be covering over 800 miles in the BMW 4 Series to get under the skin of this new breed of

BMW and find out what it's like to live with every day. Starting here just outside of inverness

in Scotland the route will be taking a scenic military road for a good dynamic test then

down to edinburgh to examine the GT credentials and the practicality. Finally we'll be heading

to take in some sights in York and Liverpool before the last, long leg down to London.

Wish me luck. Now that I've got comfortable let me tell you a bit more about the car that

we've got to drive. It's a 4 series 420d SE so it's the entry-level and entry-spec diesel

model. This is the heart and soul of the range and this is the car that people are actually

going to buy and we do have the spec sheet here and BMW have been a little big generous

with the options so we've got some extra kit like 18-inch alloy wheels, adaptive suspension

which all adds up to a total of about 38,840 pounds which is reasonably expensive. I've

reset the trip computer and as this is the most efficient model in the range as well

supposedly averaging a combined 60mpg it should mean we only have to fill up once on the way

back from town despite going through all the stops I just mentioned. So now that we've

started to drive a bit faster what can we say about the dynamics of the 4 Series. Well

so far I've got to say I'm very impressed indeed. Steering is light but really accurate

got loads of weight throughout the rim lovely precise slightly springy six-speed manual

gearbox slots into place whenever you want it to. More than anything at the moment I'm

enjoying the road that we're on. Even though it's a lot wider ,a fair bit longer and a

longer wheelbase than a three series you don't really feel the extra size on the road and

that's good because these particular roads are extremely narrow. As you can see we've

now arrived in Edinburgh we're under the shadow of the castle here on spittle street and told

you we were going to have a small test of the 4 Series' practicality - wellI might have

lied a little bit. We've got a few weekend bags here and we're going to see just how

much of this stuff we can fit in this two door car. Now remember as I told you the boot

is only 445 litres lets see if we can get it all in, in one take. As you can see with

a careful bit of rearranging and placement we were able to fit every single item comfortably

with room to spare. And in fact the only thing we had to leave behind was the humble house

plant - not bad for a compact and sporty 2+2 coupe I think you'll agree. At 10pm we drove

out of the underground carpark in Edinburgh to start the 226mile leg to Liverpool. After

a full day of driving this would be a true test of how powerful the 4 Series is. But

first we thought this might be a good time to fill the tank as the trip computer said

we'd be running on reserves my the time we reached our final destination for the first

nights stop. Having arrive safely but a bit blurry eyed the night before and taken a quick

lie-in we decided to take this new style of BMW down to the iconic Albert dock. After

drawing a few admiring glances and giving the car a thorough once over it was time to

head out of the city on the second leg to York and to examine this 4-Series' style credentials.

So we're here on the motorway cruising the M62 and things are going pretty nicely the

cruise control is set as I said to you yesterday and this morning it's really comfortable to

drive long distances. The only fly in the ointment is that at higher speeds and cruise

you do get a bit of road noise and wind noise particularly on rougher roads as you can probably

here right now. So as you can probably tell it's pretty late, we've arrived here in York and

made a few stops along the way and in the middle of the country side in the pitch-black

and if you don't mind I'm going to go and get some sleep I'll catch up with you guys

in the morning. So having impressed in every other department, the BMW's final test on

the road after a short and fairly entertaining drive we parked up to see if the 4 Series

is elegant enough to blend into the beautiful surroundings. The optional 18-inch wheels

and unique body really do make it look bulkier and leaner than the old 3 Series Coupe and

justify the new name plate. Helpfully to prove our point we followed one towards the castle.

Fastforward another 200miles down the road as the sun went down we had a chance to reflect

on this epic road test and give our final verdict on the rebranded BMW coupe. We've

put it through a seriously. We've put it through a seriously rigorous test but ultimately the

verdict is that if you want the best coupe in the executive class, you're looking at

it. It might have a few faults and we might not quite be convinced that it needed to be

called the 4 Series rather than a 3 Series Coupe, but other than that it's going to take

an incredible new car to knock this off the top spot in the class.