BMW 8 Series Review 2024

Written by Andrew Brady

8/10
heycar ratingSporty luxury coupe from BMW
  • 2018
  • Luxury
  • Petrol, Diesel

Quick overview

Pros

  • Comparatively, quite good value for money
  • Engines give stonking performance and refinement
  • Infotainment system is the best in the business

Cons

  • Steering could offer more feedback
  • Cramped rear seats might as well not be there
  • Arguably not as glamorous as some rivals

Overall verdict on the BMW 8 Series

"The BMW 8 Series is handsome to look at and pleasant to sit in, and it delivers an appealing blend of sporty handling and long-distance comfort. The engines are great, too, with everything from refined to raucous to give the car broad appeal."

BMW 8 Series Review: Exterior Front

The word ‘flagship’ gets bandied around a lot in the car world, especially by a company like BMW. But does the BMW 8 Series does enough to earn its place above the longstanding BMW 7 Series standard bearer luxury saloon? Find out in our BMW 8 Series review.


While the BMW X7 sits on top of its popular SUV range, you could argue, that having gone one better than both of those cars in terms of the number in its name, the BMW 8 Series sits at the very pinnacle of its model range.


What is it? Well, it its simplest terms, it’s a large luxury coupe with four seats and two doors (convertible and four-door versions are also available, which we’ll review separately), putting it on a collision course (metaphorically, not literally) with cars as diverse as the Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe, Lexus LC, Aston Martin DB11, Bentley Continental GT, even the Porsche 911


But what does the big BMW bring to the party that others don’t? Well, that will much depend on which version you go for.


Let’s begin with the range-topper, the BMW 8 Series M850i xDrive. Powered by a monstrous petrol V8, it has the performance and soundtrack to match its rivals. It’s also bang-on with the Mercedes for price, and way cheaper than the Aston or Bentley. Having said that, it also feels pretty similar to those cars in terms of the job it does. No bad thing in such esteemed company, but by the same token, there isn’t much to mark it out against its rivals.


The 840i M Sport is a more toned down take on the theme, but no less toned when it comes to how much muscle it can hustle for acceleration and performance. It might be the entry-point to the range, but it's no slouch.


Of course, if you really want to get a shift on, the M8 Competition is the car for you thanks to its twin-turbo 625PS V8 motor that elevates it pace into the supercar league.


For used buyers, the BMW 8 Series 840d diesel version, on the other hand, is a different matter entirely. No rival offers an equivalent - even the Mercedes is, perhaps somewhat surprisingly, petrol-only - and that immediately gives the 8 Series an appeal that no other car does. And quite aside from the improved economy and extended touring range a diesel gives you, the engine is quiet, smooth and effortlessly muscular. Okay, diesel isn’t exactly the height of fashion these days, but for high-mileage drivers looking for a bit of luxury and style, this will still be a very tempting package.


Whichever 8 Series you plump for, though, you’ll get a car that’s very handsome to look at, an absolute joy to sit in (provided you’re not in the cramped back seats, that is) and rammed full of luxury kit, including the best infotainment system in the business. 


It’s good to drive, with sportier handling than many rivals, but with a ride that’s comfortable enough to make it a capable daily driver. Stick with one of the more humble versions, and it even manages to look like pretty good value compared with most rivals. What’s not to like?


Looking for a used car for sale? We've got 100s of BMW Approved Used Cars for Sale for you to choose from, including a wide range of BMW 8 Series cars for sale.

Do you spend much of your time driving huge distances on motorways, but you want to do it with the kind of style and glamour that a luxury saloon just can’t deliver? Well provided you don’t need the space and practicality of a saloon, then the diesel-powered BMW 8 Series could well be the answer.


Like most big luxurious coupes, the BMW 8 Series is comfortable and quiet on the motorway, allowing you to demolish huge distances quickly and easily. However, while the rest of the class only offers petrol power, the 8 Series’ diesel offering will mean cheaper fuel bills, and much longer stints between fill-ups, which will be a big help for your rate of progress.


As well as the coupe, there's the flashier BMW 8 Series Convertible and the more practical four-door BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe.

If you're buying used, the diesel is definitely the pick. You see, the big V8-powered BMW 850i is all very nice, with huge performance from its crackerjack of an engine. However, there are quite a few luxury four-seat coupes out there with big petrol engines, making the BMW 8 Series just another choice. 


The diesel, meanwhile, is something completely different, and has no direct rivals. Lexus offers the Lexus LC with a petrol-electric self-charging hybrid, but that’s about as close as rivals get. So, if you plan to use your BMW 8 Series to cross continents and regularly blast along motorways, the superior economy and extended cruising range of a diesel will be very appealing.


For those buying new, the 840i M Sport is truly all you need in the real world thanks to its performance, refinement, and decent running costs for a car of this calibre.

There are a few large luxurious coupes out there, but they vary greatly in terms of their ethos and price. 


Predictably, the closest rival for the BMW 8 Series comes from Mercedes-Benz, in the form of the S-Class Coupe. Lexus will be looking to tempt the same buyers with the stunning Lexus LC, and if you look (quite a long way) further up the price scale, luxury grand tourers such as the Aston Martin DB11 and the Bentley Continental GT come into view. 


Alternatively, if you view the BMW 8 Series as a sports car rather than a grand tourer, you’ll also want to consider the good old Porsche 911.

Comfort and design: BMW 8 Series interior

"If you climb into the BMW 8 Series expecting wow-factor, you might be a shade disappointed. While rivals like the Mercedes S-Class Coupe employ flamboyant interior design, the BMW 8 Series is quite conventional and conservative by comparison. You could just as easily be sitting in one of BMW’s big saloons."

BMW 8 Series Review: Interior

While this isn’t great news for style, it’s fabulous news for ergonomics. All the various controls sit exactly where you’d expect to find them, and all your various buttons and dials are clearly marked and easy to use. All versions also get a digital instrument panel behind the steering wheel in place of traditional dials, and this presents lots of information to you in a clear, logical way. 


What’s more, all versions have a head-up display that beams the most important information directly into your line of sight, so you hardly ever have to take your eyes off the road.


The standard sports seats are very supportive and hold you in place snugly, and they move electrically in all versions to help you find a comfortable driving position. Lot of adjustment in the steering column helps on that score, too. 


Visibility is pretty good at the front of the car, but the swoopy roofline does mean that your rear view is pretty limited. However, all versions get a reversing camera and parking sensors at both ends of the car.


The big BMW’s interior design may lack a little bit of wow-factor, but the same can’t be said of the materials used in the cabin. Every surface you see looks dense and lustrous, and most of them are as much a treat for the fingertips as they are for the eyes. 


Everything is thoughtfully finished, too, with splashes of brushed chrome trim here and stitched leather there. And, with flush-fitting panels and extremely sturdy assembly, everything feels like it’s built to last. 


Okay, so it can’t match the hand-made feel of a Bentley Continental, but it’s a match for the Mercedes S-Class Coupe on quality, and a sight better than an Aston Martin DB11

Unsurprisingly, the BMW 8 Series gets BMW’s latest infotainment system, and the good news is that it’s one of the best in the business. Importantly, it’s got most of the important functionality covered. There’s navigation, DAB radio, Bluetooth, a wifi hotspot, wireless phone charging and a whole bunch of clever connected services. Apple Carplay is also supported, but Android Auto isn’t. It will be in time, but only on a handful of Android devices.  At the start of 2022, the infotainment screen was enlarged from 10.25-inches to 12.3-inches, which matches the size of the main instrument display.


By far the best thing about the system, though, is that it’s so easy to use. Like every other system in every other high-end car, it has touchscreen functionality, but what marks out the BMW’s system is that it can also be operated using shortcut buttons and a scrolling wheel on the centre console.


It looks very stylish and means it’s much simpler and less distracting when you’re driving. Despite the complexity of the system, it’s really intuitive to use, with logically arranged menus and easy-to-find features. The graphics are fast and sharp, so it’s nice to look at and slick to operate. This really is as good as it gets.

The BMW 8 Series has four seats. However, it’s best to look upon that statement as a technicality, rather than a reality. The ones up front are as roomy and as comfortable as you’d expect, with plenty of handy storage spaces dotted around. 


Despite the large footprint at 4851mm long, 2137mm wide (including mirrors) and 1407mm tall, most of the length is dedicated to housing the engine. The two in the back are very cramped, considerably more so than in the Mercedes S-Class Coupe, and even a modestly-sized adult will find their knees pressing into the seat in front and their barnet pressing into the headlining. 


Smaller children in booster seats should be okay, but you might struggle to get bulky child seats back there. That’s not only because of the tight space, but also because of the small opening that results from tipping the front seat forward to gain access to the rear, something that also makes getting in and out of the back seats a less-than-graceful business. 


The boot is a decent size in terms of capacity at 420-litres, but unsurprisingly in a car like this, the space is rather narrow and shallow. The opening is also rather small, and there’s a big lip to lift items over. You’ll get a couple of sets of golf clubs in, but nothing too much bulkier than that. A powered tailgate is provided across the range, though.

Handling and ride quality: What is the BMW 8 Series like to drive? 

"Big, posh expensive coupes like this are usually fairly deliberate in their dynamic goals: they’re either comfortable grand tourers like a Bentley Continental GT and Mercedes S-Class Coupe, or they’re all-out sports cars like the Porsche 911. The BMW 8 Series, lies somewhere in between, although it comes down more on the sporty side of things."

BMW 8 Series Review: Driving Back

The BMW 840i is the only version to have rear-wheel drive, but we’ve had a shot in the others, which get four-wheel drive and four-wheel steering as standard. What’s more, all cars come with adaptive suspension that firms things up or softens them off according to which of the various driving modes you select. 


Whichever you select, though, the BMW 8 Series is an enjoyable car to drive. It has bags of grip and traction to call upon, and sharp body control also helps to deliver really crisp direction changes. 


Perhaps more impressively, it really manages to shake off its considerable size and weight down a country lane, making it feel more athletic than most big coupes, although you’ll still won’t be fooled into thinking you’re in a Porsche 911. The only slight area for complaint is the steering, which doesn’t deliver a great deal of feedback, but that really is splitting hairs.


The question is, does this impressive handling ability translate into a bone-shaking ride? Well, no, not at all. Granted, you won’t feel as cosseted as you will in the Bentley or the Mercedes, but this is still a comfortable car, keeping things civilised and serene on the vast majority of surfaces, and never feeling harsh or uncomfortable.

The 'entry-level' BMW 8 Series, the 840i, uses a 3.0-litre straight-six petrol engine developing 333PS. In truth, this is all you need for almost every situation thanks to its slick eight-speed automatic gearbox and 0-62mph in 5.2 seconds. It also sounds rather wonderful when pressed harder.


The 840d, which is no longer available new, has a 320PS diesel engine of the same size and configuration. It's a fraction quicker than its petrol counterpart in the benchmark 0-62mph sprint (4.9 seconds), probably by virtue of the extra off-the-line traction delivered by the diesel’s standard four-wheel drive. However, the diesel’s real talent lies in the ease with which it builds speed. It delivers huge low-down pull, so you can execute overtakes without breaking a sweat, and its power delivery is as smooth as it is effortless.


The BMW M850i, meanwhile, has the same 4.4-litre petrol V8 found in the BMW M5 saloon, but detuned to give ‘just’ 530PS. Predictably, this is even faster, doing the benchmark spring in just 3.9 seconds. Again, there’s a mammoth slice of low-down torque, which means you can deal with nine out of ten driving situations without having to tap into the upper half of the rev range, just like you can in the diesel. 


And, in most of these situations, you probably won’t detect much of a performance difference between the two. The difference comes when you really plant your right foot: while the diesel’s willingness to rev is more limited, the petrol just keeps on pulling.


At the pinnacle of the range sits the M8 Competition with a vast 625PS on hand to deliver 0-62mph in a mere 3.2 seconds. It's hugely quick and enjoyable to drive, though opportunities to unleash that power might be frustratingly few and far between unless you head on longer trips.


All versions drive through an eight-speed automatic gearbox, which is an absolute cracker. It swaps cogs smoothly and gently when you’re taking things easy, and quickly and intuitively when you’re getting a wriggle-on.

The big difference you’ll notice between the petrol and now discontinued diesel engines is in the noise they make, both the amount of it, and the nature of it. Both are great. 


The diesel gives off a pleasant burble under hard acceleration, and that melts away to barely a whisper once you reach cruising speeds and ease off, making it a fabulous long-distance companion. The fact that wind- and road noise are also well contained contributes even further towards the BMW 8 Series’ impressive cruising abilities, even if a Mercedes-Benz S-Class Coupe is even more hushed overall.


The BMW 850i is just as quiet and smooth as the diesel at 70mph, but the way it gets there is rather more dramatic, especially when you select the sportiest driving mode. Your epic acceleration is accompanied by an even more epic soundtrack, characterised by a bassy metallic bellow and pops and cracks from the exhausts. The M8 simply ups the intensity of this aural fun.


With the 840i, you get a smooth six-cylinder burr that is both pleasing and sporting, while it also has its own distinct take on the 8 Series theme.

The BMW 8 Series hasn’t been smashed up by the good folks at Euro NCAP yet, and because it’s likely to sell in such low numbers, it probably never will be. 


It comes with most of the safety gear you expect - airbags and traction aids and all that - plus a couple of things you might not. All versions get a head-up display that beams key information directly onto the windscreen in front of your eyes so that you seldom have to look away from the road, while the headlamps have a handy automatic high-beam function. 


Automatic emergency braking is also provided, but it’s perhaps a little disappointing (although not entirely surprising) that some of the cleverer driver-assistance systems - such as active cruise control with lane-keeping assistance and stop-and-go functionality - are left on the options list. No version gets a spare wheel. The 850i comes with a pot of tyre sealant, while the 840i and 840d come on run-flat tyres.

MPG and fuel costs: What does a BMW 8 Series cost to run? 

"As we’ll see, owning a BMW 8 Series is never going to be a cheap business."

BMW 8 Series Review: Wheel

According to official WLTP figures, the 840d's maximum average fuel return is just upwards of 40mpg, which is significantly better than the equivalent figures of 33.6mpg for the 840i and 26.6mpg for the 850i. Take the M8 and you'll need to brace for average economy quoted at 25.0mpg.


Bear in mind, too, that these are laboratory figures that you’ll only have a prayer of getting anywhere near if you drive like an angel. Let your halo slip, and drive like you’ve been possessed (which with the power on offer, will be very tempting indeed), and your return will drop into single-figure territory very quickly, especially on the petrols.

The BMW 8 Series features a lot of advanced technology and systems which are great when they work, but can be complex and expensive to repair when they go wrong. 


BMW came 12th out of 29 manufacturers in the latest HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index with an overall satisfaction rating of 89.63%. 

It’s big, it’s posh, it’s powerful and it’s expensive. As such, you wouldn’t expect a car like the BMW 8 Series to be cheap to insure. Your expectations are spot-on. The 840i sits in group 45 for insurance, making bills a fraction more palatable, but all of the other models in the line-up sit in group 50, the most expensive group there is. There won’t be any way around it, so you’ll just need to accept that premiums will be high.

On a car as extravagant and as expensive as the BMW 8 Series, it’ll come as no shock whatsoever that tax bills will be, well, as high as it’s possible to get. On all versions, you’ll pay the flat rate of £190 per year, and between years two and six of your car’s life, you’ll also pay a £490 surcharge on top. 


As a used car buyer, just be grateful that you’ve swerved the steep first-year tax payment - between £1650 and £2745 depending on the version - that forms part of the car’s list price. On all versions, company car drivers will pay Benefit-in-kind on 37% of the car’s value, which is the maximum possible. That’ll make it ruinously expensive.

How much should you be paying for a used BMW 8 Series?

"Lots, probably. Sorry about that. At the time of writing, prices for brand new examples of the BMW 8 Series started at around £84,000 for the 840i. If it were the 850i that took your fancy, you’re looking at an outlay of £116,000. Yikes."

BMW 8 Series Review: Exterior Back

Obviously, the various options and packs would’ve taken prices even higher: the Ultimate Pack (we’ll describe this in the next section) on its own would’ve set you back up to £19,000. Cripes. There’s good news and bad news for used buyers. Good news? Despite these astronomical prices, they’re still a bit lower than those of a Mercedes S-Class Coupe, and a lot lower (we’re talking fifty grand here) than those of an Aston Martin DB11 or Bentley Continental GT


Bad news? In percentage terms, the BMW holds onto its value better than any of them, so after four years or so, you’ll actually pay more for it than you will for the Merc. Even so, a five-year old 840i with 30,000 miles on the clock will cost you from around £33,000, which feels like a lot of sporty coupe for the cash.

The BMW 8 Series doesn’t have trim levels as such. The various versions are differentiated mainly by the engine they have. There are one or two other minor differences between them, such as a few styling tweaks of what sort of braking system they get, but in terms of luxury kit, the specification is pretty much the same across the board, and each version is very much a luxurious high-end offering. 


That means your standard kit includes two-zone climate control, leather upholstery, heated front seats, ambient interior lighting, keyless go, a powered tailgate, all-round parking sensors and a reversing camera. 


As always with luxurious cars like this, there are various options that can be added - many bundled up into packs. This gave buyers all-sorts, including soft-close doors, ventilated front seats, 360-degree camera, TV functionality, and a Bowers and Wilkins Surround Sound audio system.

Ask the heycar experts: common questions

The top of the normal range is the BMW M850i has a 530PS V8 engine and will hit 62mph in 3.9 seconds. The more affordable 840i is still quick, with it's 333PS 6-cylinder engine pushing the car to 62mph in 5.2 seconds. Or you could all out with the M8 that sees off 0-62mph in only 3.2 seconds.
The BMW 840i is rear-wheel drive, but the more powerful M850i and M8 models use BMW's xDrive four-wheel drive system.
The BMW 8 Series is only available as an automatic, with no manual version offered.