While superbly smooth and quiet (amazingly smooth in fact, BMW has managed to imbue the I-4 with the characteristics of their famed I-6s), and possessing very good power from very low in the rpm range, it still weighs over 3,700 pounds in base form before options. It’s extremely quiet too with what I suspect is a bit of piped-in noise that sounds great but overall this is a pretty fast car that just doesn’t seem fast. It’s just not overly thrilling when accelerating for some reason and I was sure to try it in every mode to be sure I wasn’t missing anything.
Perhaps that’s the correct way for it to be positioned where it is in the range, stepping up to the turbocharged I-6 in the M440i or the M4 should (and very likely does) feel significantly more thrilling than this, especially seeing as how the M4 now has about twice the amount of power of this one. I know it’s troubling when I think that a 0-60mph time of just over five seconds isn’t fast but it is what it is. Interestingly BMW says the xDrive (awd) version as tested here is faster in this metric than the RWD version, obviously due to grip.
What was also interesting and not surprising really when thinking about it is that this BMW was phenomenal when in high speed long distance use. 88mph in this car doesn’t result in going back in time, but does result in displaying exactly 2000rpm on the tachometer with full torque available at the flex of a toe and seeming unflappability at that speed with the impression that there is much, much more to give with the same stability far higher up the speedometer. I have the feeling that this car would be exceptional when needing to travel from Munich to Bremen via the A9 Autobahn, or from Sacramento to Salt Lake City via I-80 or perhaps even Shenzhen to Beijing via the G45.
Around town and even in the foothills around here it’s really less exciting or interesting, in large part due to it feeling throttled as to being able to use its full capabilities. By that I mean it’ll go significantly faster around corners without any drama whatsoever than the posted advisories (figure at least 2x as fast as a minimum and 3x seems like it wouldn’t generally be an issue for the car), but at some point you start (or should start) to be concerned about the advisability of continuously doing so.
The engine is mated to an excellent 8-speed automatic, there is no manual option, but it does offer steering wheel mounted shift paddles. As is often the case, eight speeds makes for much flurry when using these manually, especially on an unfamiliar winding road, and the better bet is usually to just let the box do its thing. Auto stop/start is standard, it can be turned off but resets at every restart and is unfortunately not nearly as smooth as the engine itself.
That grille, by the way, at first glance looks like it has a solid section behind it but the upper portion consists of movable grille shutters to help the engine both warm up as well as cool down quicker as needed, the bottom portion is open and the middle portion holds the license plate.
The Dynamic Handling Package in this car equips it with an MSport Differential and larger MSport brakes (with blue calipers). Along with the 19″wheels and adjustable suspension it clearly has the hardware to be exceptionally capable in the corners. The steering is bang-on accurate if not overly filled with feedback and the car soaks up corners without complaint, although not actively goading you on to do more with it.
This particular car was equipped with Pirelli Sottozero winter tires which are not the stock fitment as delivered and thus I hesitate to make definitive statements regarding anything to do with them beyond saying on these tires cornering was very reassuring and even at somewhat ill-advised speeds there was communication regarding imminent breakaway and slip. Tires were sized at 225/40-19 in front and 255/35-19 in the rear.
The brakes were excellent, even repeated and somewhat rapid very hard application on downhill sections of my route didn’t display any evident fade, the best way to describe everything might be to entertain the notion that for once the brakes and suspension are a package looking for more engine rather than the other way around. I’m not meaning to say this car was deficient in power, it isn’t, and there is more than enough for most anyone to easily get in over their heads. It has the goods though to save many from themselves should they do so.
I drove the car at total of 297 miles of which the first 165 consisted of a high speed highway run up to Laramie, Wyoming with a return trip via the freeway peaking at over 8,200 feet, both segments with very little traffic and much opportunity to wring the car out.
Another 60 or so were up in the foothills of the Colorado Rocky Mountains with the remainder composed of mainly around town usage with normal daytime traffic. This combination produced a displayed fuel economy average of 27.9mpg, more or less in line with the EPA’s estimates of 24mpg City, 33 Highway, and 27 Average. 91 octane is recommended with a minimum of 89 required.
At the end of the day it’s a very good grand tourer and used in such a manner likely to delight. The car is assembled beautifully by the craftsmen and women employed at Dingolfing in Germany and with a majority of German sourced content (55% in this case including engine and transmission). 5% more comes from the US/Canada and the remaining 40% from unspecified other locations. To some that build location is still worth a lot.
And it had better be, as the 2021 BMW 430i xDrive Coupe starts at $47,600 plus a $995 Destination Charge and a deep list of possible options.
Deciphering the options was difficult, what was on the sticker seemed different as to what was obviously included (or not spelled out well) as compared to the online configurator’s description of the various packages. Options here included the Portimao Blue Paint at $550, the Black Leather with blue stitching at $1,450, and the Dynamic Handling Package at $2,450 which is listed on the sticker as directly including only the MSport Brakes and Differential.
A further $3,600 covered the MSport Package which consists of Variable Sport Steering and SensaTec Dashboard (the soft material) per the sticker but clearly covers more. And then the Premium Package at $2,300 includes the Heated Steering Wheel, Comfort Access Keyless Entry, Lumbar Support, Heated Front Seats, Head-Up Display, and Live Cockpit Pro (Incl. Nav.). The Wireless Charging pad ran $500 and the Harman Kardon Surround Sound a further $875.
Listed as “included” but not really directly below any of the above and separate from “standard” was a whole slew of items, presumable covered or integrated as selections by the above choices. This included (deep breath here) Apple CarPlay/AndroidAuto, Enhanced USB/Bluetooth, 19″ M wheels with performance non-runflats, 8-speed Sport Automatic Transmission, Mobility Kit, Adaptive M Suspension, Rear View Camera, Alarm, Aluminum Trim with Mesh effect, Auto-dimming mirrors (all), Power Front Seats, Adjustable Side Bolsters, Storage Package, Active Driving Assistant, Active Guard, LED Fog Lights, Park Distance Control, Automatic Climate Control, WiFi Hotspot, SiriusXM, M Steering Wheel, Shadowline Exterior Trim, and Anthracite Headliner.
Standard items included a fair amount of duplication of the above but also most of the active safety items, and the expected items in this class such as LED exterior lighting and several other items, none of which really stood out as surprising.
The three years (or 36k miles) of standard scheduled maintenance (for the first owner only) is a helpful feature. If leasing as I suspect most of these are this obviously helps to meet the lessee’s budget but also helps ensure timely and complete maintenance documentation through a dealer for eventual resale.
Doing the math and checking it twice made for a grand total of $60,520. Viewed objectively it’s an extremely well built and frankly very nice car, no argument there. It adds up to a special piece for someone who values the brand and its history, a precise and well-calibrated driving experience, as well as whatever cachet or credibility driving around in a BMW may convey. Which is all fine and perfectly valid even if some of those aspects start to be more subjective.
The minuses are a still somewhat nebulous reason for having a 4-series designation in the first place. With a 3 everyone knows (or used to know) what you’ve got although there’s now another 3 from a different make that has captured a bit of the Zeitgeist; the jury is still deliberating if BMW’s 4 is as instantly credible even if it is more or less the same thing as their 3. At best it has diluted things a bit, at worst made them less than the sum of the parts.
To end though I think we need to swing back around to the front of the car, and ponder the grille again. We here in the North America are no longer BMW’s top or most profitable market (not even close in fact), and are looking down a path of having some vehicles designed for elsewhere also offered here. This is fine, and sort of the natural order of things, an ebb and flow if you will; consider that BMW needs to do well globally to be able to continue to offer anything at all and remain independent.
BMW’s range has become somewhat bloated in recent history with lots of overlap and they seem to be aware of it, it looks like some trimming must inevitably occur and will probably happen by looking at models from a more global perspective than ever before. Only BMW (maybe) knows if 3 and 4 will remain distinct entities or re-merge once some of the overlap is culled and they determine the correct solution.
Thank you to BMW for lending us this 430i x-Drive Coupe with a full tank of fuel!
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I’m not wild about the big grille either, but I can’t blame BMW for using it. Huge grilles that drop all the way down to the air dam are obviously in vogue, with everyone from Audi (were they the first?) to Lexus to Hyundai to Toyota having adopted similarly huge grilles, so BMW doesn’t want to look behind the times. I’m more bothered by the rest of the rest of the car which looks like a 25 year old Acura hatchback coupe to my eyes (not a bad thing, but not a new or original thing). Where did the Hoffmeister kink go? Also, that gauge cluster couldn’t be any more garish. As for the driving, I agree that BMW’s 2.0T fours sound and feel too ordinary and lack the appeal of their inline sixes despite their ample power.
> now another 3 from a different make that has captured a bit of the Zeitgeist
Agreed; that Mazda is sweet!
Audi may have popularised it in recent years, but GM was keen on big, low-set grilles at the beginning of the 1970s, obvious examples like the Buick boat tail Riviera or most Cadillacs of that period. Even Chevrolet pitched in with the 1972 Caprice (and over here, Vauxhall with the FE Transcontinentals).
Most of those disappeared in the U.S. after the 5mph bumper regs went into effect (i.e. Camaro, Vega, Mark IV)
The Collonade Cutlass had it, though bisected by the 5mph bumper the grilles went all the way down behind it, this custom with the bumper removed exploited the effect.
1938 328 tops all of these & was first.
Did Jim mean Mazda3 or Tesla 3?
BMW’s nomenclature is actually somewhat logical and although at first I was annoyed because of the break with tradition, it makes sense. The “4” designation has nothing to do with the number of doors but with the sportier “coupe” profile. All even numbers: 2,4, 6, 8 in both cars and SAV’s have the “sportier” roof line. 340 vs 440 and X3 vs X4. I agree it was confusing with the grand coupe and gran turismo, but they are both gone. I wish the number designations still related to engine displacement.
There’s a 2 series that’s a FWD tall wagon/hatchback thing (think Golf Plus or Toyota Matrix), nothing coupe-like about it at all.
But that is also an X, 2 Series actually offers 2 coupes, rwd. 2 dr. & fwd./awd. 4 dr. GC. Customer choice is lucrative, who cares if it confuses non-buyers?
They held off aligning 3 & 4 like 5 & 6 when Bangle butt 745i caused such an uproar, waited until next generation. Displacement similarly ended with original 745i, which reflected turbo output rather than engine size. 25 neu EV will change it all again, has already begun with i4, iX.
Great review. Is just the Premium Package with European delivery an option? I’d go for that….
BMW just recently ended the European Delivery option
Thanks for another great review, Jim! The grille on these is pretty polarizing. I just think of an Edsel every time I see one, whereas the largish new grille on the X7 and 7 Series somehow works better for me. $60K is a chunk of change for a small coupe, but off a 24 or 36 month lease, this thing would be a relative steal I’ll bet.
Sheesh, what a snout. We’ll see if this one sells any better than the 1958 version it seems to have been based upon. In addition to the Edsel, sort of reminds me of the 1st gen Subaru Tribeca with a nose that someone got in trouble for by saying it looked a little too…feminine…
The grille doesn’t bother me as much as the back – it looks like a generic Toyondaru.
What bothers me more is what has bothered me about BMWs for a few years now – the loss of normally aspirated in-line 6’s that made a sound like no other as they would up, the loss of manuals in just about all models, and steering that has lost its razor reflexes. I get that BMW’s new customers are likely more interested in the propeller roundel itself and the infotainment system, than in the car’s attributes, but the marque that still calls itself The Ultimate Driving Machine, should still aspire to be so. BMW won’t be getting my 50 or 60 large for this car.
Great review, though, as always.
Like Porsche, most of their volume is crossovers. Irrelevant as market moves to autonomous rideshare BEV & thus Personal Mobility.
As usual, Mr. Klein has given us a very through and thoughtful review, which I enjoyed reading. He gives a nicely descriptive and objectively accurate assessment of the car, I think.
I have a 2019 5 Series sedan which is very similarly equipped to this 4 Series albeit without the M package (only ‘Sportline’ whatever that means), and without the X-drive; here in Texas, there’s not a lot of value added by it. Having the 5 in Sedan form adds two doors and a little more leg room, although I suspect the extra size means some performance is lost in the bargain. Otherwise the review rings true for my car as well. I like the current 5 Series very much. It is an amazing highway car for four people; we generally put the ladies in back and the guys up front and thus have plenty of room for everybody – it is an effortless and quiet turnpike cruiser, and experience suggests that the rear seat passengers (who can’t see the gauges) have no sensation of speed regardless of the pace. In the front the sports seats are very adjustable, including a inflatable lumbar support which can also move vertically to accommodate backs of different heights. On a side note, even my 5”1’ wife likes the adjustable leg support. It’s easy to get settled in.
The electronics in the car are almost overwhelming; everything is adjustable (those led interior trim lights? Your choice of blue, purple, green, orange or white), the heated seats and wheel turn on automatically at a preset outside temperature to a preset level. HVAC fans are of course automatically adjusted, but the user can preset the maximum fan speed – no jarring fan roar if that bothers you. And so on and on. The car stays in contact with the mothership – when it came time for my oil change, I got a reminder indicator on the dash, an email, a text, and a robot phone call. Oh, my favorite stupid-car-trick? Nope, not the swiveling headlights… Not only can you open the trunk with a wave of your foot, you can close it that way too. I have come to terms with I-drive and actually like it, but find the shortcut buttons that surround it a blessing. The screen is a touch screen too, but, well, I just can’t: fingerprints ya know. I use the voice controls more and more with improving success.
The only thing about the car which I find out of character and a bit disingenuous are the dual exhausts… on a four cylinder car. Still, no one in the world seems to have noticed that but me, so never mind. If no one notices you’re a poseur, well, okay then.
Still, I enjoy the car; it can best be summed up as an effortless cruiser until asked to do more, and then it just gives more performance but without any drama. I am sure that the bigger engines add more speed, but in measured Germanic terms – none of that “Oh Daddy, beat me harder!” feeling that one gets from an Italian car.
One final note:
When I was in for my recent oil change, I asked my Salesman how the “Hog Nose” is selling and while he laughed, he said it seems very popular, so perhaps it is not just a foreign market thing; personally I just hope that I can get one more 5 Series with the old nose before it succumbs too.
The nose seems incorrectly sized and styled for this vehicle. It sounds like it might be enjoyable for a long weekend, if one could master a sufficient percentage of electronica.
I don’t really follow a lot of the modern versions of once-interesting-to-me cars, so as always this review is educational as well as interesting. If it were a word association game, I’d connect “430” with Lexus or even Buick, but never think of BMW. and speaking of Lexus, the big grille here is pretty benign, but the rest of the shape is totally generic ten year old Japanese coupe, Nissan/Infiniti or Accord, as someone else noted. Nothing special. By the way, I think these numerical designations morphing from displacement to positioning in the lineup, which of course started decades ago with the German cars, is a perfect lead-in to the electric era. Not to mention that most folks don’t even know what displacement is.
Great review.
The bit about your kids not being any too happy to navigate the cumbersome way into and out of the rear seat is my biggest take-away: Coupes are largely dead for a very good reason. Why not have rear doors? The lack of them is just plain stupid.
The Europeans led the way away from two-doors a long time ago. Good luck finding a two door Golf or such over there. And of course it explains the emergence of the four-door coupes.
There’s a good reason there’s no Tesla coupe. Except for genuine sport cars with marginally usable 2+2 rear seats, it’s over for the coupe. And the kids are showing us why, as usual. 🙂
I was actually thinking about writing about the evolution of the 2 door from being a low end configuration business coupe or econobox, through the PLC and 320i era, to today when a Charger Hellcat or Tesla Plaid Plus are extremely high performance 4 doors with no 2 door equivalent. But maybe that’s already a closed chapter. And I guess it means that our 2015 2 door Golf VII, I believe the last 2 door Golf sold here in the US if not worldwide, will be a future CC.
The Challenger Hellcat may as well be the 2 door equivalent of the Charger Hellcat, even if the name and styling are a bit different. But yeah, the Golf GTI is makes for the perfect illustration of the recent acceptance of four-door high-performance cars – the Mk1 through Mk4 were 2 door only, as was the Mk5 when it was introduced. But just two generations later, the Mk7 two door GTI was dropped partway through its run leaving only the four door. The Golf Mk8 is four door only worldwide.
The Challenger Hellcat may as well be the 2 door equivalent of the Charger Hellcat, even if the name and styling are a bit different. But yeah, the Golf GTI is makes for the perfect illustration of the recent acceptance of four-door high-performance cars – the Mk1 through Mk4 were 2 door only, as was the Mk5 when it was introduced. But just two generations later, the Mk7 two door GTI was dropped partway through its run leaving only the four door. The Golf Mk8 is four-door only worldwide.
Didn’t Germany long prefer 2-doors? After all, there wasn’t a 4-door German VW (not counting the Microbus) until the 411. That’s decades of exclusively 2-door production.
It’s a chicken-egg issue. After the war, the two-door VW utterly dominated, so presumably the extra expense of four doors would have been a competitive disadvantage, as it was already hard to compete against it. But this was in the lower classes. There were no Mercedes two-doors, except for a few very expensive coupes/cabrios.
In any case, that all changed very abruptly with the intro of the Golf in 1975. And it had already been in the works, as low-end four door Renaults and Peugeots and such were quite popular at the time there.
I don’t have the stats, but undoubtedly the four door Golf outsold the two door version starting from day one by a healthy margin, and soon the two door became rather rare. Even the GTI became available in four doors, and was popular.
And the even smaller Polo went to four doors after a generation or two.
Europeans are a bit more pragmatic in certain respects. 🙂
BMW have had flagship coupes, cabriolets & roadsters since @ least original 328. They have never been about volume & thus the polarizing but attention getting new grilles, while still providing foundations for lucrative M2, M4, M8. Allows BMW to sell volume sedans & CUV while appealing to enthusiast $, marketing equivalent of having their cake & eating it. Like offering performance M440i & M4 versions of “soft” volume 430i, something for everyone. BMW still sell a fraction of the majors, they don’t have to appeal to everyone & aren’t trying to, obviously & evidently successfully.
Yeah consumer choice is clearly a pointlessly inefficient thing of the past.
When I bought my first new car, an 89 Mercury Tracer, I chose the 2 door hatchback over the 4 door hatchback (with same roofline) for these practical reasons:
– it cost about $500 less
– better outward visibility to the sides with the B pillar less in the way, especially for tall people, as well as less clutter around the C pillar area since it didn’t have to support a rear door
– easier ingress/egress, again because of the wider door and not having to lean forward to dodge the B pillar on the way out
– longer, more comfortable door armrest; it doesn’t end before it gets back to your elbow
– rear seat had more shoulder and elbow room, and again a longer armrest
– easier to retrieve gym bag/laptop/grocery bag from rear seat after stepping out of driver’s seat – folding seatback forward & back is easier than walking around and opening/closing door.
Two-doors aren’t stupid at all if you don’t frequently drive with more than one other passenger, which was the case for me back then.
^^^ * THIS * ^^^ – Practicality can mean different things to different people. Well said, la673!
When I replaced that car with a VW Golf, I decided I wanted a four door this time though; it just seemed more sociable for someone who likes to go on road trips with friends. But the four door hatchback still had all the aforementioned disadvantages.
A strange obsession, only in America. Just watched a restorer convert a 4 door sedan in to a 2 door coupe hoping to make. more money. I. just never got coupe versions of 70s luxury cars. All that metal and the rear passenger space of a Cortina. Wasteful. Give me a 6 passenger full size sedan with a trunk to suit.
Euro 2 door Golfs were mostly GTIs or convertibles.
Come to think of it, I haven’t owned a two-door car since I sold my 320i in 1990. At least, as Robert Kim pointed out in his CC, the back seat of the 320i was fairly roomy once you got inside. This, not so much.
With all the customization, it’s a shame you can’t conjure up an ammeter and an oil pressure gauge!
To me, this is a pretty good looking car, except for the terrible license plate location. One would think that mighty BMW would charge its designers to come up with a much better way to integrate the license plate with the design. Because that grille itself is aggressive and good looking. Also, I hate these small four cylinder engines in expensive, sporty cars. I much prefer an inline or V6 or even a V8 engine for this kind of money. Why else buy a prestige car? Just get an econobox instead.
Just ready to post the same – the front license plate on this car looks terrible.
I’m sorry. BMW has lost its way.
Yes, that explains 6 decades of growth.
Here i found this commercial https://abancommercials.com/bmw/camping-2022-bmw-ix-bmw-usa-commercial/168859/