As much as BMW ‘s design language is lead by the 6 and 7 Series, it ‘s typically the 3 Series that is the best resolved aesthetically. The 4 Series concept bears that true with a particularly well articulated version of BMW ‘s recent form language. Then there ‘s the mantra that every 3 Series Coupe has followed; lower, wider and sleeker. The 4 Series takes this even further with 5 cm more length, 1.6 cm less height and 4.4 cm more width. It ‘s almost enough to move it out of the sports sedan category and into the GT class. The styling supports that as surely the pricing will.

Will it be enough to justify a price increase? And how much will it be? All questions that will be answered early next year when the product car debuts (potentially at Geneva). But we can certainly make some assumptions on engines. We expect BMW to introduce it ‘s new turbo inline six with the 435i model (perhaps even changed to 440i). With more power, torque and greater efficiency the new engine will eventually filter into the rest of the BMW range. Additionally it ‘s a good bet to expect the 428i with the widely used N20 2.0L four cylinder.

We can also expect all cars to be come with optional xDrive and BMW ‘s excellent 8 speed ZF automatic transmission. But purists need not worry. As you can see in the gallery below BMW will be offering the new 4 Series with the traditional manual transmission.

We ‘ll be hands on with the concept in Detroit this January as well as see the final production car this spring. We expect both models to be in showrooms during the latter half of 2013.

While there ‘s much we don ‘t know about this new 4 Series, there ‘s already a lot to like.

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