Potential BMW 4-Series GT owners are urged to seek out a Stinger
Wishing that it were untrue, Iain Robertson believes that dealing in upmarket Mondeo territory (not on price, naturally) is hammering the final identity nails into the sometime respectably styled Bavarian coffin that BMW has wittingly created for itself.
Success, if left untended, can become the undoing of a brand. Reflect, if you will, on the 1962 appearance of the first Ford Cortina. Complete with ‘Ban the Bomb’ taillights, vestigial rear wings and a style freshness that hiked it considerably above its Farina-designed Morris Oxford, Austin Cambridge and Wolseley 16/60 competitors, Cortina was a pre-hippy gamechanger. It is unsurprising that its sales sky-rocketed, adding to the much-needed production strength of the firm’s Thames-side, Dagenham plant.
Through five generations, the Cortina commandeered the Number One spot in UK new car registrations. The vast majority were satisfying the burgeoning demands of the company car sector, although it was private registrations that gave Cortina its initial boost. The model forged a new direction for the medium sector, with its Standard, Deluxe, Super and GT trim levels, available in (initially) two-door and four-door saloons, with a spacious estate car body style. Ford could seemingly do no wrong. There was even a playful and purposeful Lotus-engined variant, raced to great public clamour by the F1 drivers of the era.
By the time Mondeo replaced it, Ford was already favouring European manufacturing. Slowly but surely, the English plant was being run down, turning ultimately into a much-reduced PSA-Ford engine manufacturing centre, when the company determined that Fiestas could be made in Spain, Escorts in Belgium and Mondeos in Germany. A series of arrogant and unthinking management decisions had cost a vital slice of UK repeat business that Ford would simply never get back. Just look at the mess in which Ford finds itself presently, importing ugly errors from Mexico and expensive profit-generators (e-Mustang) from China.
Under the guidance of the uber-wealthy Quandt family, just as Cortina was making its debut, BMW was enjoying a rocky rise through the ranks of the quality-built and class-conscious segment, having almost disappeared during the late-1950s, resigned to building Isetta bubble-cars. Recognisable because of its ‘double-kidney’ radiator grille and black, white and blue ‘propellor’ roundel, BMW was the Kia of its era. It could do no wrong. By the time that Mondeo was faltering, the ubiquitous 3-Series was outselling it, replacing it through the seldom changing but unquenchable corporate sector demand.
Yet, ever since Swiss-born American Chris Bangle arrived at BMW as its styling chief, the company started to walk on eggshells of its own creation. I am not blaming him for what is happening at BMW at present but the radical ‘flame surfaced’ look that, personally, I liked (once I got used to it!) became a turning-point for the increasingly popular (and costlier) Teutonic giant. He resigned under a cloud, replaced by a series of lapdogs and their laptops that have been unable to whisk the brand back to its pre-Bangle successes.
Not alone in my condemnation of BMW’s current styling language, I put it out there that those persons investing in the latest 4-Series GT, which, if you follow BMW’s niche-serving mantra, is a coupe-ised version of the 3-Series, ought to reflect very carefully on where their (or their businesses’) funds are being spent in automotive terms. While Battleship Grey is hardly the most inspirational of colourways for any car, I posit that the Kia Stinger looks better in that shade than any BMW but that the all-new 4-Series GT now apes in profile the South Korean product more succinctly than it has ever done. My advice to potential 4GT acquirers is ‘Stop! Get a Stinger and save a tonne of cash (even if ‘ackers’ is not the criterion)!’.
Face it, the only reason that the Stinger has been such a poor sales performer in the UK new car scene lies in its stinker of a name. No upwardly-mobile city buck, in a post-911 era, is going to do the lounge bar boast with a Kia key fob and explaining ‘that’ model name is more than his six-figure salary’s worth. Yet, that attitude only underscores the tomfoolery attached to brand snobbery. While hybridisation and electrification are still fairly novel to Kia, by the time 2030 arrives, South Korea will have caught up…mind you, it is likely to be matching BMW’s pricing schedule some time beforehand.
The Stinger (why could Kia not have renamed it?) presents beautifully, from its fluent exterior lines to the elegant leather-wrapped interior that was inspired clearly by the German motor industry, helped assuredly by its Frankfurt-based R&D centre. It is beautifully built and drives with as much precision as the electronically assisted 4-Series GT. However, its svelte good looks, despite their close similarity to the 4GT (in profile, at least), have clearly not hit the zeitgeist. BMW has forgotten, or elected to ignore, the value of that zeitgeist.
Ford ought to feel some degree of pride in the present shape of the 4GT, which offers as much interior space as the outgoing Mondeo and a practical boot, with flop-forwards rear seats. Its pricing follows typical BMW practice, starting from a moderate £40,465 in 420i low-power (184bhp) form (the Kia is punchier and costs less). The 430i (245bhp) and six-cylinder £54,670 440i (374bhp) complete the petrol aspect, with both rear and X-Drive 4×4 versions of the much-revered 2.0d still available for fuel-sipping fans. All of them drive through the 8-speed Steptronic automatic transmission; there is no manual option.
Okay. We all know why BMWs cost more, a factor that lies within its R&D department, because sophisticated suspension, advanced braking and driver orientated steering systems all cost more to develop and maintain. However, Kia delivers a not dissimilar proposition, away from its hateful product name and largely valueless brand image. BMW operators need to wake up and smell the coffee. BMW needs to do the same, quick-sharp. Style is an important motivation and, when BMW’s is being frittered away, alternatives that do not warrant the ‘rival’ handle can creep up and take over. Fair warning is given.
