The Gran Coupé was worth waiting for

I HAVE often heard it said that a motorcar is the second biggest purchase in most people’s lifetime, after a house.

With house prices continuing to fall I think you could now buy a small house cheaper than a car, well the car I was testing last week anyway. Yes, prices for the BMW 640D Gran Coupé start at a whopping

?¬97, 960.

A picture tells a thousand words and no matter how I try to justify the price, you will probably make up your own mind from the photograph of the car on this page. I drove a black model and it looked elegant, sleek and really long. It’s 113 millimetres longer than two-door version of the 6-series, and is so long that it resembled a limousine.

BMW has taken a long time to deliver on its four-door coupe, but it was worth waiting for. This is the first car BMW has ever built entirely through computer design, without producing any prototype. I think the computer staff deserve a bonus.

So what do you get for all that money? Well the car looks great and you will be the envy of your neighbours and workmates. Then you have all that power under the bonnet and comfort when travelling. The 3.3 litre eight gear Gran Coupé can get from zero to 100km/h in just over five seconds. After that it’s just plain cruising and with advanced chassis technology the Coupé just seems to glide along. If you get an opportunity to go to a track like Mondello Park you can check to see if it gets up to a speed of 260 km/h, that’s the maximum shown on the dial.

At the front you have the now familiar

‘double kidney’ effect on the grille and the Xenon headlamps are gorgeous. Overall the car has a beautiful design to it and the fact that I drove a black version did, I think, add to the elegant look.

When you sit in first thing you notice is that the frameless front windows slide down when you open the door and then close up again immediately. The interior is bright thanks to the sun roof and you get tan-coloured leather seats. A few weeks back I drove a three-series BMW where the interior was almost entirely cream. These seats would not be as difficult to keep clean. The driver and front passengers should have no difficulty finding a comfortable seating position. In the back there is room for three people, but a huge console which runs between the two front seats means that there is only leg room for two people in the rear. However, the long console is necessary as it houses the drivetrain components.

The boot is massive and the rear seats can be folded down if you want even more luggage space. The Gran Coupé is available in two petrol and one diesel engine. The diesel version with leather seats, which I drove starts at

?¬104,300. If you have plenty of cash to spend there are a host of extras which will cost you another

?¬15,000. Co2 emissions are 149 which equates to

?¬330 road tax.

So there you have it, you decide, do you want the small house or the big car for around

?¬100,000.