Road Test: BMW 4 Series 435i Luxury 2dr

So BMW has stuck with a folding hard top for the new generation of mid-size Convertible. The 1-Series Convertible (soon to mutate to a 2-Series) has a fabric roof because it's cheaper and easier to packagein a small car. The 6-Series also has fabric, because it's a ‘special occasion' car, and people want it to be seen that they have a convertible even when the roof is up. But the 3-Series Convertible, and now its replacement 4-Series, have to be year-round cars proofed against vandals and inclement weather.

So let's begin with the roof up. It looks good, with a smooth roofline, marred only by hordes of cut-lines across the multi-part roof. But if it's painted a dark colour, they meld into the background. It feels pretty stiff like that, but it's extremely quiet through the air. It broadly drives like a 4-Coupe, albeit one with a very slight weave as it goes into corners and the extra high-mounted rearward weight settles itself.

Folding the roof requires you to remove most things from the boot. With that done, you simply slow to near-stationary and, 20 electrically powered seconds later, you're in a clean-lined and swanky open craft. In the interim, amazing and slightly scary things have happened, with the roof separating into three sections on a series of slightly wobbly cantilevers, and the giant bootlid rear-hinging itself.

Drive on, and you'll feel rather more body wobble, and a slight further degradation in the steering crispness. Not severe, just a little woozy, as if it has barely just woken from taking a nap. But for the people in the front, the roof-down environment has been well considered. There's little turbulence - remarkably little with the wind-blocker in place and the windows up - and there are hairdryer-type neck-warmers in the seats.

But if there are people in the back, the picture isn't so good because the wind-blocker has to be put away. At motorway speeds, your back-seat mates
will lose their hair and their sense of humour.

The boot is not easily accessible when the roof is folded, either. You have to open the regular lid, press another button to electrically raise the folded roof panels out of the way and then open a manual safety blind. And then put your (small) bag in. Then reverse all those other procedures.