Pricey BMW Grand Coupe packs a punch
It is indeed an awesome thing, but sadly with a price tag somewhere north of the 100k mark, they won’t be selling many of them here in Ireland.
Even in our post-recession recovery, cars of this nature have not yet found the sort of purchase (pun intended) that will allow them overwhelm a still wary buying public and especially those at the upper end of the earning scale who can actually afford such things, but are much less willing now than they might have been in the Celtic Tiger years to wear their bling on their sleeves — or in their driveways, at least.
Of course at this end of the market you could be talking about Aston Martins and Bentleys, but the reality for this BMW is that its main opposition comes from cars such as the Mercedes CLS and the Audi A7. Mercedes, of course, were the first to design a swoopy saloon and call it a coupe and Audi swiftly followed suit.
BMW waited a little while to see how this new niche market would develop but, having seen their Stuttgart and Ingolstadt rivals chalking up decent sales with their efforts, the Munich outfit decided to get on board.
Taking the 6-Series Coupe as their template, they lengthened the car and the wheelbase and added two rear doors to create the Grand Coupe. Hey presto, they had a contender in a segment which was proving both profitable and popular.
BMW are not, it must be said, short of pretty cars among their current crop, but the 6-Series Grand Coupe does really stand out as a looker. Those of us who thought the revisions to the already good-looking 6-Series might spoil an attractive design, were proved quite wrong by the work of the company’s Chief Designer Adrian Van Hooydonk and his team as they have done a haute couture job here and produced a truly delightful-looking machine.
And, in the spirit of this visual achievement, the company has gone and endowed it with the sort of driver-pleasing characteristics which match the sensational looks; there’s a truly beefy straight six turbodiesel engine, an excellent eight speed automatic gearbox (which has a manual function if that’s how you get your kicks) and no less than five different driving modes — from Comfort to Sport and onwards.
The combination of these things, along with a really well-balanced chassis, makes this a rip-roaring driving prospect which will certainly appeal to those people who want grunt and dynamism and have the bobs to go and get it. But, there is a flaw here and while I am fairly certain that the singular and unique challenges of the Irish road network pose unique difficulties for any car with a sporting mien, the fact remains that in anything other than ‘Comfort’ mode, driving the 640d is not exactly a pleasant experience.
In ‘Sport’ mode for example and on any of the B-roads I drove the car on, the stiffness of the chassis settings means you get badly jolted around and it seems the suspensions are only ever on the bump stops. It really is very unforgiving.
Scroll back into ‘Comfort’ however and the world changes back into something altogether more acceptable and liveable-with. If we had universally good road surfaces here, the Grand Coupe would be nothing short of sensational, but we don’t, so you have to tread carefully if you want to avoid expensive dental treatments or crushed vertebrae.
I could be accused of being picky here, but I don’t think I’m being unfair. For anyone lucky enough to be able to afford this car and their driving regime involves long-haul journeys on a regular basis, then you will have found a delightful companion. If you’re based in West Clare, it might not be such a sensible option.
It may be the 20” M Sport alloys and the ridiculously low-profile tyres contribute to this and that other wheel/tyre combinations might be a better Irish option, but there’s no denying that in this format it is nearly impossible to explore the full capabilities of the Grand Coupe.
Getting back to the good bits of this car, the engine is certainly a wow. With 230 kW (313 bhp) available at 4,400 rpm and a stonking 630 Nm of torque there between 1,500 and 2,500 rpm, this thing is certainly not lacking in motivational prowess, as is evidenced by the 5.4 second 0-100 kph time and a top speed limited to 250 kph.
Allied as it is to that eight speed ‘box, the engine is a joy to live with; there’s buckets of on-demand power and its’ cruising capabilities provide a convincing argument for any potential Doubting Thomases. And if you needed any more persuasion, the economy return over the combined cycle of 5.5 l/100 km (50.5 mpg) is another eye-catching stat.
Throw in an interior which is every bit as stylish, beautifully designed and finished as you’d expect from a car costing this amount of gelt and you’ve got a very special motor indeed and one which does actually have a practical side to it too.
The rear seats are far from being merely decorative and you can actually fit adults in there in comfort; even leggier passengers will not find themselves particularly discommoded. Standard kit is pretty sensational too and even if there is still plenty of stuff you can add on — but at a cost. This is without doubt as iconic a car as is available for (relatively) modest money and will offer potential owners every bit as much driving pleasure as much more expensive offerings in the coupe genre, but it also still comes with a couple of characteristics which — and I emphasise that these are exacerbated by Irish road conditions — might cause some to pause for thought.
In terms of the bigger picture, though, the Grand Coupe is as close to a masterpiece as you’ll get for this money.
Colley’s Verdict
From €103,580 to €117,800 as tested.
a belter of a three litre straight six turbodiesel.
Very decent standard kit, but — as ever — extras will cost a lot.
Will be regarded as a classic in due course.
