Sunday 18th December 2022

BMW 335i Touring (F31) | PH Fleet

The Touring is proving too bijou for its own good; is a Superb the solution? 

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Parents on PH will be all too aware of this predicament. Having bought what you assumed would be the ideal family car, you soon discover that the family requires more and more stuff. A crazy amount of stuff, in fact - to the extent that people with more than one child and more than one pet soon look like miracle workers, simply for organising it all. This is precisely what has happened with the 335i; where my partner Alice, our son, our dog, and I were just about doing alright, a buggy and seat upgrade for the little man has squished things up somewhat.  

He loves travelling in a better chair and the buggy is a huge improvement, but going anywhere with both of them eats into what wasn’t massive space to begin with. It gets a bit snug, especially on longer journeys. The change has been all the excuse Alice has needed to start talking about an SUV, while I cling to the notion that a roof box might be the solution for those big trips home. Somewhere in the middle of that discussion sits a bigger estate. And who do you call if you need a very capacious, cost-effective estate? Skoda, of course. 

The Superb, you'll hardly need reminding, is the largest of the Skoda estates, and it really is a massive old thing. And just the car to prove how bijou an old 3 Series Touring is. Where we’ve been muddling along with 500 litres (or 1,500 with the seats down for a tip trip), a Superb struts around with 660 litres. That increases to an enormous 1,950 litres with the reach bench folded. It meant big baby seat and monster buggy were accommodated with ease. You can see why these things are popular with antiques dealers - so much can go in.  

There was another reason for this specific Superb to be on loan, too, as it was fitted with Skoda’s dog accessories for our cockerpoo, Nacho. Skoda has conducted research which has found only 51 per cent of Britain’s 9.6m dog owners secure their dog correctly while driving - which can lead to a fine and invalid insurance - so it sent out the Superb with a dog seatbelt and dog harness. Which, of course, Nacho didn’t like as much as just being in the giant boot on his own. Still, we tried. And doggy definitely loved having more space, as well as a better boot lining than is currently in the BMW.  

So, what’s the solution? Well, handy though the Skoda undoubtedly is, there’s no escaping the fact they aren’t the last word in dynamic excitement. Not helped by the test car being fitted with the 150hp diesel and DSG, of course, but even the flagship all-wheel drive car with Golf R power isn’t a thriller. Neither is the BMW, really, it should be said, though the engine ensures it’s more engaging. As do the little touches, before you accuse me of merely stating the bleeding obvious. The driver sits lower in the 3 Series, and everything they’re going to need on a journey - steering wheel, gearlever, paddles - is that bit nicer to use, before you get to rear-wheel drive. And I’m not sure the eight-speed auto loses out much to the seven-speed DSG. The Superb undoubtedly has its merits, as a properly huge and really quite handsome family estate, but for the moment I think I’m willing to sacrifice a bit of space for the driving enjoyment. Whether it stays that way, of course, remains to be seen. 

While we're back on the 335i, the service indicator suggested a checkup was going to be due in a couple of thousand miles or in January, which I opted to get done early rather than face a bill straight after Christmas. It went to local BMW specialist Foxtail Garage, and alongside an Inspection 2 service, a front anti-roll bar link was replaced. The bill came to £426.43, which obviously could have been brought down a little if I’d provided fluids, filters, plugs and whatever. It didn’t seem unreasonable, and the car feels all the better for it, engine that bit zippier for half a dozen new spark plugs and a freshen-up. Or at least I’m convincing myself it does, and further vindicates the decision to get a straight six. Because they’re great.  

Which means, should a roof box not really cut it and the 3 Series goes, the replacement probably has to be a BMW. Both Alice and I have become quite fond of it. A 5 Series Touring would be ideal, of course, but she quite likes an X3. And they both have straight six options. To be continued…

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FACT SHEET 

Car: 2014 BMW 335i M Sport Touring (F31)
Run by: Matt
Bought: August 2021
Mileage: 53,455
Purchase price: £19,500
Last month at a glance: Small baby needs an even bigger car 

Previous reports... 

• Matt's bought a car! 
• First job for the BMW? Holiday! 
• Wham, BLAM, thank you mam - the 3 Series gets a new stereo 
• Braking news - used cars can be wheely expensive 
• Michelin Matt gets Michelin mad 
• Dog wagon becomes Dad wagon 

[Jon_S_Rally]

By "bijou", do you mean "badly designed"? I've always quite liked the 3-Series touring, but they are pretty compromised as an estate sadly.

Still, I'd rather one of those than any SUV of a similar size. I'd can the X3 that's for sure. The boot isn't that much bigger than the 3-Series. Even a 5-Series is a pretty long way behind the Skoda as I recall.

[T1berious]

X5 xDrive45e? If you can charge it at home you'll get >40 miles electric only.

Or go for the 5 series touring version? Ah a quick look says no touring.. .

540i Touring?

[fantheman80]

Having had my first born lad in July, I had the obligatory pressure to get a 'proper family car' now, and while day to day is fine, a holiday in Sept forced this addition to the roof. (Complete with PH sticker, obvs)



How the hell me and my brother, mum and dad got in an F reg escort back in they day down the coast complete with dingy and windbreaker is beyond me, did they just carry us in holdalls?

Edited by fantheman80 on Sunday 18th December 07:27

[C_Boomerang]

This was exactly why we ended up with a Skoda Kodiaq for 4 years, but you only need the space for that sort of time then the requirements reduce dramatically (smaller car seat, no pushchair, no porta-potty etc.) so we’ve downsized my wife’s car back to normal hatchback now.

It’s almost a case of struggle through it for a few years or change to big SUV then you can change back, but it did demonstrate to me exactly why big SUVs are so popular as it fitted everything in with consummate ease every time.

Just accept they’ll be some disruption, and the PH choice won’t suit for a short (the time flies by) while.

Edit: for reference we had 2 boys (2 year age gap) and a dog

[Stoned]

When I was a child in the late 80s/early 90s our family cars were a Fiat Regatta saloon and a Vauxhall Astra hatchback. Both were considerably smaller than a 3 series touring and yet took me, my parents and two (later three!) sisters on holidays all around the country with careful packing.

It's odd how we convince ourselves of our need for ever larger cars these days, as a society we've become used to accepting little compromise and more/bigger is always the answer rather than working with what we already have.

Edited by Stoned on Sunday 18th December 07:30

[anonymous-user]

Having owned a couple of BMWs & a couple of Skoda Superbs, i’d take the Skoda
BM has better driving dynamics? That means bumpy & a horrible ride on the typical Uk roads..

In some ways I preferred the look & interior of the BMWs, but wished that had the Skoda underpinnings / reliability & ride quality!

[delays]

Very timely article.

All going well, our first little one will be with us in a few weeks.

Balancing a bonkers car market, with wanting something vaguely interesting, whilst knowing we just need space and we can’t be too precious about it… I’ve also been looking at Skodas.

[apx7]

fantheman80 said:

Having had my first born lad in July, I had the obligatory pressure to get a 'proper family car' now, and while day to day is fine, a holiday in Sept forced this addition to the roof. (Complete with PH sticker, obvs)



How the hell me and my brother, mum and dad got in an F reg escort back in they day down the coast complete with dingy and windbreaker is beyond me, did they just carry us in holdalls?

Edited by fantheman80 on Sunday 18th December 07:27

I quite like how this looks.

[Augustus Windsock]

My ‘everyday’ is an Octavia estate, more than fine when there’s 4 of us but if we go away and obligatory boy:girlfriend comes along it’s a squeeze.
My work provided VW Amorak recently failed to proceed, something to do with the secondary water pump (?) so was provided with an identical Superb to the one here
To be honest it didn’t feel anywhere near 150bhp but otherwise was…. superb. Sorry.
The size inside was predictably huge and the ride comfort was wonderful. Ok it’s no vRS but that’s not what it was designed to be.
Equipment levels were great too, the adaptive cruise proving to be a boon as was the configurable virtual dash
Is it worth the amount you’d have to pay over a 335 plus a roof box? Hmmmmn, for me it’s a yes.

[HM-2]

I'm coming up on 3 years since my daughter was born and I've muddled through until now with an M140i, albeit we have no dog. The huge fancy prams are definitely the biggest pain, ours only fits one very specific way and good luck getting anything else in the boot. I mooted upsizing several times but once they get to 18 months to 2 years the stuff requirement goes down again.

We're expecting our second now so I will 100% be upsizing in the new year, likely to an M340i. The G20 cars are quite significantly bigger than the old F30 inside.

[Billy_Whizzzz]

The 5 series boot IS much bigger despite what a previous poster says. As is an X3 which is absolutely huge.

[hepy]

Leon Cupra estate (sorry sports tourer) 4drive?

Had one a few years ago, big pram, car seat plus 3 kids in the back, no problem.

Fairly cheap to run, and not an SUV.

[Kes Arevo]

I'm only here to learn more about the doggo.

[Das Baron]

Echoing the above, steer clear of the X3 if you want a bump in space. Earlier this year I wanted to get a bigger family car. My main criteria was being able to get some 200cm long in it (and still be able to drive).

I settled on an F11 528iX. With the seats down it meets the above so I can get a lot into it for van duties. Loads of space in the back so my two kids (7 & 5) are far enough away from each other not to be constantly fighting. They are also far enough away from the front seats to keep me sane.

It has plenty of space in the rear in normal use so your dog would be fine. I don't know is the 3 series also has it but I love the fact you can just pop the glass open rather than always lifting the full tailgate.

The engine is meh but I knew it would be as we had it in an X1 previously. It performs well enough but it's a clattery little lump. I would have gone for a 6 cylinder but it's predominantly driven by my wife and she gets itchy when she hears capacities rising above 2 litres. It still cruises excellently and is very comfortable with great seats and insulation. At a sustained speed of 135mph on the autobahn my youngest fell asleep while the other 2 passengers just kept reading.

It's not up to much dynamically, the X drive numbs any potential play and Sport mode adds nothing preferable other than throttle response so it stays in Comfort. Having said this, I had a Superb as a rental a while back and was also very impressed with the space.

I can also reiterate that you only really "need" this space until your youngest kid hits 5 and is out of the largest seats.

I don't know if this is your only car. If it is then you should hang on to it and put on a roof box as outside of something like and E63 everything else that's big enough, new enough will be less engaging to drive.

[griffdude]

It’s a bit of a conundrum. Have owned the last 3 types of 3 series estates in various forms- I do try other options when I change. The current 330d Xdrive is on 65k & proving to be difficult to replace so I might just keep this for a long time( previous Alpina I had for 7 years).
Thinking about going petrol; did look at Golf R estates & Arteon R estates but neither quite justified the extra expense for some reason, not a fan of the Superb interior. Quite like the Merc C43 though. As others have said, X3 isn’t bigger than 3 series inside.

[Slowlygettingit]

I ran a e class 300d for 2 years, 50000 miles and while a long way from dynamic excellence was absolutely great for long journeys, boot was huge especially with seats down.
Second hand they are a lot cheaper than an equivalent 5 series and still feels comparatively special with premium or premium plus packs.
Look into one…..

[Craikeybaby]

The other option is to just get a smaller pushchair, for the car. By the time my lad was one had the big fancy one for trips from home and a £40 umbrella type that lived in the car.

Although, when it became clear that my 1 Series wasn’t suitable for a family of 4 mountain bikers, I skipped the the intermediate “slightly bigger” steps and went straight for a VW Transporter. Which we still manage to fill…

[Matt Bird]

fantheman80 said:

Having had my first born lad in July, I had the obligatory pressure to get a 'proper family car' now, and while day to day is fine, a holiday in Sept forced this addition to the roof. (Complete with PH sticker, obvs)



How the hell me and my brother, mum and dad got in an F reg escort back in they day down the coast complete with dingy and windbreaker is beyond me, did they just carry us in holdalls?

Edited by fantheman80 on Sunday 18th December 07:27

That’s how to do it - bravo!

[Jon_S_Rally]

Billy_Whizzzz said:

The 5 series boot IS much bigger despite what a previous poster says. As is an X3 which is absolutely huge.

I assume that's aimed at my comment. From some quick online research, the X3 boot is about 50 litres larger than a 3-Series. A 5-Series is about 50 litres bigger again. The Superb is 100 litres bigger than the 5-Series, so a massive step up comparatively.

[Twinair]

Tricky. Like all things - it depends a bit on ‘your circumstances’.

Have space, have money, probably a family ‘bus’ along with a second (or heck why not?) a third car.

For 10 years we had a disco 4 - it never once even blinked a warning light at us, not once - from new - in 10 years.

The width of the disco meant 3 child seats 1, 3 and 5 year olds - across the 2nd row. All weather bus - it was frankly brilliant. One year we did Christmas ‘away’ talk about planning OMG..!

We got everything for the kids & us and Christmas and and and, a freaking DRUM KIT in that disco! Ok it was a kids drum kit - but still, it swallowed all of it. A fabulous vehicle tbh.

Alongside we ran various things - all HH or fast saloons etc, but that’s because the will was there to do both.

We are not the sort that look like they have emptied their log burner ashes and recycling bin into the footwells - but the family bus was the place where ‘more untidiness’ could pervade.

The second vehicle we tried to keep a bit more as a car for ‘best’ - where you could somewhat inventively carry all 5 of us - if the occasion really needed it.

Now we have a disco 5 - which in terms of refinement is a ‘better’ truck - but the car we really would choose would be the 4. It’s overall usability was a hands down winner.

On the beamer - tbh - yours is too small for what you will want & need. It’s shame - but it’s just a process! I sold my Sti - wrx for a people carrier when our 1st one arrived. Life changed from that day on, a cliché - but it’s true..!