It seems as if BMW has been doing a lot of testing for the upcoming 4 Series as of late. Spy photos just keep surfacing, giving us little hints and glimpses at the brand’s next two-door. In these latest photos, we see the drop-top version doing some camouflaged testing and it’s looking better each time we see it. (We don’t own the spy photos but they can be seen here)
While this 4 Series test mule is still pretty heavily covered in camouflage, it’s more exposed than we’ve ever seen before. So we can see its new headlights very clearly and we can even see some of its front end through the camo. For instance, we can sort of see the lower half of what we think is the Kidney Grille under the license plate. While we can’t see if the grille continues all the way through to the lower part of the fascia, making it one giant grille, we think that’s likely.
Its headlights also look good and are different from those of the 3 Series, which makes it less of a two-door 3er and more of its own car. Its styling is also more reminiscent of the 8 Series than the 3 Series, from what we can tell. Which sort of furthers our belief that the next-gen 4 Series will be more of a smaller GT car than a proper sports car.
The car we’re looking at in these photos is either a BMW M440i or M440d Convertible, judging by its exhausts and its side mirrors. The former are rectangular jobs that are typically seen on six-cylinder models and the latter are finished in Cerium Grey, which BMW uses to signify M Performance models. So this car is likely one of the two aforementioned cars. However, we’re not positive if there’s going to be a M440d model, so our guess is that this 4 Series is an M440i. That means it will have a 3.0 liter turbocharged B58 engine.
What we’re very interested to see is how the Convertible feels. The last 4 Series Convertible had a power folding hard top, which was a bit more premium but it looked worse and added weight. The new soft top looks better and helps keep weight down. It likely won’t be as quiet on the inside but that’s probably worth the trade off. More importantly is to find out how rigid it is. The last gen 4 Series Convertible felt floppy and let tons of shake and rattle into the cockpit. So we’re hoping this one is a big improvement.
From what we do know, though, this new 4 Series will look better than the car it replaces, has excellent proportions and will likely have a very large grille. Will the latter hinder the rest of the car’s looks? That’s yet to be seen but, due to the rest of its looks, we’re optimistic that it will be a good looking car overall.
[Source: Motor1]
