Just because BMW has started production of the i3 sedan doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road for the straight-six. Far from it. See, for the first time, we’re about to get two completely different new 3 Series models, one powered by electricity and one powered by stuff you pump. It’s going to take some time to get adjusted to the new combustion-powered 3 Series, but this sport sedan has the potential to be very good indeed. There’s just one little question mark still dangling over it.
On the subject of changes, BMW has a new naming convention to wrap our heads around. While the ‘i’ at the end of BMW model names historically signified fuel injection, now that everything’s fuel-injected, BMW’s repurposing that letter. It now exclusively goes at the front of electric models’ names like the i3 and i7. Thus, goodbye M340i xDrive, and hello M350 xDrive.
Okay, I’m still getting used to the name, but part of that’s because a 750i used to have a five-liter V12 and a 550i used to have a 4.8-liter V8. The M350 still has the familiar B58 three-liter turbocharged straight-six, but BMW’s engineers have been in the lab and tweaked it so that it now produces 437 horsepower. That’s 51 more horsepower than the outgoing M340i, and only 36 fewer horsepower than a base M3. With mild-hybrid assistance for smooth auto-stop-start and ZF’s gold standard 8HP eight-speed automatic transmission, BMW claims a zero-to-62 MPH time of 4.1 seconds. Given how BMWs have a long history of outsprinting their factory-claimed times, don’t be surprised if the eventual magazine zero-to-60 mph figure with rollout deducted is under four seconds.
Solid stuff, but there’s more to a medium-hot 3 Series than just power. It needs to handle while still rounding off potholes and frost heaves better than a full M Car. In that pursuit, the M350 xDrive is getting adaptive dampers, an electronically controlled limited-slip rear differential, and a bodyshell even more rigid than that of the old car. The steering’s been tweaked, the wheelbase lengthened, axle track widened, and fenders carved out to fit staggered 245-section front and 275-section rear tires. That all sounds promising, but there’s trepidation to be had over the new 3 Series’ big party trick.
Ever since BMW started bolting air compressors to gasoline-powered inline-sixes, the quickest non-M 3 Series models have garnered a bit of a reputation for being a German Mustang of sorts. Inexperienced drivers mash the pedal, put a lot of torque to the rear axle, and sometimes find themselves in the scenery, looking at the road. While standard all-wheel drive should mitigate this, BMW has announced something on the M350 xDrive called Drift Moment for those who know what they’re doing. Essentially, this decouples drive to the front axle, just like two-wheel-drive mode in the all-wheel-drive M cars. It could be a great deal of fun, but it’s not actually ready yet.
See, BMW claims that “The new Drift Moment will be made available over the course of 2027, at which point it will also be activated – via Remote Software Upgrade – in cars already delivered to customers.” In short, it’s software that isn’t ready yet and is expected to be pushed out over the air. Hmm. That’s enough to warrant a pause. While a drift mode isn’t as substantial a feature as certain promised advanced driver assistance capabilities, promising this capability before it’s actually baked in seems a bit bold. If, for some reason, the timeline sees further delay or BMW isn’t able to implement Drift Moment, will owners be left hanging?
On the other hand, production dates are usually set in stone this close to market launch, and the olden ways of late-availability features weren’t exactly optimal either. Flash back 20 years, and early E90 3 Series sedans didn’t have full personal profile capability like later models, which tie each key to a series of settings including central locking and lighting functionality. Early adopter? Too bad.
Regardless of purported over-the-air updates that are yet to materialize, there’s still plenty enticing about the M350. Even with the camouflage on, it looks less fussy than the outgoing M340i. The Neue Klasse grille panels cut a modestly sized but sharp graphic in the nose, and BMW’s instead leaning on a big lower grille for cooling airflow. The big channel on the hood is very much part of the new family face, and the Hofmeister kink in the greenhouse is more pronounced. Even the overall shape of the diffuser-style insert in the M Sport rear bumper seems cleaner.
If the Drift Moment feature ends up being pushed to all M350s as promised, the new 3 Series has the potential to be extremely good. The mid-range (at least in America) model has more power than ever before; the new iDrive 10 system as seen in the iX3 is actually rather decent; and signs point towards this new-generation car fixing minor annoyances with the largely excellent outgoing model. In time, there will likely also be a four-cylinder 330 model, but we’ll just have to wait until later this year to find out where the chips fall.
Top graphic image: BMW
No wagon? No stickshift? And presumably no European Delivery? I need AWD like I need a couple of ex-wives, regardless of whether it can eventually occasionally detach the front wheels. How about just skipping the complex bullshit and having them detached all the time? Absolutely, positively, NO SALE. Buying new BMWs was fun back when they didn’t suck. Shame as at least they are making them somewhat less hideous on the outside.
I will keep the perfect, and perfectly scrumptious, one I have.
There’s a Mercedes in my garage because of the last-gen M3’s stupid nostril schnoz. Glad to see they’re getting away from that, but not sure I’ll be back. It’s a shame they did away with European Delivery, it was such a great experience when I bought my 2 Series back in the day.
Ditto, I did it twice, and would have kept going back for more if the car’s hadn’t started to suck and they cancelled the program for Americans.
A month in Europe with Mom (and somehow I didn’t push her off an Alp). Nine countries, 4500 delightful miles. https://flic.kr/p/xF39sC
And the first time around (still have and love this car): https://flic.kr/p/aajf1L
BMW remains as dead to me as Jimmy Hoffa.
I can live with the exterior styling, but the Temu-grade interior is a total deal breaker for me. BMW seems really concerned about catering to China (down 30%) and the young (who cannot afford the cars).
Chinese cars have probably the best perceived quality interiors in the industry right now. European manufacturers could do worse than taking some hints from the Chinese in that aspect. In fact the chinese spec i3 and iX3 have much better interior materials (leather wrapped IP, doors, soft touch lower). The expectations for a quality interior there are so much higher than other markets.
BMW is absolutely killing it these days. As an enthusiast, I can pick among some of the most celebrated gas powertrains in the world (some even with a manual!), or some of the best electric cars on the market.
BMW styling is always the subject of much internet discourse, but they seem to have a habit of being ahead of the curve and growing on people.
This NK design language is doing it for me and it sounds like this new 3 series will be a home run, gas or electric.
Maybe this just means I’m getting old (though I doubt anyone young who doesn’t have a trust fund can afford one) but drift mode seems like something you try once or twice when you first get the car and then forget it exists.
Honestly this is my problem with modes in general, you have to make this very deliberate decision that you’re going to get up to some shenanigans and then once you do turn off ESP/TC/Sport strurts etc there’s this sort of Checkov’s gun element to it where I almost feel guilty if I’ve turned off the nannies and don’t waste some rubber?
I agree on the drift mode, because for shenanigans I’d usually say “take it to the track”, but very few track days allow deliberate drifting.
The other settings on BMWs are very clever. They allow a super granular level of control over the stability/traction systems which means you can dose it up or down based on ability. Great for people getting to grips with (typically) very powerful RWD machines.
Now all of that does still require a self-aware human to correctly estimate their skill level, which is where things can go very wrong.
Yeh I suppose this is showing my relative lack of experience with more modern traction control systems than the two early ’00s German cars I’ve had lol. And to your point who is going to take their new BMW to an actual drift event?
Though I somewhat stand by my comment that dialing in the traction control to decide how much leash I want to have seems kind of like a bummer on the street? Like it actually makes a lot of sense on the track, but if I see a corner I want to push I have to go into the settings and dial it to my preferred level of horsing around? Or do you as a more skilled driver just leave it at a lower level permanently-realizing the tradeoff is less of a safety net but still more than an old car? I suppose some of the newer cars now have a button that recalls your favorite settings once you have it dialed in?
I used to drift competitively, and what I want from a road car is modest grip so I can enjoy a bit of a slide without going fast or having to use loads of throttle.
275 rear tyres and 437bhp sounds like it’s going to need a lot of room to tidy up when it goes wrong. So I’d be unlikely to use the drift mode/moment feature, which is odd as it seems very much targeted at me.
On track I’d use it all the time, for maybe as long as five laps before the tyres are gone, while wondering why I’m also dragging around this redundant front diff and driveshafts.
I hope we won’t have to watch an ad before we can drift
Can’t wait to hear that BMW has listened and won’t be trying any subscription shenanigans with “Drift Moment,” rather it will just be a fixed flat fee per drift. That’s what the people want.
Applying opposite lock will be the subscription service, not accessing drift mode.
So are we going to go M350, M560, and M780? Why don’t they just switch to cylinder count?
Standard AWD makes me sad, but BMW has been very clear about their disinterest in making cars for people that like the E30, so I’m not exactly clutching my pearls over it. I guess it doesn’t move the needle, BMW continues to be a maker of high-horsepower appliances in the late 2020’s. Looks a bit more handsome than the outgoing M3, I suppose, but then again this isn’t the M3 yet, so they still have ample opportunity to ruin that.
For over two decades, at least one of my folks had a BMW. That ended a couple years ago when my mom traded her X5 in on a Macan. The tech-focused interiors and dismal exterior styling drove them away. My mom didn’t even consider the X3 before getting the Macan.
She originally wanted a Volvo, as she’d owned two before, but since those use the infotainment for basically everything that was a no-go.
Almost 500 HP, so almost 350… good enough.
If the 330 will probably output 300 and something, if so, this naming convention will start making sense after all.
I have a feeling a lot of these comments will be interpreting the mental gymnastics lol
I’m sure BMW has done their damndest to make this thing fast as all fuck and handle amazingly, but it will also have the displacement of a Braunschweig class corvette, and be absolutely devoid of any sense of emotions and engagement
I was thinking they’d use the pre-WW1 Braunschweig class battleship as a displacement target. You’re obviously more optimistic than I am.
The BMW naming convention being loosely tied to displacement, but not really, is giving Spinal Tap turn it up to 11.
Just give us mild, medium and hot trims and call it a day.
They should just go to 2 digits, the chassis size and the power output 3-1 is the entry, then 3-2, 3-3, etc. until M3. Then is doesn’t matter what the actual power or size is, a 3-3 is always faster than a 3-2
But number must go up! /s
BMW numbers must be bigger than Mercedes-Benz numbers which are themselves heavily inflated and totally confounding.
S550 = Previous Gen 4.0L V8
S560 = Last Year’s 4.0L V8
S580 = This Year’s 4.0L V8
S580 Maybach = 4.0L V8 Brougham
S600 = Previous Gen 6.0L V12
S650 = Post-Facelift Previous Gen 6.0L V12
S680 Maybach = 6.0L V12 Brougham
AMG SL 55 = 4.0L V8
AMG SL 63 = More Power 4.0L V8
Maybach SL 680 = Same 4.0L V8 as AMG SL 55, but Very Brougham.