BMW 4 Series Coupe review

Good news first. The ergonomics of the 4 Series cabin are approaching perfection. You sit properly low, legs straight out ahead of you, steering wheel right back in your chest, if you’d like. Lots of adjustment means anyone can get comfy here. And the rear-seat passengers aren’t forgotten. This is the only car in its class that can seat equally sized adults comfortably behind front row grown-ups, giving it a major advantage for family-conscious buyers versus the cramped likes of the new Audi A5 and Lexus RC. Of course, there is a four-door version if you’re really struggling, but the 4 Series deserves points anyhow. If nothing else, it justifies the 4’s existence in the same range as the far smaller 2 Series Coupe. The boot, meanwhile, has a generous aperture for a coupe and offers 445 litres of capacity, another strong showing.

Interior information is fed to the driver via two supremely clear interfaces: the traditional dials (an Audi-style digital cockpit is a £250 option) and BMW’s excellent iDrive system. It’s not touch-sensitive on the screen like the very latest versions, but is none the worse for it, and you’ll never have to polish fingerprints off the screen...

The downer is the quality, or rather, the slight lack thereof compared to what Mercedes and Audi offer now in admittedly newer models. The 4 Series has too much trim that doesn’t butt up against other surfaces tightly, and a general air of using materials BMW expected it could get away with, rather than the very best it could offer. It smacks of being caught on the hop by Audi, and means it won’t make a meaningful lasting impression on that first sit in the showroom.