The New BMW 3 Series Looks So Good It Might Just Save The Sports Sedan

For several decades, if you only had space for one car and really loved driving, a sport sedan was the de facto choice. Athletic enough to thrill and delight yet pragmatic enough for the shopping run or the morning commute, these often stick-shift machines gave the whole family the experience of performance motoring, and the BMW 3 Series was often the best of the bunch. Now, things have changed. Families are getting into quick crossovers, much of the sport sedan field seems more bloated than ever, but BMW’s coming back for the crown.

Welcome to the seventh-generation BMW 3 Series, codename G50. This isn’t the electric i3, but rather a sharper, sleeker take on the familiar CLAR platform with turbocharged internal combustion power. Dimensions are up fractionally over its predecessor, but the layout of engine up front, differential out back, and a luxurious dash-to-axle ratio remain. Think of this as a heavy makeover of the 3 Series we already know and admire, just with more available power. A lot more available power.

While a 330i with a two-liter turbocharged inline-four will be available, it carries over the same 255-horsepower peak output from the old 330i. That’s good for zero-to-60 mph in a claimed 5.9 seconds but that’s probably not what you came here for. If you’re buying a sports sedan of this sort, you’re probably more interested in the straight-six-powered M350, which drops the “i” and gains a larger engine designation than the outgoing M340i. So, is everything under the hood new? Not quite. Pull the release in the kick panel twice and you’ll be greeted by a familiar three-liter turbocharged B58 straight-six.

However, said B58 has gained a new turbocharger, reshaped intake ports and combustion chambers, and a whole host of tuning tweaks to produce a whopping 443 horsepower right out of the gate. That’s 57 more horsepower than the outgoing M340i while maintaining the same peak torque figure of 398 ft.-lbs. as the new car’s predecessor. Granted, a small portion of that peak power number comes from a 17-horsepower 48-volt mild hybrid system, but the end result should be rapid nonetheless. Thanks to a standard ZF eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel-drive, BMW claims zero-to-60 mph in just 3.9 seconds. That’s about as quick as an F80 M3, and there’s more to this new M350 xDrive that makes it curiously strong for an M-Lite-Car.

Like the previous M340i, a limited-slip rear differential is standard on the M350 for straight-line traction and, um, big skids. An incoming drift mode that BMW promises to push out via an over-the-air update should make it even easier to vaporize Michelins by sending 100 percent of torque to the rear axle, just like in an all-wheel-drive M car. Add in wider track widths and a revised braking system, and the M350 seems poised to haul the mail. There’s just one drawback: weight. The new M350 has a DIN curb weight some 92 pounds heavier than the previous-generation M340i xDrive, with the official figure landing at 4,100 pounds. That’s hefty for a compact sport sedan, but it’s also nearly 200 pounds lighter than an Audi S5.

Still, you might be able to excuse some of the weight gain because of the styling, a sensational adaptation of BMW’s Neue Klasse styling language. Admittedly, it is rather spec-dependent, as earlier spy shots on basketweave-aping wheels were a touch underwhelming, but the new 3 Series is certainly less fussy than the outgoing model. It adopts a clean down-the-road graphic in M Sport trims, with a trapezoidal lower grille nicely balancing out the headlight treatment. Speaking of lighting, those daytime running lights can be flipped between white and yellow, a neat little bit of personalization.

Around the side, the only knock here is a really stupid set of door handles. Electromechanical flush-fit handles might have a concept-car wow factor, but if they fail, it can be a headache to get into a car. Beyond that though, the surfacing is minimalistic and clean, with a toned-down interpretation of the sort of shoulder line BMW used to make. Really, the most visually contentious thing on the new 3 Series is the somewhat inelegant plinth on its trunk lid for the badge, but with surprisingly enticing mirrored taillights and functional quad exhaust tips, a small recess seems, well, insignificant.

Inside the new 3 Series, there are more things that will make you say “hmm,” starting with the latest version of iDrive. It features an almost rhombus-shaped infotainment screen augmented by a lower windscreen-spanning HUD, and from playing around with the system earlier this year, it’s much nicer to use than the outgoing iDrive 8.5. Absolutely bizarre-looking, but more user-friendly. There’s no longer an infotainment knob in the console though, so if you hate fingerprints, bad news. Beyond that, the steering wheel gets vertical spokes like the one in the i3 and iX3, essential controls sit in the console, and … oh man, why did they have to make the HVAC vents digitally controlled? Hey, at least the fabric on the dashboard and door cards has plenty of texture.

Minor quibbles aside, the new BMW 3 Series is looking like the strongest new generation in ages. Not only should it haul the mail and look reasonably sleek, it’s entering the market in a time of deep malaise. The new Audi A5 feels wholly unacceptable, the Mercedes-Benz C-Class is four-cylinder-only and creaks, the Genesis G70 is old, the Alfa Romeo Giulia is even older, and the Volvo S60 is dead. The G50 3 Series didn’t need to up the performance ante this much, but BMW’s engineers couldn’t resist. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

Top graphic image: BMW