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07/09/2020
If you're considering a personal 8 Series lease or any of our BMW lease deals, here's a complete walk-around of the BMW 840i that we recently took out for a drive...
BMW 840i Gran Coupe
Engine: 3.0 litre petrol
Performance: 340 horsepower
Acceleration (0-62): 5.2 seconds
Transmission: 8 Speed Automatic
Colour: Black Sapphire
Interior: Ivory White leather
OTR from: £71,435
Value of model driven: £78,175.
*Prices and model lines correct at the time of publication
Striking in both size and aggressively good looks, the Gran Coupe is over five metres long and nearly one and a half metres wide. As far as design goes, simply put the Gran Coupe is a stretched, four-door version of the iconic 8 Series Coupe. It still gets that distinctive sloping roofline, but also has the added benefit of more room inside, and a bigger 440-litre boot.
Black Sapphire paintwork is complimented by the optional chrome line exterior, which offers those contrasting chrome surrounds around the windows. All 840i models get M aerodynamic body styling as standard, with Dark Shadow metallic side sills, rear and front apron. They also get BMW icon adaptive LED headlights. This car also had the 20 inch Bicolour Y-Spoke M light-alloy wheels with those infamous blue brake calipers.
The entire cabin is based around a 10.25 inch touchscreen with black high gloss finishes and stainless steel trim. Everything is incredibly sturdy and there is a meticulous attention to detail, with soft-touch leather on almost every surface and driver and passenger comfort and convenience in mind.
The Ivory White leather upholstery is perforated and oh so plush to sit in. Heated front sports seats get electrically adjustable lumbar support and a memory function for up to two presets. It’s worth noting that for taller drivers with the seat further back, visibility will be a greater issue with a pretty prominent central pillar.
This car is fitted with BMW's optional ‘Crafted Clarity’ glass applications, which offer a flashier alternative to the standard centre console, encasing the gear lever, rotary dial and ‘Start/Stop’ button in a crystal-like glass surround.
While opulent, we did find that the passenger space in the back still fell afoul of the classic Coupe headroom issue; with the sloping roofline minimizing headroom, and colleagues over 6ft finding it restrictive and a little bit hard to get out of. Whilst this car is also technically a five-seater you’ll find a journey in the middle seat of this car to be a bit awkward due to that centre bump and air-con controls. Stick to four occupants and give the passengers the room they want.
There are very few details that haven’t been considered with this car. Even the two Isofix points in the back are integrated into the design. Rather than the fiddly removable covers, or tricky to access fabric openings, the 840i has leather-bound, magnetic covers that disguise seamlessly into the rest of the interior.
For audio and communication, this car features a BMW live cockpit professional, which compromises of a 10.25-inch touchscreen, 12.3-inch digital driver’s display, 7.0 operating system and rotary iDrive controller with touch function. For music lovers, there is also a Harmon/Kardon surround sound system and enhanced Bluetooth with wireless phone charging.
This car also comes complete with BMW's display key. Forget your phone, this large touchscreen key allows you to confirm the lock status of the car, check fuel levels and even pre-set climate control ready for when you get in the car. Be careful, you certainly won’t want to put this one through the wash!
Full automatic four-zone climate control is standard in the Gran Coupe, as are heated seats in the front and back. There’s also dynamic ambient lighting and, a powered tailgate.
This car has an added Technology Pack, meaning that on top of standard features such as a rearview camera, reversing assistant and parking assistant it also gets:
Those who have driven a BMW with heads up display will know that their system is one of the best, with exemplary clarity and the ability to see not only speed but also control the media and view Sat Nav instructions. An indicator comes up showing you the current limit but also when the speed limit is about to change, which is helpful. The speed also changes to red when you’re over the limit… or so we’ve heard.
Our initial thoughts before taking out the BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe were that we would want to drive it fast, and drive it fast all of the time. How wrong we were. The aggressive exterior is misleading, and we soon realised this isn’t a car that you rag around at high speeds. It’s a car you cruise in… comfortably, effortlessly and in complete luxury.
The fanciest, most ‘extra’ feature on this car? Well, how about this… by selecting a programme on the screen, you can either ‘relax’ or energise’ yourself. Meaning the car will play music, adjust the lighting, climate control and close the blinds for optimum comfort – all electronically whilst you sit back and do absolutely nothing.
It’s not a feature we thought we needed on a car. But now we’ve seen it, we want it as standard across the board.
