Wednesday 15th February 2012

Driven: BMW 335i

Is BMW's range-topping 3 Series a good choice? We find out via a cross-Europe road trip

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The much-loved BMW straight-six is under threat. With the unending hunt for greater efficiency cylinder counts in 'prestige' cars are getting lower and lower. Traditionally cylinder count equalled status. But the days of V12s for the CEO, V8s for the directors, sixes for the managers and four-cylinders for the corporate grunts are over. Heck, the three-cylinder 3 Series looms.

The obligatory petrol station shot

This is not necessarily a bad thing. BMW now musters 184hp, 0-62mph in 7.5 seconds and 61.4mpg from its 320d, while the 2.0-litre 328i turbo petrol gives you 245hp, 0-62mph in 5.9 seconds and 44.1mpg in manual guise. The 3.0-litre N55 twin-scroll turbocharged six therefore has to really sing for its supper as the (for now) range-topping engine choice: 306hp, 0-62mph in 5.5 seconds and 39.2mpg combined isn't half bad, but is it enough? Can the six-cylinder 3 Series justify itself?

To answer that question, and to find out what the F30 3 Series is like in general, we took the first right-hook 335i to be released from the UK press launch in Malaga all the way back to PH HQ. After all, there's nothing like a road trip to really get to grips with a car.

Spanish sun replaced by winter snow

Friday, 12:30pm: Malaga airport
I've been in the car for some 15 minutes now, adjusting, fiddling, and inputting a sufficiently interesting route into the sat-nav. Initial impressions are good: the cabin design feels like the conceptual lovechild of the current generation 5 Series and the E90 3 Series.

There's a centre console canted towards the driver (nice), and a slightly self-conscious design language that 'links' one area of the interior to another (a bit forced), but the overall feel is that this is a car you know well, even after the first 30 seconds of acquaintance. Things are where you want them to be, and work largely in the way you expect, provided you've been in a few recent BMWs, that is.

Friday 2pm: a twisty Spanish motorway on the way to Granada
That immediate sense of familiarity continues on the move. We've only been driving for a short while and yet I'm already entirely comfortable with the way it behaves.

Spanish roads not the best quality...

That's partly a result of the evolutionary nature of the F30, partly the fact that this is a very familiar engine. And a very lovely one. That twin-scroll turbo engine has an elastic flexibility to its delivery that allows it to play relaxed cruiser one moment and lunging overtaker the next. It's helped by the new ZF eight-speed auto, too, which feels beautifully matched.

It's not all peaches and cream, however. The new fully electric steering rack might have made gains in efficiency (it uses no power at the straight ahead or in steady-state cornering), but it does feel more than a little aloof. There's also a soupy feel to the wheel that the sweeping curves of Andalucian motorways only serve to highlight.

Friday, 4pm: a back-road detour
The quality of asphalt rapidly deteriorates when you take to the quieter backwaters of Spain's road network, and a 'shortcut' I'd picked out to get a chance to play with the adjustable chassis and powertrain settings and explore the 335i's country road handling characteristics turns out to be more of a challenge than I could possibly have imagined.

Where are we again?

We like to moan about the state of B-road Britain, but the road I find myself on (the C-22 to the north west of Lorca) is a genuinely astonishing piece of tarmac. Ostensibly straight and well sighted, the road hides more than a few sudden chicanes as it snakes along, with very little in the way of warning signs. It also serves up an amazing array of potholes, sudden dips and damper-destroying ripples. It is, in short, the sort of road that keeps chassis engineers awake at night.

Overall, the 335i copes pretty well - even in 'comfort' the suspension keeps body roll largely in check in corners and holds back heave and float over lumps and humps, while the gearbox does a reasonable job of keeping you in the right gear.

Wind up to sport mode and things are even more tightly controlled. The Spanish road of chassis death does reveal the car to be a smidge under-damped, however, while that steering proves vaguely recalcitrant in quick direction change situations - which is quite a disappointment and dulls the edge of an inherently sharp chassis.

Saturday 7am: north of Barcelona

Gearbox is a joy

Figuring a rapidly driven Ford C-Max must be a local and up to speed on where the police hang out I decide to tag on to his tail and wind up the pace a bit. The 335i naturally proves thoroughly comfortable at these higher speeds (its autobahn cred would be shot if it wasn't) and the cruise control proves usefully responsive.

There is a lot of wind noise, but I can't decide whether it's because there's very little tyre, road or engine noise, whether it's the blustery side wind making it worse, or whether the car just generates a lot of wind noise. Jury's out on that one.

Saturday, midday: Perpignan to Foix
The D117 is one of those roads we fondly imagine criss-cross the continent; it mixes sweeping bends, straights and hairpin passes with a sweet, smooth surface. Best of all, it's pretty much empty.

The 3 Series is in its element here, feeling much more progressive and assured when not asked to change direction so swiftly or over such bumpy terrain as in Spain.

It's here that I also explore the manual elements of the eight-speed auto. BMW has been using this gearbox for a while now, and Munich's engineers seem to have finally got a proper handle on it. And in manual mode it's brilliant. It takes you a while to get used to the idea of so many ratios, but it shifts smoothly and, crucially, gives you a gear when you want it, a trick the Mercedes 7G-Tronic transmission could do well to learn. It's also a small thing, but it's nice to have a sequential lever with the 'proper' pull to shift up, push to shift down configuration.

Saturday, 6.30pm: north west of Limoges

The old N147 from Limoges to Poitiers, the last leg of my journey (ignoring the dull schlep up to Calais - because you don't want to read about that), is an exercise in old-fashioned lorry overtaking.

The 335i is, of course, a master of this sort of thing, and it's a great chance to hear the growling straight six in its upper ranges one final time this evening. And to muse on whether there's still a place for the six-cylinder 3 Series.

My conclusion? It pains me to say this, but the Twinpower six is feeling a bit old these days. Its four-cylinder petrol and diesel brethren are so efficient, and sufficiently powerful, as to make the big six almost an irrelevance, especially on a long trip like this, where even a perfectly respectable 28-and-a-bit mpg just seems a bit too thirsty. Unless you really crave that six-cylinder yowl, it's hard to make a convincing logical case for the 335i.

All is not lost for the six-pot 3er, mind - the forthcoming hybrid version will use it, and add a suitable chunk of power and economy in the process. Should be interesting...

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BMW 335I
Engine:2,979cc inline-6
Transmission:6-speed manual/8-speed auto, rear-wheel drive 
Power (hp): 306@5,800rpm
Torque (lb ft): 295@1,200-5,000rpm
0-62mph: 5.5 seconds
Top speed: 155mph
Weight: 1,585kg
MPG: 39.2 (35.8 manual)
CO2:169g/km (186 g/km manual)
Price: £37,025 (£49,860 as tested)

[E38Ross]

interesting read. overall a pretty good car then?

i think (personally) there is still a place for the 6 pot 3er, but for sure it won't be as common as it has been. it's nice they do still at least offer it.

the interior looks like a nice step up from the E90; whilst i like the idrive on the E90, as a whole i preferred the E46 interior design.

£50k seems very expensive though, must have been fully specced!

what's the verdict.....IF you're buying a brand new car (please, no new vs 2nd hand comments!!) what else would you consider riggers? do you think the new 335i is good as a whole then?

[E38Ross]

goron59 said:

...OTT engine.....

you think a reasonably economical 3.0 straight six is OTT?

wrong website?

[E38Ross]

Fox- said:

So if it yeilded only 28mpg from a 335i then its probably fair to say a 320d on the same trip wouldnt have been busting economy records and would probably return a reasonable 40mpg or so.

So what we are saying then is that you'll lose about 25% of fuel economy in return for dropping the 4 cylinder dagdag and replacing it with a 3 litre inline six petrol turbo.

Fantastic. Best car in the range surely? Where is the downside?

i suspect that 28mpg covers some rather enthusiastic driving too there was a reason the speedo was photoshopped out, you know

i think considering that, 28mpg seems very good for a 300bhp reasonably heavy car to be honest. i reckon you'd get well into the 30's if driven normally.

[E38Ross]

iain_thornton said:

I'm really not a BMW fan usually (I make exceptions for the right ones) but I have to say I like this. It's the first BMW interior I can ever remember seeing that I actually like, for instance.

Have you seen the interior on the new 6 series?

Ivory leather, black top dash with piano black or aluminium trim. Absolutely stunning. I think it's one of the nicest interiors around in any car at the moment.