I'm Driving A BMW 8-Series Gran Coupe For Six Months: What Do You Want To Know?

The CT long-term test garage has had something of a reshuffle. The Renault Sport Megane has departed, as had (sobs) ‘our’ Mercedes-AMG C43. Our sorrow has been fleeting, however, as the Merc has been replaced with this handsome steed: the BMW 840d Gran Coupe.

It is, if anything, even prettier than the 8-series coupe, and also longer - to make room for the extra doors, the wheelbase is just over 200mm longer.

The base price is £72,155, but as you know, no one is going to buy one of these without optioning some stuff. Well, a lot of stuff, actually. Our Black Saphire 840d is specced to £81,370, with the priciest options being the £2900 ‘Technology package’, £2100 for the ‘Premium package’ - which includes soft-close doors and seat ventilation - and a panoramic sunroof weighing in at £1850.

Under the nicely sculpted bonnet is a 3.0-litre inline-six twin-turbo diesel, providing 316bhp and 502lb ft of torque to all four wheels. 0-62mph happens in 5.1 seconds.

But should you get the diesel, or the much more expensive, considerably more powerful V8? Happily, we’ll be able to find that out, as in May, we’ll be switching the 840d for an M850i GC.

We’ll be putting plenty of miles on both (yep, that’s going to sting the wallet once we’re in the V8), arranging twin tests, and also seeing how the M850i compares to the new M8 GC.

Is there anything you’d like to see us do with these 8-series GCs, or anything you’d like to know? Head to the comments.