BMW Gran Coupe Leaked Images - NOT

4-door coupes are in vogue now. It's difficult to pinpoint exactly when in history did the trend started, an early generation 70s Jaguar XJ, with its iconic sloping low roof certainly qualifies on many accounts. The early 2000s saw Mazda reviving the concept with the RX-8 featuring "suicide-style opening" rear doors. But the trend only finally caught on when Mercedes-Benz launched its CLS, followed by Volkswagen Passat CC and Audi A5 and A7 Sportback (it may looked like a fastback, but Audi defines it as a coupe with the functionality of an Avant), all of which combined to give the concept of 4-door coupes the necessary "critical mass" to catch on with the public.

BMW, being the pioneer of various oddball cross-segment body styles (i.e. the coupe-SUV X6, the fastback-estate 5-series Gran Turismo) was surprisingly late to the party. The company however is not sitting idle. At last year's Auto Beijing 2010, BMW unveiled the Gran Coupe Concept as a preview to its upcoming 4-door coupe. Again, China is the place to be for scoop news and spyshots. Chinese website auto.sohu.com first broke news of leaked patent registration images for the production Gran Coupe.

If you think the car looks exactly like a 6-series then you are absolutely spot on. Some netizens have hinted insider news that this patent registration document is an old copy, and was submitted even before the Gran Coupe Concept was signed off. So this image is not reflective of the actual production version of the Gran Coupe Concept. The actual car will feature greater differentiation from its 6-series Coupe and Cabriolet siblings. BMW have a history of showing concept cars that are merely concept in name, and many of its cars went into production looking almost exactly like their original concept. Aside from those huge wheels wrapped by ultra thin tires, the Gran Coupe Concept looks neither too out of this world nor has many quirky non-production standard details. So we think it is a perfectly logical claim. There is no need to speculate on how will the actual Gran Coupe looks like. You have already seen most of the actual car. For goodness sake this "concept" car came with windshield wipers!

In any case, the production Gran Coupe is expected to debut by early 2012.

The only luxury brand still missing from the 4-door coupe segment is Lexus. The irony is that back in the late 80s, the first sketch for the SC400 coupe featured 4-doors, the rear doors open suicide style. But the idea was shot down on cost reasons, as well as Toyota's insistence that there is no such thing as a 4-door coupe. This was revealed by Erwin Lui, designer for the SC400 at Toyota's California based Calty Design Research Inc, in the book "Lexus The Relentless Pursuit". The first sketch for the first generation Lexus LS400, penned by Kunihiro Uchida, also featured coupe like proportions. Market research indicated that American buyers found Jaguar's styling to be the most attractive and that was what Uchida wanted to deliver, a coupe like profile of a Jaguar XJ. But the initial sketches were immediately shot down by old men back at Toyota's headquarters in Japan. Originally, Lexus was meant to be an US-market model but internal politics would have Toyota's domestic sales division muscling in and wanting a share of the growing prestige of the Lexus project. Hence the final design was toned down dramatically to meet needs of the more conservative Japanese corporate customers. Fast forward 20 years later, let's see how long is Lexus going to sit out on this one.

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