BMW Steps up to the 4 Door Coupé, and God Damn.

Quick, can you name the current crop of luxury/performance sleek, swept-back, “4 door coupés,” as the industry likes to call them?  They’ve been on the market for several years now:

• Mercedes CLS (the first, debuting around 2004)
• Aston Martin Rapide (the one to get on a truly unlimited budget)
• Porsche Panamera (ugly and atrocious, and blasphemy to the Porsche name, but then they have the Cayenne and Cayman to deal with so Porsche really is in over its head…)
• Audi Q7 (lovely and recently winning all sorts of accolades)
• VW Passat CC (Yes, even Volkswagen has got in on it, even if they don’t really run with the players mentioned above)

What’s conspicuously missing? The Bavarians!  It’s been along time in the making, but it’s finally here, the 2013 BMW 6 Series Gran Coupe, and boy do they have a knockout.

Derived from the very similar CS Concept car, the Gran Coupe is essentially a 4 door version of the current 6 series, which is itself a 2 door version of the 5…making this a much sexier, more expensive, and more powerful 5 series.  BMW has a justified reputation of producing the best-handling cars on the road, at least in the conventional car category – earning its self-styled slogan of the “Ultimate Driving Machine.”  The last 10 years, however, have seen some dubious and dodgy designs (cf 2003-2010 5 series, 2005-2011 3 series sedan, all the 1 series, all the X cars…), but in the last year or two, with the launch, in order, of the new 7, 5, 3, and 6 series, aesthetics seem to have made a comeback.  The new 4 door 6er is the icing on the cake.  Smooth, sleek, and flowing while subtly conveying its power, with none of the awkward angles or jutting bits that so marred the last generation of cars.  Even the interior is stunning, something BMW’s other newest models still haven’t quite figured out:

Does this count as 3-tone?

It’s expensive.  $77,000 for the 315hp V6, or $87,000 for the 445 hp V8.  Even from BMW, that’s a lot to pay for that kind of power – but what a design.  If you’re going to spend that much money on a 4 door car (and don’t have the $200k necessary for the Aston), forget your S Class, forget your 7 Series, and go for this sweet demon.

Almost as cool as the eternal and original 6 series, but that’s another post…

Perfection