Item: BMW 4 Series
Rating: 4.5

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There's a slightly unexpected air of the commemorative around the latest BMW 4 Series. Back when even Ford, Peugeot and Vauxhall were offering their humdrum hatches with a folding roof, you wouldn’t have thought the market for an everyday convertible could ever dry up.

But here we are in 2024, with scant few options outside the supercar and top-drawer sports car segments for adjusting your mullet on the move. The Lexus LC? Dead. Audi A5? Gone. TT? See ya. Hell, even the Volkswagen T-Roc Cabriolet is for the chop in the coming months, and there’s a good while to wait until the Mini Convertible returns. No word yet on a reborn Vauxhall Cascada.

The pre-war BMW 328 sports car’s grille was taller, but that doesn’t mean an updated modern tribute necessarily fits on a compact coupé
Richard Lane
Deputy road test editor

Were it not for the new Ford Mustang, Mercedes-Benz CLE and this freshened-up BMW 4 Series, you’d be pretty much stuck for an everyday, drop-top four-seater south of £70,000.

And even within this niche, consolidation conspires to quash variety. The 4 Series is no longer available with a diesel engine, and petrol options are now limited to the rear-driven 420i with 184bhp, or the 369bhp four-wheel-drive M440i driven here. You can, though, still have both as a coupé, a cabrio or in four-door Gran Coupé form.

The 4 Series is, of course, the lower, wider-striding, meaner-looking alter ego of the 3 Series - with stiffened, extra-tantalising handling poise and an air of exclusivity about its two-door cabin, the combination of which has been the BMW coupé calling card since the early 1970s.

And rather than any recent forerunner coupé, it’s a 1970s antecedent of the 4 Series that BMW’s designers were referring to with the new car’s oh-so-contentious, upright and in-your-face radiator grille: the Wilhelm Hofmeister-penned E9-generation 3.0 CSi. Read on to find out if the new range-topping M440i xDrive can do justice, on the road and against the timing gear, to such a celebrated ancestor.

Verdict

BMW M440i Cabriolet in blue cornering front

Model tested:

Rating: 9

BMW 4 Series

Light-touch update doesn’t change the game, but the 4 Series continues to shine in a shrinking field

Good

Six-pot petrol auto powertrain’s responsiveness and drivability are as good as its first-order pace

Four-wheel-drive chassis doesn’t disappoint for handling appeal

Bad

Lacks the understated visual grace of its predecessors. And then some

Cheaper 4 Series need the optional adaptive suspension to ride really comfortably

DESIGN & STYLING

Pros

Front end isn't quite as shocking as it once was. Is it handsome, even?

Even top-spec cars ride on relatively small 19in alloys

Cons

It's tangibly bigger and heavier than its predecessor

The 4 Series has been updated across the board, but all variants look mostly the same as before from the outside, which is good because – whisper it – that once-headline-baiting front end finally seems to have come of age, with its buck-toothed visage having shed some of the shock factor and taken on an air of purpose and aggression. Time really does heal all wounds, it seems, even if they are as gaping as these.

But it probably helps that the grilles now have a matt chrome surround that tones them down a touch - part of a subtle styling refresh that also brings new-look LED headlights and the option of fibre-optic Laserlights at the rear, lifted from the limited-run M4 CSL. There are also the usual new colours and wheel designs that help to keep a five-year-old design looking fresh.

Optional anti-dazzle matrix headlights are signalled by blue accents inside the cluster – a motif that only recently meant your BMW’s powertrain was significantly electrified. Confusing
Felix Page
Deputy editor

But familiarity can only breed so much consent, and the overall 4 Series design still feels rather ill-resolved. The car’s surfaces mix bulbousness and fussiness; its rear quarters lack both proportion and definition; and its Hofmeister kink can only be described as ‘absent, presumed missing’.

There is better news for those prepared to look beneath the skin, but even that search requires persistence. To begin with, that this car has grown so much in comparison to the first-gen 4 Series isn’t the greatest of omens. It’s a significant 128mm longer, as well as both wider and taller than the F32-generation car.

For those looking for points of difference relative to the 3 Series, however, there are plenty to find. A lower body profile gives the 4 Series a centre of gravity that is 21mm closer to the ground than that of the equivalent 3 Series, while the chassis gets specific structural reinforcements. The 4 Series also has wider axles than a 3 Series and retuned springs, dampers, mountings and anti-roll bars.

BMW’s latest-generation, twin-turbocharged 2.0-litre petrol engine powers the 181bhp 420i. And what that engine has in common with the 369bhp twin-scroll turbocharged petrol 3.0-litre straight six here in the M440i is that they both use a 48V mild-hybrid electrical assistance system for extra efficiency, as well as for the odd hit of up to 11bhp.

All versions of the car have BMW’s eight-speed Steptronic torque-converter automatic gearbox from ZF, but whereas the four-cylinder models are rear-wheel drive as standard, the six-cylinder cars like this one get BMW’s natively rear-driven xDrive four-wheel drive system as standard.

M Sport mechanical specification is the jumping-off point for ownership in the UK, which means most UK cars will come with BMW’s stiffened suspension springs and passive ‘lift-related’ dampers, along with a reinforced frontal structure and variable sports steering. Higher-end engines get BMW’s uprated M Sport brakes as well, and if you go all the way up to either M Sport Pro Edition or M Performance trim levels, adaptive dampers become part of the package.

Being an M440i, our test car had the latter, as well as BMW’s torque-vectoring rear differential as standard (which can also be added to a 430i or 430d as a cost option).

INTERIOR

Pros

Supremely comfortable over long distances

Just about enough physical controls to appease traditionalists

Cons

Omnipotent wraparound screen disrupts the ambience

Back seats are more than ornamental, but still cosy

BMW devotees will be well used to the extra-glitzy materials and the technological glare of the firm’s current interior design philosophy.

The days when the ambient quality and luxury of Munich’s cabin treatments were deliberately understated are long gone. Some time ago, the firm decided it needed to take on both Audi and Mercedes in that respect, and it conjured driving environments of readily apparent richness and lavishness. Pretty soon after that, the G20-generation 3 Series got an interior full of boldly hexagonal chrome and high-tech, widescreen wizardry – and that’s a treatment the 4 Series now inherits.

Like regular series BMWs, the M440i retains physical drive mode buttons. ‘Adaptive’ adjusts chassis and powertrain to suit your driving style
Felix Page
Deputy editor

It’s an interior in which it’s very easy to make yourself comfortable over long distances. It feels expensively hewn and appointed and is broadly easy to interact with and to configure to your liking. The driving position is only marginally lower and more snug than that of a 3 Series. You wouldn’t call it sports car low, but then, with ease of access and long-range visibility in mind, neither should it be. The control layout is excellent, with very generous adjustment of the steering column available. Slightly wide A-pillars impinge on forward visibility to an extent, but only as is broadly common among modern cars.

Instrumentation is all digital, with the rev counter and speedometer displayed around the lateral extremes of an octagonal binnacle screen. The display themes change with the selected driving mode, but few are as easily readable as they ought to be and none of them provides a simple pairing of circular dials that could be read so easily at a glance. In cars with BMW’s optional head-up display, of course, you can never claim to be ill-informed of your road or engine speed, but on behalf of those who like to pare down and simplify what the car is telling you in order to make longer trips less tiring, BMW could still do better.

The 4 Series’ rear seats are predictably tricky things in which to berth. You’ll need to be under 6ft tall to find enough head room, although leg room is a little less meanly provided. Overall, though, the 4 Series’ back-seat accommodation is reasonable enough for occasional use. The ability to fold the rear seatbacks, split 40/20/40, is a welcome boost to carrying flexibility, meanwhile, and boot space is good.

Slightly more noticeable than the exterior visual tweaks are the changes inside for 2024, where sports seats are now standard fitment, the steering wheel is flat-bottomed and the restyled air vents are now adjusted with neat, thimble-shaped knobs that are sensibly placed and nice to twiddle.

The 4 Series was only recently a recipient of a new twin-screen wraparound display that dominates the dashboard, which would be awful news for analogue apologists were the most important in-car controls not still housed in easy-access clusters of physical buttons in the centre console. The interface now runs the latest generation of BMW's iDrive platform, which is much the same as before – graphically appealing and agreeably responsive – only now with improved menu structures that aim to give you "the right information in the right place".

The results are not transformative: this remains a highly competent and functional system, but one that just requires a touch too much eye time on the move, with a dazzling array of small and vaguely illustrated icons on the home page and too much responsibility over the climate control and so on. Happily, the trademark rotary controller remains, and there's a new fixed row of widgets on the right-hand side that allow control over various functions without delving into sub-menus. Swings and roundabouts.

The inbuilt sat-nav also gets an optional augmented reality boost, with a new function that superimposes directional arrows, parking tips and the like over an animated livestream of your forward view. A neat party trick, but of limited use if you're of the Waze or Google Maps persuasion.

ENGINES & PERFORMANCE

Pros

Flexible B58 six-pot is suitably revvy and raucous

Economy needn't be shocking in more sensible situations

Cons

Four-cylinder 420i is short on puff at the top end

None of BMW's mid-life tweaks and additions do much to change the prevailing all-round brilliance of the 4 Series. Especially with the six-pot, it is a supremely effective cross-country cruiser, with grunt that’s as easy to manage as it is to deploy, which makes it almost as much fun as the outrageously potent M4 in the real-world, but with less of the unyielding fear for your life and licence.

It is aided in this regard by razor-sharp changes from the eight-speed ZF and a fruity soundtrack that lends a hit of viscerality to the whole affair: charismatic without verging on obnoxious, with a naughty little crackle and pop on the overrun if you’re so inclined.

M440i’s four-wheel drive system adds mass but doesn’t dampen the engagement or appeal. The car is stable and sure-footed but also agile and adjustable in corners
Richard Lane
Deputy road test editor

There is real strength running through the operating character of this car's engine and gearbox. The combination is a hard one to criticise either for full-throttle power or part-throttle drivability – and it’s harder still to cast aspersions once you realise the car will also return better than 40mpg when touring.

The engine’s power delivery is brilliant in the way it blends ample, accessible turbocharged torque with crispness and linearity of pedal response right across the rev range. It seldom seems at all laggy or boosty and it spins beyond 6000rpm with the freedom and vigour of an atmospheric unit. Of course, it never bogs down at low revs, either.

BMW quotes 4.5sec from rest to 62mph for the car. In our hands, on a slightly damp and chilly surface, it hit 60mph in just 4.1sec, which also speaks loudly and clearly of how little there is wrong with the speed of engagement of the torque-converter or the efficacy of the four-wheel drive system.

The gearbox is at its best in give-and-take motoring when operating in one of its ‘sportier’ control regimes. Thus, it sets its downshifts smartly and decisively after a deliberate throttle input, and if the car’s 48V hybrid assistance adds anything to the performance, it may be to the improvement of that part-throttle, roll-on responsiveness, which is very good indeed. Unlike other modern autos, whose many ratios seem like an invitation to swap cogs almost at will, the M440i’s gearbox seldom seems hyperactive: it just grabs the right gear and knuckles right down.

There’s no escaping how synthesised the car’s audible driving experience sounds when you pay it close attention, though. It may be that BMW’s latest exhaust system and particulate trap have taken away what genuine mechanical charisma the B58 engine had left, or it may be that BMW has simply turned up the sound effects in an attempt to add more drama.

Whatever the cause, the M440i is left in a place where it will sound inoffensively sporty and authentic enough to those who aren’t paying much attention. However, those who remember so many silken 328i engines over the years are very unlikely to be fooled.

Even the 420i is punchy enough when you need it to be, with minimal turbo lag under part-throttle acceleration lending it good responsiveness, and a strong mid-range allowing you to make reasonably swift progress when you need to. But with an at-times gravelly soundtrack and a tendency to feel a bit wheezy right at the top end, you never feel particularly inclined to chase revs and accrue big speeds on the road. Better to relax a bit and just enjoy the car's responsiveness and agility well within the limits of its dynamic ability.

RIDE & HANDLING

Pros

M440i is 80% as capable as an M4 – which will be enough for most

Excellently weighted steering, manipulated by a brilliantly meaty wheel

Cons

Just verges on fussiness on the most shattered sections of road

Passive dampers dent the 4 Series's baby GT billing

BMW M440i Cabriolet in blue cornering rear

Uproar would probably have broken out in a room full of BMW drivers if told, 25 years ago, that one day you'd have to plump for a full-fat M car to get a six-shooting, rear-driven compact coupé.

The M440i is now four-wheel-drive only. And yet it’s no dynamic sell-out. Although four-wheel drive is clearly part of the equation and has added mass to this car, it doesn’t particularly blunt the dynamic appeal, which, as you would expect, remains the defining selling point.

The 19in wheels on our optioned-out test car are, pleasingly, the biggest you can get – so there’s still plenty of rubber around them to iron out potholes and protect them from kerb rash
Felix Page
Deputy editor

The M440i xDrive is just that little bit more level in its body control and keener in its handling responses than an equivalent 3 Series, a car that is, let’s not forget, the best-handling executive model in its particular niche in any case.

Like all fast BMWs, this one majors on precision at first. And, sure enough, it trades on sure-footed stability and traction in circumstances where its predecessors might be shaking their hips more playfully. But it’s composed and compelling, inviting you to engage with the road in a way that few executive cars do. And, unlike other four-wheel-drive executive options, it actually feels rear driven: you can rotate and manipulate the chassis a little with power and interact with the handling on a fundamentally more interesting level than many modern cars allow.

That the 4 Series stops narrowly short of sports-car-level agility, with its steering filtering more than a purer driver’s car would, may disappoint some. But that’s indicative of the broader dynamic brief that this car must serve than any sports car would be expected to meet. Everyday, any-weather usability and effortless high-speed, long-distance touring stability should be any BMW coupé’s meat and drink. As they are here.

That’s largely thanks to this car’s suspension specification – particularly its adaptive dampers, without which other 4 Series feel firmer riding and less comfortable. And yet it can also mix it with a front-engined sports car for grip, handling composure and driver involvement.

Purposefulness, precision and verve bubble out when it’s cornered quickly. A measured initial steering response prevents it from diving into bends, then good inherent balance and plenty of lateral grip keep your appointment with the apex and stop the car from washing too wide even when you feed in power.

As always, BMW offers fully enabled stability control, dynamic mode and full deactivation – and you don’t need to switch it off totally to be given the freedom to move the chassis around on the power.

The suspension works the contact patches evenly, and the drivetrain keeps torque at the rear wheels when you’re accelerating out of bends, only moving it forwards in any quantity when you’re beginning to blend attitude into the car.

Outright vertical body control just begins to come into question over the most testing crests and dips, but composure is quickly restored.

MPG & RUNNING COSTS

Pros

Needn't be ultra-consumptive in daily driving situations

Cons

Abstemious diesel option culled from the order books

BMW offers the entry-level 420i M Sport temptingly just below £45,000. Even our generously endowed M440i xDrive marginally undercuts its older Mercedes-Benz competitor on price, and in light of some favourable forecast residual values, the BMW is competitive on monthly finance.

The 4 Series’s standard equipment tally is marginally more generous than that of the 3 Series, but buyers should expect to spend extra on the optional M Sport Pro package (which is the only way to add those adaptive dampers, among other things), as well as a few other items.

Sacrifice the soundtrack and snappy changes for the frugality of Eco mode and you should net 40mpg at a cruise
Felix Page
Deputy editor

Wireless smartphone charging, premium audio and the head-up display are packaged neatly in the Technology package but you can cherry-pick some of those items individually to save a few pounds.

VERDICT

BMW M440i Cabriolet in blue static front three quarters

Verdict

Model tested:

Rating: 9

BMW 4 Series

Light-touch update doesn’t change the game, but the 4 Series continues to shine in a shrinking field

Good

Six-pot petrol auto powertrain’s responsiveness and drivability are as good as its first-order pace

Four-wheel-drive chassis doesn’t disappoint for handling appeal

Bad

Lacks the understated visual grace of its predecessors. And then some

Cheaper 4 Series need the optional adaptive suspension to ride really comfortably

When the last-generation version came along, rumours were rife of 3 Series owners trading up into four-door 4 Series Gran Coupés in big numbers. Some may have done the same this time. But given the lingering divisiveness of the 4 Series's styling, and how BMW has omitted certain options from its powertrain armoury, that outcome looks less likely in 2024 than it was in 2013.

Whatever the motivating factors explaining the styling of this car, it would be a major injustice not to bear witness to its many and various objective qualities. The M440i is a car you could use every day of the year and enjoy on absolutely every journey. It is at once fast and engaging; stable and composed; long-legged and refined; and a rich and luxurious thing in which to travel.

A rounded, engaging and potent coupé whose appeal might only be dented by its looks
Matt Saunders
Road test editor

But for the slick, engaging manner in which it drives, we don’t see why you shouldn't consider the 420i. It makes for a comfortable grand tourer of sorts that can entertain on a good road when you want it to, gets the simple things like driving position, interior design and ergonomics in a general sense right, and is relaxing to casually tool about in.

TECHNICAL SPECS

Model tested:

BMW M440i xDrive Convertible

Price:

£67,400

Price as tested:

£77,165

Engine:

6 cyls in line, 2998cc, turbocharged, petrol

Transmission:

8-speed automatic

Driveline layout:

Front engine, all-wheel drive

Model tested

BMW M440i xDrive Convertible

Price

£67,400

Price as tested

£77,165

View all specs and rivals

Engine

6 cyls in line, 2998cc, turbocharged, petrol

Transmission

8-speed automatic

Driveline layout

Front engine, all-wheel drive

Power

369bhp at 5500-6500rpm

Torque

369lb ft at 1900-5000rpm

0-62mph

4.5sec

Top speed

155mph

Kerb weight (DIN)

1965kg

Fuel economy

36.2-36.7mpg

CO2

176g/km

BIK tax band

37%

Rivals Ford Mustang Mercedes-Benz CLE 450

Power

369bhp at 5500-6500rpm

Torque

369lb ft at 1900-5000rpm

0-62mph

4.5sec

Top speed

155mph

Kerb weight (DIN)

1965kg

Fuel economy

36.2-36.7mpg

CO2

176g/km

BIK tax band

37%

Rivals Ford Mustang Mercedes-Benz CLE 450

Felix Page

Title: Deputy editor

Felix is Autocar's deputy editor, responsible for leading the brand's agenda-shaping coverage across all facets of the global automotive industry - both in print and online.

He has interviewed the most powerful and widely respected people in motoring, covered the reveals and launches of today's most important cars, and broken some of the biggest automotive stories of the last few years.

Richard Lane

Title: Deputy road test editor

Richard joined Autocar in 2017 and like all road testers is typically found either behind a keyboard or steering wheel (or, these days, a yoke).

As deputy road test editor he delivers in-depth road tests and performance benchmarking, plus feature-length comparison stories between rival cars. He can also be found presenting on Autocar's YouTube channel.

Mostly interested in how cars feel on the road – the sensations and emotions they can evoke – Richard drives around 150 newly launched makes and models every year. His job is then to put the reader firmly in the driver's seat.