Behind the Wheel: Driving the New 3 Series, the Soul of BMW

In the arc of sports sedan history

Transcript

00:00 Hey, this is Mark Recton with Motor Trend and we're driving the new BMW 330i in the

00:07 south of Portugal in the Algarve region where the roads are twisty and empty.

00:12 And this is going to be a whole lot of fun.

00:25 First of all, as you can hear from the engine note, it's gained a lot of power.

00:28 The base 2.0-liter turbo 4 has gone up from 248 to 258 horsepower, while torque, and that's

00:35 the thing Americans care about for the 0-60, that's gone from 258 all the way up to 295.

00:41 BMW claims that the 0-60 on this, or rather 0-62, is down to 5.8 seconds.

00:50 Over the outgoing F30 model, this gains an inch and a half of wheelbase and three inches

00:56 of overall length.

00:58 Now how does it drive?

00:59 Well, the tricky thing is we're driving the M Performance version of the 330i, and that

01:04 means stiffer springs, different shocks, different tuning of the steering.

01:08 This is not your 399 Lease Special.

01:10 That said, it feels way better than the predecessor.

01:14 This is a 330i with the M Performance package.

01:16 This is not an M3.

01:19 The sport shift settings, you know, they're not lightning quick.

01:22 It's still a ZF 8-speed, and yeah, it responds great, but when you hit that paddle shifter,

01:28 yeah, it waits a while before giving you that downshift.

01:32 Brakes are a little thin.

01:33 I wish they'd give a little bit more reinforcement on the binding, and these are M Sport brakes,

01:37 too.

01:38 If you're looking for something that's got a little bit more zing than a traditional

01:42 330, this may get you there, but you might also have to wait for the M3 to come along.

01:48 That said, is this an improvement over the outgoing 3 Series?

01:51 Absolutely.

01:52 Is it a return back to the ultimate driving machine?

01:54 You'll have to judge for yourself.

01:55 [music]

02:06 (upbeat music)