Driving Experience

All of this buildup would backfire on BMW if the 4 Series didn’t deliver the goods from behind the wheel, but we’re glad to report that you can paint the car red and white and put a beard on it.

In the daily grind, the 2.0-litre engine and eight-speed gearbox are butter smooth, and seem even more so than the 320i/330i in fact, with BMW now making the start-stop engagement only the slightest hiccup, instead of a cabin-resounding judder.

The 420i comes with M Sport Suspension as standard, and that has unfortunately become a byword for uncompromisingly harsh suspension on Singapore’s terribly-surfaced roads.

You might recall our first impressions of the current 330i in M Sport trim, but surprisingly the 420i – while having a busy and obviously sporty ride – does actually feel like it’s absorbing bumps and sparing you the worst, and secondly this sort of behaviour is far more acceptable in a coupe than in a sedan or SUV. 

On roads that aren’t the KPE, the 4 Series is downright refined. Smooth engine, quiet cabin, this can give Lexus and Mercedes a run for the comfort dollar (see Rivals), and it also helps that the 2.0-litre is quite frugal, more so if you engage Eco Pro mode, where you can easily net sub-6.0L/100km on a gentle highway run. 

But take on a series of corners and you’ll immediately realise this is a very sweet-handling machine. There’s just a hint of roll, to clue you in to what’s going on, and you’re through the corner without a hint of fuss. So you try it again, and again at progressively higher speed, and it turns out the 420i is superb at maintaining its speed through corners, so much so that engine aside, it could give a 911 or R8 a run for the mid-apex corner-speed money. 

There’s quite a lot going on here, from the inch-perfect accuracy it gives you, the excellent steering feel, the eagerness to rotate, the balance of plenty of grip with equal amounts of feel, but what it all comes down to is that BMW has managed to bottle some of its coupe lightning once again in the 4 Series.  

That the 4 Series behaves so well in its most basic form bodes well for the 430i and the forthcoming M4. As the entry-level 4er, the 2.0-litre engine makes relatively mdoest 184hp in the 420i, but the smooth, turbo torque means you can easily exploit the 300Nm of torque, and such is the direct-connection to the car, turning ESP to Sport or Off for a little tyre-squealing fun brings only thrills rather than over-powered terror. 

Continue to Page 5: Pricing, Rivals and Conclusion

Page 1: Introduction
Page 2: Design and Exterior
Page 3: Interior and Equipment
Page 4: Driving Experience
Page 5: Pricing, Rivals, Conclusion

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