(See my D8 V6 saloon review here: viewtopic.php?t=4470)
UNDER THE BONNET
...is a lot more room than on the other models, especially around the belt area! Interestingly the bonnet struts are only about 6" long and let the bonnet raise bloody high!
HANDLING AND COMFORT
Sublime. The coupé's got superb weight distribution with a lot more weight on the rear axles than the saloon and unlaiden estate, and being shorter the centre of gravity's considerably lower. Take it to the edge and it's very easy to get yourself into a controlled 4 wheel drift, yet under normal circumstances it understeers in the same way as the other bodies, albeit at higher speed.
One considerable difference is regarding the suspension. It's a lot stiffer on the coupé. The ride's harder, but not too much so. The seat's also a lot firmer and grabs you more than the softer Executive seats which is good and bad. Bad in that it's nowhere near as relaxing as the execs but good in that it makes the car feel a HELL of a lot quicker and more responsive.
In summary, it drives a lot better than the saloon and estate, but trades off some comfort to do so. It definitely feels like a completely different car on its wheels though.
INTERIOR
There's no armrest.
The steering wheel's much nicer than the saloon/estate. It's a thicker wheel with nicely defined thumb grips to keep you at the 9:15 position. The pedal box (possibly a D8-D9 thing) is a step backwards. The D9s clutch surprisingly feels exactly the same as the D8s, but the accelerator is MILES away from the brake, making toe+heel difficult to pull off, even with my size 13s. I'm hoping one of the days I can pull the accelerator off and either replace it with a D8 pedal or bend it closer.
The seats have a lever on the side which lets you pull them forwards to enable people to get in the back, obviously essential with a 2-door. A sweet touch is that when you pull the seat back forward, the base moves forwards with it (motorised), returning to its position when you put it back. The back seats are extremely comfortable, although the headrests aren't adjustable and there's only 2 back seats instead of 3. The back seats DO drop down to give more boot space.
There's no armrest, but the crap tray behind the handbrake has a pair of drinks holders. They're only really usable from the rear seats though.
The rear view is... odd. It's obviously nowhere near as good as the estate's rear visibility, but it's better than the saloon's. Distance to the rear of the car is easier to judge and there's lots more horizontal vision, but due to the shallow gradient of the rear window, you end up wishing for a panoramic sunroof doobob at the back as you can't see as high as you'd like. The auto-dimming mirror is a pain in the arse. After fitting a working one I've realised It's best used as a manual mirror that's slow to react. Going back to the window, it really needs to be kept clean and dry due to its angle - it can be very hard to see through
Guess I should talk about the wings now. I mean the doors. 12 foot long. Makes car parks interesting. The pillarless design's very cool though. Total closure's back here. Deadlock and the windows are closed. Missed that.
The boot's actually bigger than the saloon's I think, although maybe a bit more shallow and with a smaller opening. Definitely wider though.
As for the famed JBL sound system, it's quite disappointing due to the poor choice of crossover frequencies in the amp and lack of subwoofers. The wiring to the head unit is non-standard too - the power connector needs completely rewiring as the pins are all wrong and the harness actually has 3 VAN bus lines on it. Similarly, the speaker connector expects line level outputs.
LOOKS
WOW
Simply gorgeous.
2nd gear, 1200rpm max to avoid an impacted spine/exhaust/bumper