Brawny BMW X5 muscle meets luxury 8 Series Gran Coupe touring

I used to start so many of my driving impressions with something along the lines of SUV this and SUV that as this is one of the few segments that are showing any growth.

Then along came a thing called Covid-19 and the entire world is undergoing a reset. Life as we know it will never be the same again and the financial and social carnage is only being matched by the loss of life. There isn’t a part of life that Covid-19 has not impacted on. And this road test-come-driving-impression is one of those things.

A handful of motor manufacturers have reduced the number of days we get with their cars and this doesn’t give you a big window in which to drive the car, never mind trying to get it out to Gerotek for proper testing. And this is exactly what happened here.

I managed to get BMW’s X5 M50i to Gerotek, but the stars of the universe did not line up and the 840i Gran Coupe was used for trundling around the suburbs only. But anyway, here goes. At the beginning of the year BMW introduced the M50i derivative of their X5 range locally and this petrol driven monster joined its diesel sibling, the M50d.

This 4.4-litre V8 turbocharged engine features several upgrades from crankcase, cylinder barrels, pistons, crankshaft and cylinder head, to bigger turbos. This translates into 390 kW of power between 5 500 and 6 000 rpm and a proper 750 Nm of torque on tap from just 1 800 rpm, and all the way to 4 600 rpm. And this means no matter what the situation, there is a huge amount of shove available. Just stomp on the accelerator and life begins to pass you by in a hurry.

Getting to 100 km/h in 4.9 sec, a quarter mile in 13.14 sec and 232 km/h at 1 000 m does come at the cost of fuel. I don’t think though that if you can afford an SUV that starts at a price of R1 666 900, getting around 17 litres per 100 km is truly going to bother you. It is here that the same priced, but slightly slower M50d makes a whole lot more sense.

Taking my foot off the accelerator so to speak, it’s now time for BMW’s new four-door sports car, the 840i Gran Coupe to take centre stage. And boy does it take the stage, the entire stage, this is a proper large luxury car. This Gran Coupe has a 3023 mm wheelbase, which is some 201 mm longer than the coupe, while it comes in at a full 5 082 mm in length, which is 231 mm longer, 30 mm wider and 61 mm higher than its already substantial sibling.

This increase in extra aluminium and carbon fibre-reinforced plastic translates into extra interior space for driver, passenger and more importantly maybe with a car like this, unprecedented legroom, greater shoulder room and headroom than in the two-door version. For me, the revelation was just how good the 3.0-litre straight six turbocharged engine worked in this car.

Normally we drive the M Performance or outright BMW M models, but the smooth 250 kW of power and 500 Nm of torque on this “entry level” model made for such easy, fuss free motoring. And yes, just as I said earlier, I doubt fuel consumption will bother a person paying R1 535 500 for a car in this case, but with more than enough go for every day driving you will be using less than 10 litres per 100 km.

I didn’t do any performance testing, but the rear-wheel driven Gran Coupe is said to get to 100 km/h in just 5.2 sec when making use of the launch control function of the eight-speed sports Steptronic transmission, while stopping at an electronically limited 250 km/h.

You also get a full suite of cutting-edge driver assistance systems with the likes of Head-Up display, the Driving Assistant, Collision and Pedestrian Warning with City Braking function, Lane Departure Warning and Lane Change Warning, Speed Limit Info, rear crossing traffic warning and rear collision warning, all as standard fitment.
BMW Live Cockpit Professional which comprises a navigation and multimedia system, plus a fully digital, high-resolution instrument cluster behind the steering wheel with a screen diagonal of 12.3-inches and a Control Display measuring 10.25-inches across is also included in the price.

BMW’s Intelligent Personal Assistant, which is your digital companion in the car can be activated with the spoken prompt “Hey BMW” and this allows you to easily use most of the vehicle’s functions.

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