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I don’t think I’ll ever get used to calling it a “428i xDrive”, but I’m also not buying one. In any case, here it is, the BMW 4-Series, official photos.
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Nice Audi. Oh, wait.
is this a 428 or A4 2.8? xDrive is for soccer moms anyway.
Well, at least it’s RWD, what base A4 or A5 isn’t
This is a car from a German *premium brand* (BMW), and not an Audi.
Oh, right. I get so confused, what with execs at this “premium brand” proudly telling us that 40% of their sales will be small FWD cars in 8-10 years.
Audi is going to laugh at you all the way to the bank.
Is there nobody left at BMW with the slightest bit of taste? Those fender vents were worthy of derision when they went along with the fake hood scoop on the 1982 Dodge Charger 2.2. Body colored mirrors are expected on any car that costs more than $17K. Even Car and Driver has given up on pretending that the 3-series drives as well as a Lexus IS. Apparently the powerful and efficient but coarse 2.0 turbo 4 is the best reason for buying a BMW these days. That’s no reason at all.
Black mirror caps are part of the sport line package which this red 4 series is…
Visually black mirrors are better as they blend into the windows
Allegedly the vents are functional.
You don’t have to buy it with the 4. BMW will be perfectly happy to supply a 300hp 3.0l turbo six, just like in the last one. Costs more, but you have to pay to play. As a long-time Saab owner, I’ll take the 4.
Turbos are turbos. BMWs used to be BMWs.
Turbos are the closest thing to a free lunch you will ever get in automotive engineering.
If I could have bought my car with a turbo 4 with more hp and less fuel consumption, I would have.
If they ever come out with a 427i, Ford people will explode in fury.
Or laughter.
I like it a lot, and I’m not a BMW fan.
Which is likely why you like it…..
+∞
Maybe it looks better in the showroom..
I haven’t yawned that hard since the intro of the latest Camry. I wonder why it’s not beige in color.
Huh. I heard this was going to be really good looking. Not sure I love it..still take an A5 over it.
BTW IS does not compete. It’s a 4 door.
What is the difference between a porcupine and a BMW?
With a porcupine, the pricks are on the outside.
First, Dan R,
Unless you want to hear the Harley Davidson version of this riddle, let’s be careful about generalizing about BMW drivers. I’ve heard the same riddle applied to Saab, Corvette, and M-B S-Class drivers, so it’s a case of …(insert name of car).
Secondly, I too want to know what’s up with the vent/moulding on the rear of the front fenders. Did BMW think 3 Series coupe owners aspired to own 6 Series coupes. I don’t, I’ve got the car I wanted in the first place.
Thirdly, why pull the coupe model out of the 3 Series lineup, and re-number it one number higher. Being a long time coupe purchaser, the cheap shot answer is because BMW has always priced the coupe substantially higher than the sedan, so the least they can do is bump the model number one notch higher.
4 instead of 3c, is for the same reason there is a 6 instead of a 5c. Coupe buyers “on average” are more image concerned than sedan/wagon buyers (they’re, with BMW at least paying more for less, literally.) Telling your slut for the night you drive something a bit higher up the MSRP chain than the mere plebes that are also vying for her attention, is actually important to many of the most lucrative coupe intenders. As for why BMW does this, and not Honda….; again, on average, BMW buyers are about as image concerned as car buyers get.
The distinct subset of internet BMW could-have-been-buyers that pine for manual tranny wagons with normally aspirated I6s, are very far from the norm that makes BMW money.
The boomerang shaped air vent helps relief air pressure caused by the spinning front wheels. BMW is realigning sedans with odd series & coupes ( including GC) with even number series.
Wow Dan, that’s hilarious. I bet no one here has heard that one before.
How does the naming thing work out for BMW, So the 4 door is called a 3 series, but the 3 door(looks like a 2 door with a hatch) is called a 4 series?? WTF BMW?
The higher the number, the higher the price of the base model.
Maybe with the splitting of bloodlines into the 4 door 3-series for realtors and the 2 door 4-series for real drivers, the 4 can inherit the crown of ultimate driver’s admiration once worn by the 3 (pre-“let it eat cake” days) and the 2002.
Doesn’t the current base model price go somewhere like 3 starts in the 30s, 4 in the 40s, 5 in the 50s, 6 in the 60s, 7 in the 70s? Things do get a bit out of whack at the extremes, where I doubt you’ll find a 1 in the teens; and probably don’t have to pay in the millions for a Roman numeral M. Also, the roman Xs aren’t all in the hundreds either….
They are just aligning it with the 5/6 and 7/8 series. With the EXCEPTION of the 3-series, BMW Coupes have been one digit higher since the introduction of the 6-series coupe in the late 70s. I fail to understand the wailing and gnashing of teeth over this. They should have done it 20 years ago! Since it was only with the e36 that the 2dr 3-series even became a coupe. The e30 was a 2dr sedan the exact shame shape as the 4dr, just with two fewer door.
The series were started with an odd name. I believe this transition was from the 2000 to the 2002 then they started fresh with 3XX designation. There was a 6 series and 8 series previously sold and I want to say a 4 series but I’m just not sure. Arguably Audi took their A4/6/8 naming convention from the BMW nomenclature but I’m sure somebody wiser will explain better.
Just for the record though, the first number is an arbitrary designation. They are essentially the same chassis with fewer doors and pillars.
But does it still park across two spots??
Actually, that’s how the automatic parking system in BMWs is calibrated. It aligns the center of the car up on the parking line so that you’re guaranteed to have plenty of room to open your doors without getting too close to the plebs
And which, if any, trim level comes with turn signals?
+1
My wife says: “it’s not the highest!”
I know I’m not alone in thinking that almost everything BMW and Audi have done in the past 5 years has driven me AWAY from the brands, not towards them. They both reek of endless marketing ploys, all while reducing the options for the existing core models. My top choice: A RWD 5-series wagon…it’s been almost a decade since they’ve offered one here. How about a new, bigger 3-series wagon? Oh, it won’t be available until next year, AWD only, and no straight six. Hmmm.
Sincerely, a 34-year-old recovering German car enthusiast preparing to buy a new vehicle in the next year.
Fanboy cycle of RWD BMW wagons.
1. Ask for it “I’ll buy one right now if they had a RWD 5er Wagon in the US!”
2. Wait for the debut. ” Cant’t wait, it’s almost here!”
3. Price announced, costs more than anticipated. “They look great, but they’re kinda pricey. I was hoping it would be $30k instead of $60k”
4. Say you’ll wait and buy it used. “I’ll definitely wait and buy a pre-owned model off lease.”
Rinse and repeat, while never actually buying anything.
Meh. I cheerfully bought a brand new, RWD, manual transmission BMW wagon two years ago. And I will buy another one the day they will sell me a RWD, manual transmission, diesel F31. Not in brown though.
I don’t really want a 5vr wagon. I think they are gorgeous cars, just bigger than I need.
Harmonization of US/Euro standards cannot come too soon.
RWD premium wagons only make sense in a society where there is a buyer group looking to buy one car that is pretty good at it all. In Bailoutopia, there are only two groups of buyers:
– The bailout babies, that have a chauffeured Phantom + supply van for day to day, and an automatic Lambo in the garage for bragging about going fast.
– The rest, who are supposed to be happy they’re saving the planet by taking the bus.
The F30 sedan and coupe exterior designs are a big step forward, and this finally looks like a 21st century car with a good sense of direction. I never really liked the way the previous generations of 3-ers looked. Actually I never truly liked any of Bangle era cars.
Will it be called the 4-Series in China as well?
Good question! I wonder if BMW product planners thought this through. They could’ve learned a thing or two from the Alfa 164 folks…
It’ll be even more trouble when they have a BMW 444i in a few years that has a quad-turbo-charged + dual-supercharged 1.2L 3-cyl. (debated making it a 4-cyl to add another 4…but it’s funnier this way).
You coulda said 4 cycle haha.
Chinese buy 7 series.
Looks like it has some 6-Series styling cues, although the proportions look slightly different for some reason.
Wacko, don’t forget the 4-Series Gran Coupe, which will have 4-doors.
I think it looks like a 6er for people with taste…. :) Less cartoonishly squashed, more classically proportioned.
Based on the interior photo, and a fair amount of experience driving BMWs, I can make a fairly educated guess the driver’s seat will be one nice place to spend time. Now, if they’d only make a countryman/scrambler version, with tires more suited for post apocalyptic, bombed out LA streets than their trademark silly runflats; they’d really be on to something…. Wonder if some of SoCals numerous Baja truck custom shops would be up for the challenge? And would be able to show enough restraint to keep the whole thing from turning into a parody of Mad Max..
Have you actually driven a recent BMW with runflats? They have come a LONG way in the ride department. Greatly improved. I am still not a fan of them due to cost and availability concerns, but the ride really is not an issue anymore. I have the stock summer runflats on my car, but the winter tires are not runflat. Even though the runflats are lower profile, the ride is only barely worse, and probably more attributable to being lower profile. As noted, the pictured car is a sport package, if not M-sport car, the other lines will have smaller wheels.
And I find it utterly hysterical that someone would refer to the streets of LA as “bombed out” – compared to the forest tracks that pass for roads in the Northeast, California roads are babybutt smooth. Run your roads through a few Maine frost heave seasons and get back to me. I have potholes in my DRIVEWAY due to the frost heaves.
How much time have you spent on CA roads? I don’t know what LA looks like, but I find Bay Area roads at least as bad as New England roads, if not worse. I don’t know about the forest track roads, but any New England roads that carry significant traffic (including those in Maine) compare favorably to what I have seen in CA.
@burgers@beer
How much time do YOU spend in the North East?
I spend about 8 weeks a year, on average, in California. While we do keep our interstate highways slightly better than California does here in Maine (as we should, we only have ~300 miles to maintain), surface streets and rural roads do not even begin to compare. It also depends on whether your visit coincides with I-95 having just been paved or NEEDING to be paved – two very different states. And California interstates ARE smooth as a baby’s butt compared to NY and NJ and the rest of the equivalently populous North East. Heavy traffic, winter, and no maintenance money do not well together.
@krhodes1
I grew up and lived in the Boston area until 2011, so I’ve spent quite a bit of time in the North East.
As far as the Bay Area goes, 280 on the peninsula is pretty good. Sections of 101 are OK as well, but plenty are not OK. Most of the highways in the East Bay are awful. It’s actually surface streets that I find most offensive. Along Highway 1 through SF, the lane I travel in is dictated by the locations of various potholes. Great Highway is so bad I don’t use it anymore, and I can say the same for plenty of roads in the East Bay.
I guess we’ll have to agree to disagree.
I am a big believer in reserving judgement until I see a car in the flesh under natural daylight but at this earlu stage, I find this design leaves me cold. 90% of it is spot on, but the integration of the headlights, grill, and the short front overhang just seem forced… very forced… the last gen 2 door was quite possible one of the nicest looking coupes ever and this just doesnt really match up in terms of design cohesiveness…
Odds were….this is even!
This one just doesn’t do it for me. The previous gen coupe was still a little dull, but had a dull-agressive look to it at least. That front end is a face only a mother could love.
What’s with the stupid screen just sticking up in the dashboard? That’s the best they could come up with?
I can’t believe people buy these things…..
They’re copying Audi. Have you sat in an A7? The retractable screen looks slick in that case, and allows for a lower dash-cowl. I agree this implementation looks less well integrated.
Afterthought.
It’s nowhere near as bad as the screen in the godforsaken Mercedes CLA.
If you’re going to insist that the coupe a different series to the sedan then at least put some effort into making it look somewhat different. This simply looks like a 3 series with two doors – even more so than the E90/92.
To be fair, the thing on the picture should really be the 3-series coupe. I guess I was living under a rock, so I didn’t even know that the F30 coupe was going to be called 4-series. The 3-series coupe and sedan always looked pretty similar, except that coupe had longer doors.
audi’s A5 is a much nicer looking car