First drive: You win some, you lose some with BMW’s new 4-Series, but it adds up

At any point in the last two decades, this car would automatically have been called the new 3-Series Coupe. Now we have to get used to the 3-Series-based, two-door BMW having its own name, and this, the turbo-charged, six-cylinder 435i, is the fastest of them all.

It won’t be alone, though, because BMW is already starting the 4-Series with a 420d diesel and a four-cylinder 428i petrol as well, and will follow with all-wheel-drive xDrive versions of the petrol engines, plus a 430d and a 435d xDrive in November, in time for winter. The three initial models come with six-speed manuals, though most buyers will opt for the eight-speed automatic.

It might have a new name, but the 4-Series is clearly still based on the 3-Series saloon, with which it shares most of its chassis, the core of its suspension, its steering, its engines, its gearboxes and its electronics, along with its entire dashboard. Cleverly, though, the only actual carry-over body panel is the bonnet.

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The cabin delivers more head, leg, shoulder and knee room in all four seats than its predecessor, and the driver sits lower than in the 3-Series saloon, even though the dash is the same height.

It might have BMW’s delightful, sweet-spinning 3.0-litre six up front, with its 306bhp of power and 400Nm of torque, but the 435i’s performance isn’t about sheer power. Any car that gets to 100km/h in 5.1 seconds isn’t slow or underpowered, but the core of the 435i is its handling and its road feel.

More resistance
BMW created a body about the same weight as its 3-Series predecessor but with 60 per cent more resistance to twisting forces; its centre of gravity is around two centimetres lower, to help the car feel more planted in corners and, especially, direction changes.

The design emphasises the rear wheel arches– the widest part of the car – though you have to be careful not to grind the rear rims because each side now sticks out an inch further than the front ones.

It combines all this with a 1525kg kerb weight (for the eight-speed auto that everyone will buy). That’s 25kg less than the 335i Coupe but 15kg heavier than the six-speed manual 435i. The lightest 4-Series in the family will be the 428i, which is 55kg lighter than the 435i auto.

Even with the extra weight of its all-wheel drive, the 435i xDrive will be quicker getting to 100km/h than the rear-driver we tested, and, with a 0-100km/h sprint of 4.9 seconds, will be the only stock 4-Series to slip beneath five seconds to 100km/h. This automatic 435i rear-driver is 0.2 seconds slower, while the manual version is a 5.4-second proposition. That’s only 0.4 seconds quicker than the 428i automatic (5.8 seconds) and you wonder if that’s too close for comfort.

The biggest disappointment is that BMW could only find space for a 60-litre fuel tank. That will be fine for the 420d, but the 435i is a far thirstier proposition.

For all its beauty, aggression and exquisite proportioning, the 435i isn’t perfect. By far the biggest gripe is with the damper settings. The car has adjustable dampers (shock absorbers) managed by a rocker switch next to the gear lever. You y shuffle between EcoPro+, EcoPro, Comfort, Sport and Sport+ modes.

The first three of the modes use the Comfort damper setting, while the top two use the Sport setting. In between them, though, there is a yawning gap that BMW desperately needs to fill with a Goldilocks setting.

In Sport, the car is extremely firm and jiggles the body over short, sharp bumps; in Comfort, it wafts and wallows too much, as if the suspension is half a second too slow to react to the road.

Sport might work well on a track, but, as one of the BMW chassis engineers told me, it’s a marketing setting, intentionally stiff to remind people that they’re in the Sport mode they paid for. The Comfort setting is also a marketing setting, but at the other extreme.

We ended up moving to Sport every time a corner loomed and rocking back to Comfort every time the road straightened up for more than 200m. But why did we have to?

Intuitive tacking
Aside from that, it's an easy car to be immediately comfortable in – especially sitting so low in the chassis that you feel almost like you're below the oily bits.

The steering feels better sorted than the suspension, with the electronic helm finally delivering the intuitive tacking that BMW lost when it moved from hydraulics.

The chassis is a star, with its wider tracks biting hard into all corners wide and narrow.

It’s a tribute to the core of the chassis that it doesn’t take the ultra-firm Sport damping and spit the car off the road anywhere. It feels faithfully, progressively lovely.

Its gearbox is nearly invisible and only comes to anybody’s attention when it delivers big blips on downshifts in Sport or Sport+ mode.

And it all works, just like you knew it would. Coming from 3-Series architecture, everything in the cabin is familiar and comfortable and easy to use. Its shortage of interior cubby-holes is a touch frustrating, as is BMW’s inability to provide a firm holding spot for the remote key.

Still, it's an easy car to like. It looks great, goes well, and it's comfortable, with no single part dominating the whole. With more range in its damper settings, we could love it.

ENGINE
Three at launch in October: 420d with 181bhp turbo diesel; 428i with 2-litre 242bhp petrol; and 435i with 310bhp 3-litre petrol. In November additional engines added: 420i with 2-litre 181bhp petrol; 430d with 254bhp 3-litre diesel; and 435d with 309bhp 3-litre diesel

PRICE
420d: €47,130 OTR

ON SALE
October

OUR VERDICT
Some niggling issues – particularly with damper settings – but overall it delivers

[ Full Irish specifications on the new BMW 4-Series ]