like 18-inch alloy wheels, adaptive suspension
which all adds up to a total of about 38,840 pounds which is reasonably expensive.
I've reset the trip computer and as this is the most efficient model in the range as well
supposedly averaging a combined 60mpg it should mean we only have to fill up once on the way
back from town despite going through all the stops I just mentioned.
So now that we've started to drive a bit faster what can we say about the dynamics of the
4 Series.
Well so far I've got to say I'm very impressed indeed.
Steering is light but really accurate got loads of weight throughout the rim lovely
precise slightly springy six-speed manual gearbox slots into place whenever you want
it to.
More than anything at the moment I'm enjoying the road that we're on.
Even though it's a lot wider ,a fair bit longer and a longer wheelbase than a three series
you don't really feel the extra size on the road and that's good because these particular
roads are extremely narrow.
As you can see we've now arrived in Edinburgh we're under the shadow of the castle here
on spittle street and told you we were going to have a small test of the 4 Series' practicality
- wellI might have lied a little bit.
We've got a few weekend bags here and we're going to see just how much of this stuff we
can fit in this two door car.
Now remember as I told you the boot is only 445 litres lets see if we can get it all in,
in one take.
As you can see with a careful bit of rearranging and placement we were able to fit every single
item comfortably with room to spare.
And in fact the only thing we had to leave behind was the humble house plant - not bad
for a compact and sporty 2+2 coupe I think you'll agree.
At 10pm we drove out of the underground carpark in Edinburgh to start the 226mile leg to Liverpool.
After a full day of driving this would be a true test of how powerful the 4 Series is.
But first we thought this might be a good time to fill the tank as the trip computer
said we'd be running on reserves my the time we reached our final destination for the first
nights stop.
Having arrive safely but a bit blurry eyed the night before and taken a quick lie-in
we decided to take this new style of BMW down to the iconic Albert dock.
After drawing a few admiring glances and giving the car a thorough once over it was time to
head out of the city on the second leg to York and to examine this 4-Series' style credentials.
So we're here on the motorway cruising the M62 and things are going pretty nicely the
cruise control is set as I said to you yesterday and this morning it's really comfortable to
drive long distances.
The only fly in the ointment is that at higher speeds and cruise you do get a bit of road
noise and wind noise particularly on rougher roads as you can probably here
right now.
So as you can probably tell it's pretty late, we've arrived here in York and made a few
stops along the way and in the middle of the country side in the pitch-black and if you
don't mind I'm going to go and get some sleep I'll catch up with you guys in the morning.
So having impressed in every other department, the BMW's final test on the road after a short
and fairly entertaining drive we parked up to see if the 4 Series is elegant enough to
blend into the beautiful surroundings.
The optional 18-inch wheels and unique body really do make it look bulkier and leaner
than the old 3 Series Coupe and justify the new name plate.
Helpfully to prove our point we followed one towards the castle.
Fastforward another 200miles down the road as the sun went down we had a chance to reflect
on this epic road test and give our final verdict on the rebranded BMW coupe.
We've put it through a seriously.
We've put it through a seriously rigorous test but ultimately the verdict is that if
you want the best coupe in the executive class, you're looking at it.
It might have a few faults and we might not quite be convinced that it needed to be called
the 4 Series rather than a 3 Series Coupe, but other than that it's going to take an
incredible new car to knock this off the top spot in the class.