20:04
Heard of a story: A friend of us driving a BMW 340i. She loves her car. She loves it be? Cadillac, BMW tried to woo driver, gave her an ATS sedan, in a month, free. the reaction of our friends? No, thanks. “No, thanks” to Cadillac for free for a month! That is customer loyalty.
BMW 340i determine a more prominent, but forced to choose something – anything – I chose the band between 50 mph and the power of 80 mph; it’s just spectacular. All it takes is a product to the gas pedal and off you go! High-speed handling and stability may be ranked second in the list of attributes. The car is said to feel most at home devouring highway miles in a nice way not noisy. Then, again, throw it in a couple of corners – high or low speed – and you will be rewarded with body control and tons of grip stretch.
Yes, BMW’s labcoat-wearing engineers really got it right with the 340i. The question isn’t whether you want one, the question is what color should you get.
–Wes Raynal, Editor
OTHER VOICES:
Yes, it’s “just” a 3-Series, no M badge, and yes, it’s a positively offensive $61,000 3-Series, but holy moly it’s so damn good I forgot what I drove the night before. Frankly, it doesn’t matter; that car is dead to me, as are most other so-called premium sports sedans.
Gushing? Damn straight. See, more years ago than I care to count, having spent all of my driving life in various Japanese and domestic “sporty” cars, I had the opportunity to drive an early E36 325i — just your plain straight-six, five-speed manual sedan. It was a revelation (one to which I suspect many of our readers can relate), and in typical addict fashion, I’ve been seeking that first high ever since.
Much of it had to do with the simple mechanical glory of Bimmer’s tried-and-true I6/stick shift combo, a piece of automotive heaven that lives in the latest 340i. The engine is now 3 liters and gets breathed upon by a twin-scroll turbocharger, but there’s the same silky push in the small of your back while running through the gears, the same unique growl from the exhaust (and underhood) that leaves no doubt there are synchronized metal bits up front working furiously to make you smile. The only other similar car that has this kind of mechanical directness is the Audi S4/S5; as good as that powertrain is the V6 just can’t match the smoothness of an inline six.
Planted in the driver’s seat, you grip a fat leather wheel, put it in gear and go. BMW has fitted the stick shift models with rev matching, but the pedals are so perfectly placed for heel/toe driving it’s largely superfluous. If you want to drive conservatively, you can shift early and enjoy the effortless torque below 3,000 rpm. Or keep it between 5k and redline and see 60 mph flash by in well under five seconds. Either way, the 340 is impeccably surefooted, never harsh, utterly predictable.
Of course, the reason our originally $49K 340i stickers at nearly $61K is because it has the whole options book thrown at it, including a bunch of stuff you don’t need. Keep the track handling package and the cold weather package and jettison the oyster leather and half a grand worth of red paint, for example. Or don’t. Hell, add another five grand in options if you want. As long as the car says 340i on the back you’re golden.
Note that your opinions may, of course, vary. You may prefer your “perfect” cars bigger or smaller, faster or hairier, and there are fantastic choices from multiple manufacturers that will satisfy. But for balanced, premium sports sedan perfection, I dare you to find a better car than the 2016 BMW 340i.
That doesn’t mean I won’t keep looking…
Everything you’d want in a BMW 3-Series is here: your I6, a stick shift and snappy looking interior. A major downside for me is sticker shock, though through the art of financing and leasing, these will probably slip into “acceptable” territory for a lease — effectively making the sticker price dissolve into the ether.
Pricing aside, getting behind the wheel of this thing is ridiculously enjoyable. Riding around the city, you’re welcomed to the I6’s burble as you row through the six-speed, with its scream still there in the upper register. It’s not quite M3 levels of ostentatious, but the point will be heard: You’re in a hot Bimmer.
One thing I noticed when running around, when really pushing this hard acceleration, it hesitates between gears. Not a big deal if you are not going to track it, and you really should not – it’s too good to tear inside. If this is the only complaint I can find, perhaps this is to become an ultimate driving machines than people give BMW credit for more
Source: http://motocar-news.com/
