All three coupes cut
a striking silhouette.
Lexus and Inifiniti
use gaping grilles and
sharp lines, while the
BMW remains elegantAME TASTE, different bottle,”
read the tomato sauce label.
Have we reached peak
tomato sauce, where the
only improvements that can
be made are to the bottle it
comes in? Maybe.
Japanese upstarts Lexus
and Infiniti reckon it’s the
same when it comes to cars.
Both think that a cheaper
thing down the aisle can be
just as good, if not better.
With eyes now fixed on the
six-cylinder luxury coupe,
they’ve lopped two doors off their mid-size sedans and
promised Tonkatsu tastes just as fine as Germany’s best
pork schnitzel.
Going into bat for the status-quo is the BMW 440i.
As our benchmark, it also needs to redeem a recent
thumping the 340i took from its home continent rivals.
Fresh from a mid-cycle update, retuned adaptive
suspension in this car’s M Sport Pack teams with the
brawny B58 inline-six, which upgrades the old N-series
unit with more boost and a sturdier block.
But it seems beauty lies in the hands of the cheque
holder. Even though the 440i seats fewer people, has
fewer doors, and the same 240kW/450Nm as the 3 Series,
it asks $10K more. Sure, $99,990 is line-ball with the
Gran Coupe, but the regular 440i’s undisturbed lines and
sleeker silhouette look sexier – especially in new Snapper
Rocks Blue.
It’s the same at Infiniti, who
gouge you $9K for the two-
door equivalent of the Q50 Red
Sport. The seductive coupe
from Nissan’s Hong-Kong based
luxury arm came wrapped in a
fresh exterior last year, but don’t
be fooled into thinking the Q60
is an ‘all-new’ car. It’s grown in
length, width and the tracks are
102 january 2018 motormag.com.au