BMW's neverending quest to create and fill all possible permutations of luxury vehicles now extends to this: the 6 Series Gran Coupe, a four-door sedan with a coupe roofline for drivers who find odd-numbered BMW too stuffy.
Arriving next year, the 2013 BMW 640i will sport the corporate twin-turbo inline six cylinder tweaked to 315 hp, enough to launch the 640 to 60 mph in just over 5 seconds. Later in summer comes the 650i and all-wheel-drive variants, with the 650i sheltering a 445-hp twin-turbo V8, shaving that 0-to-60 time well below 5 seconds. Both pair with BMW's eight-speed automatic transmission and a suspension with five different modes from "comfort +" to "eco pro," which will boost efficiency by up to 20% mainly by making the car seem slower.
Even without the eco mode, BMW says the six-cylinder version can hit 30 mpg in the highway version of European tests, with American numbers to come. And the interior sports the fighter-jet level of tech now essential in German luxury sedans, from color heads-up displays to night vision.
But the real debate among BMW purists may lay in the styling, and here at least on first glance BMW has finally shed the last ungainly lines lingering from the Chris Bangle era. Where previous BMWs exteriors looked like paper after a beginning class in origami, the creases and curves on the 6 Series look far more harmonious -- even if it's not really a coupe.
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