The Ultimate Driving Machine. (or is it?)

BMW has long had the reputation as the Ultimate Driving Machine, no matter its on the highway of Germany, a pothole filled American city road or a closed high speed track in Japan it has retained this title. It is curious to me however that BMW had given itself such a title almost 70 years ago when it had won all those races, but does it still hold true today when the new bimmers are nothing like back then and there are a lot more fast and exciting cars on the road?

Bavarian Motor Works or commonly called bimmer, break my window and some other inappropriate names, it doesn't matter what its called as soon as you see the trade mark blue and white badge that represents their aircraft making days you know it suppose to be the most exciting everyday car to drive on the road.

It is surprising to me that another German auto maker Mercedes-Benz with all of its racing heritage is somehow viewed as tame, boring and too slow compare to BMW, well I am here to test that myth.

For this particular review I tested the famed BMW 3 series and will pit it against its closest competition on the road, the all new Infiniti G37, as well as testing it against a normal everyday car you would see on the road, the Honda Civic. I looked at all the 3 series model and deemed that the 335i was the best one to test. The reason behind that is on paper the 328 looked a little bit "weak" with its 230 hp 3.0 liter engine, I am sure in reality the car is very fun to drive since thats plenty of power for a compact size car but this is BMW that we are talking about, there are Hondas that have more power than that. Then on the other end of the extreme we have the M3 with its 414 hp V8. That is obviously an enthusiast car that is not meant for daily driving so its out of our range as well, therefore it leave me the 335 with its twin turbo 3.0 liter flat 6 cylinder that produces a cool 300 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque that peaks at 1400 rpm. Also it comes the closest to the G37 in terms of power.

It was unfortunate that the particular dealership we went to did not have any regular 335i but only the all wheel drive models, keeping that in mind I will go a little easier on the handling and acceleration.

-First Impression (Exterior)
There is no doubt that this is a beautiful car, I actually like the conservative look of the 3 series. Sure its got the aggressive front end but probably less so than Audi or even Mercedes, and the back end well you can almost mistaken it as a much cheaper car. Overall its unmistakably BMW although I personally prefer the boxy look it had back in the early 90s. see below picture of a 1995 bmw 5 series.

One other note, the all wheel drive model sits about half inch higher than the rear wheel 335i. The Infinti G37 is no exotic looker either, it retains most of the exterior features from the platform that it was build on which is the Nissan Altima. This is a big turn off so I am giving a slight edge to the BMW here.

(Interior)
Way too many buttons. Even with most of the functions tied to the infamous i-drive(more on that later) there are still way too many buttons on the center console. And whats with the fake plastic wood? You can get that in a Toyota Corolla but this is a 45,000 dollar bimmer, it was definitely a turn off. The seats were very comfortable like most BMW but I also have to say why does the leather feel so hard like it is a fake plastic leather? Same thing goes for the steering wheel. The tilt and telescope steering wheel combined with 8 way adjustable seats give you great driving position but I did not like having 2 sticks coming out of the left side of the steering wheel as one is for turn signal and one is for cruise control, I didn't get confused but I can see how some people will. The front was pretty spacious but not too spacious, it almost feels a tad smaller than a new generation Honda Civic. The back seats are terrible there is almost no room there even though the 3 series is about 3 inches longer than the new Civic.

Now back on the i-drive, I have heard of horror stories about it but never quite believed into people's hype. All I can say is my co-pilot JT snowball should have been taking a lot of pictures but he didn't and somehow I don't blame him, it took him 20 minutes just to figure out how to turn on the radio through i-drive, lets just put it at that. Later we found out that the radio can be controlled completely from the voice command center from the steering wheel and that still does not make the I-drive any better.

-The Driving Experience
Enough about the look and the feel of the car, this is where the 335 should shine. You plug in the key and hit the start engine button and it was so quiet you can hear a pin drop...I am not saying it should sound like a big V8 mustang but it was strangely quiet. As soon as I step on the gas paddle I get no response from the engine and I was a little puzzled at first so a little more gas the engine finally comes alive but it was still relatively quiet. Again I'm not comparing to a muscle car I am basing this on driving a Civic everyday. The throttle response is definitely disappointing, I understand that this is an all wheel drive car unlike the rear wheel one where you can do a proper burn out but like I said I hit the gas paddle and it felt like it had to go three blocks to find where the engine is. The Infiniti has a lot more peppy engine in this bay with a 3.6 liter V6, but you have to push the engine a lot harder to get to those numbers as the torque is maxed at 4500 rpm. Because of it the engine sounds a lot more thrashy on the Infiniti as well but no car drives as smooth as the 335i. The I6 is so smooth that you do not feel any type of turbo lag at all, you don't even feel any kind of indication that its shifting gears, its so buttery smooth that JT literally was yelling at me to stomp on the gas as hard as I can which I did but we still felt nothing...until I looked down on the speedometer. We went from 0-50 in matter of 4 sec and we didn't feel a thing, part of it is contributed to the all wheel drive system for being in too much control and another part comes back to just how smooth the engine is. I just cant get over how smooth it is since this car makes a type of power a V8 mustang would, so it shouldn't be so quiet and tame. On the road the Bimmer never fails either, we heard almost no road noises and felt no effects from the potholes at all...have I mentioned how smooth this beast of a car is? It really really feels like a civic rather than a sports car, until you look at how fast you are going that is. It's got that deceptive speed. I can understand now why BMW stayed with the I6 engine while almost everyone else has moved on the the cheaper V6. Its just so smooth compare to V6 I never thought I would say a V6 engine on a Honda can be called rough but you haven't felt anything until you drive a BMW with its I6 engine.

Ok I am officially done with the word smooth for the rest of the review. Now the G37 is not too shabby either with similar numbers from 0-60 compare to the 335i but it definitely has a very different driving dynamics as the engine is naturally aspirated so you need to operated it at a lot higher rpm to get the max power compare to the twin turbo charged 335i.

BMW is not only known for its famous engines and drive qualities but also its handling that no American sports cars can compete with. My first reaction is the steering wheel felt extremely heavy to me, so heavy that I have no doubt that I can not drive this car with one hand. Again I'm sure part of that is contributed to this car being all wheel drive but it is significantly heavier than the Infiniti. But a light touch on the steering wheel will move the car, now my civic is very responsive like most Japanese cars but the 335i felt like an extension of your arms.

-Lasting Impression (Value)
Over the years BMW has became more and more expensive in order to match up with the same luxury segment and imagine that Mercedes is projecting. The 335i we drove is very well equipped but the price tag is pushing to around 46-47k. I don't know about you but thats a lot of money for a car that is no bigger than a civic, that doesn't look as exotic as a Porsche and a engine that is very good but certainly not as powerful as a Shelby Mustang which cost around the same amount. On the other hand a fully equipped Infiniti G37 cost about 10k less even though it might not be as good of a driving machine than 335i or won't give you the status and looks from people as a BMW would, 10k is still 10k. Therefore the 335i is a very grossly overpriced car for people that want to enlarge their ego on the road or maybe some other things as well. Don't get me wrong the 335i is a beautiful yet conservative car that oozes German luxury, and it is a very good driving machine, but its definitely not the Ultimate Driving Machine.