2017 BMW 330i x-Drive A DoubleClutch.ca Review with T.H.
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00:00Ah, the BMW 3 Series.
00:04This one is the new 330i, which means it has the 3.0L inline 6, right?
00:10No.
00:12Is anyone else as confused by BMW's nonsensical nomenclature as I am?
00:16Because this is the 2017 330i xDrive, which used to be the 328i, and is a step below the
00:21340i.
00:22Now, back in the day, 330 meant that it had a 3.0L inline 6, and the 328i would have been
00:27a 2.8L inline 6.
00:29But no, recently the 328i was a 2.0L 4-cylinder turbo, and confusingly, this 2017 330 also
00:35has a 2.0L 4-cylinder turbo.
00:37So the new name makes as little sense as the old name.
00:40Thankfully, this turbo-4 is producing an impressive 248hp and 258lb-ft of torque very low in the
00:47rev range.
00:48With the sport transmission with paddle shifters, the M Sport package, and a $5,550 premium
00:53package, it comes in at a hair under $60,000 Canadian.
00:56That's a pretty decent sum for a middle-of-the-range BMW sedan.
01:00Especially since some feel that BMW lost a bit of driver engagement with the chassis
01:03redesign in 2012.
01:04You see, the thing is, BMW has reworked the car a bit for 2017, and as you can see, they've
01:10renamed it the 330i.
01:12So are they on their way to getting their mojo back?
01:15Let's find out.
01:17One thing that really, really bothered me about the first generation of this 3 Series
01:22was the steering.
01:23Okay?
01:24Because it's electric.
01:25Now, I'm an E46 owner, as many of you know, and one of the main reasons that I got a BMW,
01:32an older BMW, was because the steering is so good.
01:35There's a lot of feel, there's a lot of feedback.
01:37Now, it's not like a Lotus, but it's much better than your average car.
01:41Now, this has all-electric steering.
01:44Okay?
01:45So, do I love it?
01:47No.
01:48I don't.
01:49But is it a deal-breaker for this car?
01:51Not even close.
01:52I'm going to be straight up with you at this point.
01:56Pretty much, I haven't driven a car in a long time that I've liked commuting in nearly as
02:02much as this car.
02:04I adore this vehicle.
02:06Okay?
02:07I've had it for three, four days now, three days now, and I'm having a really hard time
02:12finding any flaws with it.
02:14No, the steering is not as communicative.
02:15Even if you put it in sport mode, it gets a little bit of weight, but there's like a
02:18dead point on center, and it feels artificial the way that it loads up.
02:23That's just, I'm just grasping at straws, because the rest of the car is so sensationally
02:28good.
02:29I love the way it drives.
02:31It responds so well to inputs that I can't find any faults with it.
02:37The seating position is essentially perfect.
02:39Okay?
02:40BMW has nailed this, and I'm so happy that they've prioritized this still.
02:45The steering wheel comes out at me quite a long distance, so what that means is that
02:50I can pull my seat back and get a perfect distance for the pedals, and then I can put
02:54my seat back upright, bring the steering wheel towards me, and I've got basically a perfect
02:59driving position.
03:00I cannot think of a way of improving this in any way.
03:04I don't feel like I'm sitting super high up.
03:07Don't quote me on this.
03:08I drove the M2 recently, as many of you saw.
03:10I think that the driving position in the M2 is higher than this, because I feel more planted
03:15to the ground in this.
03:16I've got the seat as low as it goes.
03:17It's what I always do.
03:18I've got the steering wheel as far as it comes out to me, and I've got a perfect position.
03:21Now, the wheel that comes with the M Sport package here is awesome.
03:25It's the same wheel, or broadly the same that you get in the M cars, and it's the perfect
03:30size.
03:31The Nappa leather is so nice.
03:33It's so smooth.
03:34It fits my hands perfectly, and it's just really well designed.
03:38The buttons are not cluttered.
03:39It's easy to work out, as is the rest of the interior, actually.
03:42So I'll talk about that for a second, because we're sitting here in a stoplight, and I have
03:45nothing else to do.
03:46So the interior of this car is quite amazing, okay?
03:49It's not at the level of Audi or the Mercedes C-Class, I'll give you that, but there's really
03:55no point in even making a big deal out of that, because it's like comparing a Rolex
03:59and an Omega.
04:01Yeah, one is arguably a little bit better than the other in terms of the way that it's
04:05put together, and maybe it's history.
04:06Who knows?
04:07But you're still in a premium watch, right?
04:11So this is the same idea.
04:13No, the interior of this is not maybe as good as the A4, in my opinion, but I don't care,
04:19because it's so nice, right?
04:22It's so driver-centered.
04:24Everything is spaced perfectly, right?
04:26The iDrive controller's in exactly the right spot.
04:29I rest my arm perfectly.
04:30The materials are very, very nice.
04:33There's some hard plastics down here, but they're not bad plastics, right?
04:37They're still very high quality.
04:38The fit and finish is basically perfect.
04:41Everything lines up.
04:42There's no panel gap.
04:43The design, visually, is very, very nice.
04:46The interior of this car is good.
04:48It's an A-plus interior for me.
04:49I love it.
04:50Now, onto the iDrive before I get to the way that it drives, because there's been a lot
04:53of versions of this over time.
04:55This particular one is very, very good.
04:58I haven't used this particular version of iDrive yet in this generation, and I figured
05:03this thing out in five minutes, basically, honestly, just driving around.
05:08There's really nothing to it.
05:09There's a home button.
05:10There's a menu, and you have vehicle notifications, navigation, communication, media, radio.
05:14You select one, and then when you're in there, there's options back and forth.
05:17I can select side of the radio, and with this particular package, I have a heads-up display,
05:19so everything pops up on the front screen right there, so I can see.
05:22If you select map right here, it takes me to navigation.
05:25If I select an address, which it does very easily, there's a little thing that I can
05:28draw my finger to write the letters if I want, which is kind of cheesy, and I just use voice
05:33control.
05:34It's kind of cool, I guess.
05:36It pops up on the heads-up display and tells me what lane I need to be in at the same time
05:40as showing me what station on SiriusXM radio I'm on.
05:44This is a lovely commuter car, and it also has connected drive here, right, which connects
05:51to the internet and tells me the weather, the news, online search, Wikilocal, Yelp,
05:55Flickr, and all that lovely stuff.
05:56Okay, anyway, now to the actual driving of the car.
05:59So I talked about the steering already, but I want to talk about the rest of it, okay?
06:04This is the middle of the range, as I said at the beginning in the voiceover, all right?
06:07So there is essentially three engines, if you want to make it simple.
06:10We have a four-cylinder twin-scroll turbocharged engine under the hood here, and it's making
06:15enough horsepower, okay?
06:17I say enough because I can't conceive of a time when I would need more for regular everyday
06:23use.
06:24No, if you're looking to go to the track with the car, yeah, sure, you want more torque.
06:27You don't actually need it, but you could certainly ask for more, but for just ripping
06:32around and on the highway, this is everything you need and maybe even a bit more.
06:37Now, the transmission in this car, this is the ZF eight-speed gearbox.
06:41For a normal transmission, this is by far and away the best that I have used, all right?
06:45I just won't miss my turn there because I'm so excited about the transmission.
06:48All right, now, sport mode.
06:50Click that over.
06:51I have the sport option, sport plus.
06:53All right, downshift into manual.
06:55Listen to these shifts.
07:02That's fast.
07:03Oh, my God.
07:04Oh, that's quick.
07:05All right, so it's so quick.
07:06Now, here's downshifts.
07:07Ready?
07:08All right, so we are on a back road, coming out of the corner in second gear, foot down
07:20response, immediate, no leg whatsoever.
07:23Shift, boom, up, shift again, boom, so fast.
07:29This is immensely satisfying to drive because when you're just commuting to work, it adds
07:37a little bit.
07:38It's just sporty enough and aggressive enough that you're like, yeah, I'm glad I got this
07:43car, right?
07:44So if you're specking out one of these cars, do yourself a favor, spend the money and get
07:49this transmission and the M Sport package because it's cool, it looks good.
07:53All right, so this thing does zero to 60 in, what is it, like 5.6 seconds.
07:57Don't quote me on that.
07:58If I said the wrong number, I will put it up right here somewhere floating in the air
08:01for you to read, but it's quick enough.
08:03First gear, down.
08:10Like, for a non-M BMW, the drivetrain of this car, completely satisfied.
08:18Is there a turbo lag?
08:19Yes, there's a little bit, but it's nominal.
08:21It's not going to be like, oh, I can't get that car because of the turbo lag.
08:25No, you'll be totally satisfied.
08:26Coming out of the corner in second gear, boom, there's the power.
08:31Now, what about the chassis of the car?
08:36It's still very BMW-like.
08:37They went with a stiff chassis and slightly softer suspension, which means that it soaks
08:41up the bumps while still retaining a large amount of body control.
08:45But what I can tell you is that with the xDrive even, going through corners, this will
08:51power oversteer.
08:53Yes, you heard me.
08:55Even with the xDrive, the all-wheel drive, you get on the throttle exiting a corner and
08:59you power slide out.
09:00It is awesome.
09:01It is not what you expect with an all-wheel drive car.
09:06Second gear, turn in, there goes the tail a little bit, and I'm out.
09:11That's fun.
09:14As a regular car to drive every day, you do not want or need any more oversteer than that.
09:20In the winter with the traction control off, I think this car would be a riot, if I'm perfectly
09:24honest.
09:25So the way that the car turns into the corner, back to the way it is driving, is very BMW-like.
09:30It feels very, as they say, on rails, right?
09:34Someone once said, if the car is on rails, it means you're not going fast enough.
09:37Yes, on a track.
09:39But for driving around here in the country, if you just want to carve up some back roads,
09:43this car just feels planted.
09:44It keeps the wheels on the ground.
09:46The suspension is very sophisticated, as you would expect.
09:49And as you're coming out of the corner, give it a little bit too much power, and the tail
09:51starts to walk away on you.
09:53That's just satisfying aggressive driving.
09:55BMW has absolutely nailed it.
09:57All right, what else can I say about the way the car drives?
10:00Oh, the sound, the sound.
10:01Everyone has a hard time with this, because the sound is synthetic, all right?
10:08You know what they've done is they've added cylinders to the sound, because if you open
10:11the window and listen to the exhaust, it sounds like a four-cylinder, because, surprise,
10:16it is a four-cylinder.
10:17And you kind of get that brrrr, as it upshifts, like you would in a DCT.
10:21On the inside of the car, though, as you might have heard a few seconds ago, it sounds like
10:26a six or an eight.
10:28It sounds like there's more cylinders than there is.
10:30Now, here's the big question.
10:32Do I care?
10:33No, not at all.
10:35I don't care at all that it sounds synthetic and artificial, because it doesn't sound synthetic
10:39or artificial.
10:40Truly, you cannot tell.
10:44You cannot tell when you're driving this car.
10:47The way that they've made the sound project from the speakers down here, it reminds me
10:51exactly of the induction noise of my inline-six BMW.
10:55It comes from, like, up here.
10:57So I'm not sure what speaker it comes out of or how they have developed it, but the
11:02point is is that you can't tell that it's synthetic.
11:05I mean, like, if you're listening, you're like, okay, yeah, maybe that's coming from
11:08the speakers, but they've done such a good job with it.
11:11I don't care.
11:12Like, it makes the car sound fun.
11:14It tells you where you are in the rev range without having to have the windows down.
11:19So don't complain about it.
11:21People go, oh, it's not real.
11:22It's not motorsport.
11:23I don't care.
11:25It's still very good, so why does it matter?
11:28Here's the spec sheet.
11:29I have it here in front of me.
11:30Yes, so premium package, $5,550.
11:33As I said, sport line is $3,000.
11:35That's the one you want because it comes with the M Sport package, the sport seats,
11:38M leather steering wheel, M aerodynamics package, high gloss shadow line.
11:43What's a high gloss shadow line?
11:44I have no idea, but I'm sure it looks cool.
11:47All right, reverse, yes.
11:49So as I said, I don't know why every day of your life you would want a more sporty car
11:55than this.
11:56Sure, yes, obviously the M cars are amazing, have driven them, and they're incredibly fast
12:00and just as refined.
12:02But for the average person, do you need more than this car?
12:07No, not at all.
12:08Rest of the car for usability, the trunk is a good size.
12:11Back seats are fine, no different than in our 3 Series.
12:14These sport seats that come with this are incredibly comfortable.
12:16Oh, I found something that's wrong with this car, aha.
12:19So when I adjust this under leg piece right here that comes out and supports the underside
12:25of your leg, which most cars don't do, it shakes back and forth.
12:29Look at that.
12:30You hear that?
12:31It's loose.
12:32That's like that on both seats.
12:35Come on, BMW, get your act together.
12:37That's all I have to say about that.
12:39So if you are interested in this segment of car, I urge you, go drive the A4.
12:45Go drive the C-Class.
12:48Go drive, what's the other one, Infinity, right?
12:52Go drive those cars and drive this one, all right?
12:54I've driven some of those, not all of them, admittedly, but I can't think of a reason
12:58why I would want any more than this car as my everyday vehicle because I am completely
13:05content.
13:06I love the gauges.
13:07I love the steering wheel.
13:08I love the interior.
13:09I love the way it drives.
13:10I love the transmission.
13:11I love the powertrain.
13:12I like the looks of the car.
13:13I like the brand.
13:14I'm a BMW guy, as you know.
13:15You might say that I'm biased.
13:17I'm not.
13:18Honestly, I've driven the A4, the new A4, and the interior is better than this.
13:22It's actually, arguably, maybe a more comfortable car, right?
13:25But at the same time, the way that this goes around a corner, the way that it shifts, the
13:31way that it feels, the way that it sounds, I'll take this one, please.
13:53Wow.
13:55Wow.
13:57Wow.
13:59Wow.
14:01Wow.
14:03I need just a little bit of a hit.
14:05Edd it that out.
14:07Edd it that out.
14:09Whoa.
14:11Wow.
14:13Whoa.
14:15Take two.
14:17And here I go.
14:19Steer the outside as it opens.
14:21So, your best is a 128.8.
14:29That's terrible.
14:30Thomas, you are very good on camera.