2016 BMW 640d Gran Coupe - The modern BMW Shark

Maybe give the dash a wipe first next time and wipe the splatter marks of the steering wheel 🤮

It is frameless not pillarless. If it was pillarless the roof would fall down!

Jesus.... why didn't you give it a calet before a review

I have one of these, best car I've ever owned, by far. UK to Italy and back was like a trip to the local shops. Fantastic drive, incredibly comfortable, quick/fast and STILL returning 46mpg on average although only 10 mpg at 150+ on the autobahn. Its going to be very hard to top this.

You could of at least cleaned it inside before you reviewed it, its filthy, talk about unprofessional and lazy reviewing!

If you really want to sell this car it might be a good idea to clean the interior before you do the advertisement! Covered in dust!!

Uch. Could have given it a wipe over inside….that steering wheel covered in specs of god knows what. “Piano black picks up dust”….just clean the thing.

Just got one of these in estoril blue

I bought used 640d gc last summer. Previous owner had put a M6 bodykit on it (original M-sport tho) with quad pipes and diffussors etc. and it looks truly menacing and beautiful. Also it has adjustable HR springs so it’s slightly lowered. Being x-drive it is really great during winter and I have an app where I can switch it to rwd whenever I want. Stage 2 (400bhp and 800nm) + stage 3 xhp transmission software. Really nice allrounder daily 😂 Really stands out from the crowd! My dream car :)

Germanic build quality at its peak. So solid!

The car is dirty inside ! You should clean interior before review.

Awesome looking BM

The car looks filthy from inside! Leathers are very dirty and greasy, the dashboard is full of dust! How can you treat the car like S**T!

Maybe give the interior a dust before it goes up for sale lol

Problem with this and most other Merc & BMW sedans, they are made to be driven by a dwarf, gnome or pygmy not a tall Nordic human, and should you wish to convey anyone other than a child in the rear, there is no space. Yet my 1967 mk10/420G Jaguar height at roof is ACTUALLY LOWER than this 6 series BMW, or the Merc' CLS , however at almost 6 foot 4 inches, I can sit in my vintage Jaguars throne like seats which have NO up/down vertical movement and there is space between the roof lining and my head. Not only that, but with the front seats pushed back to sit two 6 foot 4 inch tall front occupants there is enough legroom in the rear seat to sit THREE 6 foot 4 inch tall persons with PLENTY of STRETCH out legroom and plenty of head room as back seat passengers, not just two "little" people Plus my Jag has rear ducted air conditioning & heating outlets & two opening tables in the back of the front seats.

Yet all 3 cars are almost the same size, the Jaguar is 202 inches long, the 6 series BMW 197 inches long and the Merc CLS 196 inches long. However, the 2 German cars have long bonnets that eat space, and boot lids that are as long as the Jaguar's but lower, giving less cabin space and less boot space from similar sized cars. In the Jaguars huge boot is a full-sized spare wheel sitting vertically for easy use, plus remains another 32 cubic feet of gigantic & useable boot space, more than the BMW & Merc added together.

AND as an FYI for all those that have never liked nor understood the mk10/420G, as Jaguars premium product to be the base for all the following XJ series of cars, Bill Lyons handed it to his inhouse body genius, aerodynamicist Malcolm Sayer. I met Malcolm as a boy, as he and Norman Dewis, walked me around the Jaguar factory explaining their proud new achievement in 1961, when my mum's new MK10 was being prepared and temporarily registered for a month or so in the UK & Europe before being loaded into a boat & shipped back to home to Mosman in Sydney, Australia. I truly understood what they were telling me as my dad had been an Air Force officer, and had a Cesena of his own to fly, and my mum's dad, Pa was an industrial engineer and my closest buddy, my teacher.

Sayer's giant bulbous mk10 was the first motor car EVER deigned to use aeronautic LAMINAR Flow in/on a car hence its unusual fuselage shape, ie tapered dramatically front and rear , very small frontal aspect with its extremely raked forward upper frontal aspect leading to its "hilly" bonnet rising to a shallow and very curved windscreen and similar at rear, plus a "fatpoint" in the middle on the roof and in the middle at the sides, almost like a giant stretched egg shape, coupled with a flat chassis/monocoque underside giving this big 4door car a very very low CD wind drag factor unbeaten until recently by some electric vehicles, giving it enormous stability at speed & terrible crosswinds. Superior aerodynamic theory put into subtle practical effect and use in late 1961. Drive one in blinding rain, then look at it closely after arriving at your destination and look carefully at the paint and try and find much tyre wash & filth, the shape of the car has basically sucked it off the car, leaving it very clean indeed and at speed windscreen wipers are almost not needed, clever scientific understated design from Jaguar in 1961, pure class, a better car than most anyone actually realizes and in so many hidden unknown ways. Back from a time just after WW2 when Britton's had every right to be proud with the creation for example:- the Avro Vulcan, or its "brother" the Hawker Harrier Jump Jet.

Move ahead a little to the early 2000's & Jaguars release of their remarkable new all aluminium bodied X350 XJ car range, designed with care & flair, also to be practical in accident repair costs to front & rear panels. Now look back to the 2003 German opposition products, consider their new price as compared to a Jaguar X350 XJ series price. Now in 2023 look at the residual value, check price on a low mileage Merc CL500, compared to a slightly rough XJ and near most XJ's are selling at a higher price, than the CL500 clearly the market is deciding the price on what is REALLY the superior product, and it doesn't matter what country you are in either. Interestingly this 40-year newer Jaguar's height is the same as the Merc CLS or 6 series BMW however as a tall person there isn't an issue in the cabin size of XJ x350 I can fit like a hand in a glove not so in the small, cramped interiors of the German cars.

Nah, fastback (or a liftback, if it is a 2 box instead of a 3 box configuration). Coupe can only be a 2/3 door car.

The doors have frameless glass. The 6 series gran coupe still has pillars. Usually pillarless refers to coupes which do not have a B-pillar (ref: 2nd generation Mercedes CLK)

There's this rather dodgy looking geezer in this month's Practical Classics magazine... 😉

Very tasteful design unlike today's Bimmers.

Always found the 2 door coupe a lot more attractive myself

One of the best modern BMWs , but no match for the original 635CSI .

So the manual was only offered in the country that famously doesn’t like manuals, BMW we’re not planning on selling any manuals really were they.

Great review Matt! Beautiful car, ultimate GT with a big diesel engine. Love it.

Not sure why you would bother with the four door. I had a ride in the back of one of these a few years ago. It was a pain, quite literally, to get in and out of and very claustrophobic when you were in it. Save some money and get a 5 series. Why pay more and get less? Sorry, I don't get it.

I don't understand, let's make a test drive video of a nice car and the car is in shocking condition inside and out! You Brits don't understand anything about cars...

It is strange how cars can be really rather good in objective terms, yet somehow you just don't get them. In this case, there is still too much Bangle-ness, with its visual weight and the nose (which is still 5000% better than the current designs) is a bit lardy. A real hooter. The total killer for me though is the name. Gran. I know what they mean, but It makes me think of lovely elderly ladies discussing ailments. I loved my grans dearly, but one thing they don't make me think of is sporty cars. That sort of thing gets hardwired in to your brain! It also doesn't go with coupé, which is fine because it clearly isn't a coupé but a squished saloon. On balance, I think I'd rather be in the MX-5 just in front of you :)

BMW nice cars until they break down

I bet that cost an arm and a leg when new. Will be greatly depreciated now 7 years old and would be a good buy……probably.

Glass is always like that on back doors so the window can go down due the angle around wheel arch

Never liked the regular 6 series but 4 door make me love it

Very luxurious, very powerful, very complex, very expensive (I imagine), very much "lots to go wrong". If I am dreaming of luxury I always favour Jaguars. Of course, I am English and so probably daft.

looks like someone sneezed over the steering wheel and controls, nice to see a big indicator control very useful on a bmw not as there going to use it ,we all have to guess where there going next as they haven,t worked out how to use any of the controls or the sat nav if they could afford to have something so trivial to be fitted or hands free phone just a faff ,just cut people up much easier and cheaper

Excellent review as always Matt. A pretty looking car.

Everything that is wrong with a modern vehicle, digital instruments, a touch screen and controls on the steering wheel including flappy paddles. Not ideal for IT illiterates who like me struggle with a mobile phone. A string of numbers for model designations, whatever happened to good old names, then again BMW have rarely ever done that.

Always thought these were a incredibly handsome car .
Love the interior too .

Yipee I'm 2,758th today

Have you ever driven a CLS?

Why would anyone who can afford this car be bothered about fuel economy??

Owned one for 3 years! It was perfect for my long commute and trips across Europe. It was headturner for sure. I now have a Golf R Mk8 for my new job which has a much shorter commute but still miss my 6 series.

That engine sounds like power! Love the IL6. Great review, Matt.

A nice looking and driving car from another German firm trying to capitalize on a reputation and expand to all sorts of price points, but at least not to extent of Mercedes-Benz. Even though this is not your personal vehicle, did you feel compelled to dispense with use of directional signals and general road courtesy whilst taking this out?

I would find a less dusty one, it’s telling me that the last or current owners are failing to take care of it.

Watched the carwow review of the Lucid air before this and I would still have the beemer over that.

Not quite as ugly as the previous 15 years' offerings, but still not as elegant as the E38.

Hi Matt, it isn't "pillarless" , but it is a nice car!

Holy moly, what a car! "What a blast of the parp" made me smile a lot! Great review Matt.

Interesting... I was considering one of these come the fateful day I have to replace my E60, being struck by their looks - but watching this review I've decided I don't want one.

Who was talking while you were giving commentary? Didn’t they know you were filming?

This car is filthy