BMW Raises the Ante with the New 335i Sedan

The BMW 3-Series, perennial winner of every auto magazine’s top-10 cars of the year award, is reinvented once again.  The new 335i is stuffed full of a twin-turbocharged 3.0 liter inline 6-cylinder engine generating 300hp and 300 ft-lb of torque (max torque available at only about 1400 rpm – let’s hear it for having a low-end turbocharger).  The new engine motivates the car from a standstill to 60mph in 4.9 seconds and through the quarter mile in the mid-thirteens (Car and Driver Magazine stats).  Of course, as is typical for BMW, the car still brakes and corners very well.

The real kicker here is that the current sporting model of the 3-Series lineup, the M3, only generates 333hp.  The result is that this new, run-of-the-mill 3-Series vehicle is only 0.1 seconds slower to 60 than its high-performance sibling.  The soon to be released next generation M3 will have a V8, re-establishing its performance leadership and raising the bar even further.

I think the car looks great.  This is the first car from BMW in a while to have lost the Bangle-ized rear end that makes new BMWs look like backing the car into a wall was part of the construction process.  I’m still not wild about the interior – I’ve never been a fan of BMW interiors – but it still looks pretty nice.

It doesn’t look like BMW is going to be giving up its slot on those top-ten lists any time soon.

Related posts:

1. My Day at the Track in a Family Sedan