Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Gran Coupe a marvelous touring sedan from BMW
Selling a new car, truck, or SUV is challenging at any time, but it’s especially difficult now.
Imagine being a BMW dealer trying to sell the flagship car line, the 8 Series. Consisting of a coupe, convertible and a new for 2020 Gran Coupe, its incredibly good looks and wide array of model choices aren’t enough to sway customers.
According to industry publication Automotive News, more than 2,000 BMW 8 Series vehicles are in transit to, or sitting on, U.S. dealership lots. And of those, 700, or 35%, are ones that dealers are looking to unload on other dealers. That’s a lot, given that BMW sold 4,410 of them last year.
Of course, having not offered an 8 Series for two decades hasn’t helped matters. Neither has the fact that a larger, roomier X7 crossover is every bit as opulent and starts at $73,900, or $11,000 less than the base BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe. Never mind that Americans prefer SUVs to cars, no matter what the price, the X7 is exquisite, the perfect luxury family bus for the upper echelon.
But the 8 Series’ mission is more elemental to BMW’s long-promoted marketing as a driver’s car, one that’s enticingly wrapped and beautifully built. With the widest rear track of any BMW, its face features an oversized twin kidney grille with active shutters flanked by LED
and laser headlamps that’s identical to the 8 Series Coupe and Convertible. Its look is mean yet moneyed.
But things change once you get past the windshield, where its design takes on an eloquently flowing taut contour that’s at once romantic yet sporting. Its sloping rear backlight suggests that form matters more than function, something true of anything so rarefied and lovely.
The base 2020 BMW 840i Gran Coupe is powered by a 335-horsepower 3.0-liter turbocharged inline-six-cylinder engine with either rear- or allwheel drive. Next comes the M850i xDrive with a far more muscular 523-horsepower 4.4-liter twin-turbocharged V-8 and standard all-wheel drive. Finally, there’s the BMW M8 Gran Coupe with the same V-8, but dishing out 617 horsepower. An eight-speed automatic is standard.
Of course, BMW offered up the M850i xDrive. To those who don’t know M denotes BMW’s motor sports division, which endows BMW with additional athleticism, along with M-specific appearance items, including seats, steering wheels, pedals and other items.
The differences might not be noticeable to all but the speed obsessed, of which I admit, I am. The 840i needs 4.9 seconds to reach 60 mph, versus the M850i’s 3.7 seconds. Beyond the 1.2 second difference, the M850i reaches a top track speed of 155 mph, and boasts performance upgrades to its steering, suspension, brakes, differential, exhaust and stability control.
The M850i xDrive is about as special as a fourdoor BMW gets; a spectacular grand touring sedan that caters to your whim, a soothing yet speedy antidote to the incessant drumbeat of grim news.