Heroes: BMW M340i xDrive Review
We put our favourite cars on pedestals so high that while doing so, we tend to not look at them objectively. Which is fine, I guess; and so is being a little opinionated, having personal favourites, and displaying intense passion when talking about cars. These are after all subjects closest to a lot of people’s hearts, closer even than their kin. Heroes are like that. You form a one-sided (most of the time) connection with someone, offering unconditional support to them, ignoring their mistakes, and most importantly, believing that they’re in a way super human, and thus out of your reach. As a young lad, I chose one of my car heroes. It was BMW.
I vividly remember as our car approached a roundabout, a dark blue E30 very gracefully (and carefully) made a swift exit. Arrested by its presence, I have no recollection of where it went, what time of the day it was, and most importantly, what kind of words spewed out of my mouth. Since there was no bollocking from parents involved, I assume it wasn’t, ‘oh fuck, did you see that’. But whatever I said, it’d have been very close to that. My love for BMWs pretty much started from then. Much around the same time, a local magazine called Overdrive featured in one of its issues not one but two of my favourite cars: a BMW M5 and a Rover 75, and to my uninformed mind, both were BMWs — since Rover was under BMW ownership. I wanted the Rover for weekdays and the E39 for weekends. I don’t think I’d turn down a two-car garage like that even now. Taking this love for the brand even further was when, a few years later, a mate of mine introduced me to a series of videos commissioned by BMW and made by various filmmakers. The recent sequel might’ve been a little underwhelming, but God, The Hire was something. (Look it up on YouTube, you must!)
This was the late noughties and BMWs were everywhere. Bangle’s departure from the company was a shock but I would spend hours defending designs made in his tenure. It got to a point when I even said that the X6 had a purpose and it served that well. Maybe I wasn’t wrong; if inducing gag reflex was its purpose, it’s served that rather well…
Amidst all this, I picked up this new (to me) magazine dedicated to driver-orientated cars: evo. Think it was the March 2010 issue, and on the right bottom corner of the cover, shone small but very inviting words: ’Every BMW M5 Driven’. That story by David Vivian not just made me like BMW more, it introduced me to world-class writing in what was probably the best magazine of that time.
A few years passed and with no distinct opportunity to drive an M car, I became extremely careful about choosing which BMW to drive. This was done so that the image of BMWs I’d formed inside my head — of being the best, most driver-orientated cars out there — didn’t fall flat on its face. Sadly this was being continually challenged by the countless ‘wrong’ steps my favourite carmaker took: the departure of Chris Bangle, questionable design, and the worst of them all, the gradual move towards making its products more comfortable with a wider appeal, etc. That effectively led to the loss of driving character from many BMWs.
The recently announced M340i suddenly seemed like redemption. On paper, at least. Redemption for driving lacklustre BMWs, looking at their silly mugs with overly large grilles (no, the new M3 still looks okay, actually; that’s a topic for another day), and suppressing the inner voice which had now begun to say that BMWs weren’t exactly perfect. The 340i though looked like the perfect non-M BMW, with some conventional BMW goodness (a la the straight-six engine) but not without slight deviation from the idea of a perfect BMW: an all-wheel-drive system. It doesn’t look bad, either, and even with the M Sport kit, it can easily be mistaken as one of the lesser models, which is a positive in my book, especially if you’re after the Q-car appeal. Burdened with as many presumptions as an over-zealous, budding automotive marketer’s LinkedIn post, I stepped into what could become my favourite new BMW.
Before getting back into the narcissistic tone this story has had since the start, it’s a good idea to recap what the BMW M340i xDrive is. It’s the top-of-the-line G20 3 Series, which delivers an almost-M3-like performance but at roughly half the price. It’s assembled in India, which helps in BMW getting the price right, and it comes standard with an all-wheel-drive system, which means driving it in slightly tricky weather mightn’t be as daunting as something with more power than grip. The engine, a straight-six, turbocharged 3-litre petrol unit (codenamed B58; it produces 382 bhp @ a lowly 5800 rpm and 369 lb.ft. from as low as 1850 rpm), marks BMW India’s return to something of that calibre (and configuration) in a non-M car after one generation; the F30 in India only had fours. In comparison to its predecessor, the F30 340i (which we never got), the G20 model produces about 50 bhp more, although there has to be some model-to-model weight increase. And while one can only dream of the E90-M3-like brutal shifts, the eight-speed torque-converter automatic gearbox isn’t bad at all.
BMW claims that with this setup, the 340i takes only 4.4 seconds to 62 mph from zero, and it certainly feels that way. I was on public roads, and it’d be understandably stupid to do a ‘launch’, but even without that, the acceleration leaves the lasting impression, to say the least. Stick it in Sport+ and the car would offer almost everything that it has; the rear squirms only a tiny bit on less-than-ideal sections of the road. On the move, the car quickly reiterates that it’s suited for this sort of a thing. No matter how romantic the idea of taking a super-powerful car to a racetrack is, the BMW M340i xDrive is, in theory, at least, the dog’s bollocks when it comes to high-performance everyday driving.
What I failed to appreciate in the little time I spent with the car was its steering. It’s good to see BMW moving back to slightly thinner rims, but goodness me, that steering, although accurate, is devoid of feel. The absence of the ability to change suspension dampening is also noticed, as the 340i, in the India-made spec, has to make do with a compromise that’s bound to suit everyone. But the universally pleasing interior is undoubtedly made of top-drawer stuff.
Save for a few extra badges, the car looks nearly identical to the 330i M Sport. That’s a great thing for those who don’t want to give away that it’s got M3-aping (almost) performance. And even the rear seat space isn’t bad, so if you’re trying to persuade the human resources manager into getting it as your next company car, they probably won’t have an issue. Considering that for the price of a small hatchback, you get a substantial performance gain over the four-cylinder BMW 3s, it’s an unbeatable deal. And that’s before you listen to how well it sounds. Not really something that would touch say the E46 M3 in the way it sounds, but it’s way better than most new four-cylinder choices in the segment.
Even on part throttle, the M340i’s urgency won’t let you mellow out in the well-appointed cabin. It’s a bit feisty, and that’s what makes it fun. It picks up and maintains speed without any concern, and drops it equally efficiently, too. The slightly lowered chassis means it doesn’t only look purposeful but exhibits a lot of confidence on the move. The benefits of its xDrive system can’t be enjoyed on a dull traffic-laden motorway but the high-speed corner stability is worth appreciating.
As mentioned earlier, the steering, while keen to react to the driver’s inputs, is a bit dead. That in itself takes a lot away from this flagship G20’s list of positives. So much so that while stability and relentless acceleration couldn’t be ignored, it did, more often than not, feel like one of those posh Audis. Which is sad.
To sum it up, the M340i is the car I’d want my ideal new BMW to be, nothing less. Not just as someone who can, not very often as I’d like, masquerade spending time around the presence of such cars as a legitimate profession, but also as a huge BMW fan, I think this version of the 3 Series is worth experiencing. The M340i xDrive disregards, although not entirely, logic and market expectation. It drives extremely well, and is, without a fraction of a doubt, worthy of its badge. And most importantly, as clichéd it may sound, with this, the 3 is back to being a wolf in sheep's clothing. It’s so good that despite some of its shortcomings, you wouldn’t mind giving it a try. You’d gladly overlook those like you would in the case of your heroes. The only difference is that this one’s not exactly as out of reach as some of the others…
The BMW M340i xDrive is assembled in India but in limited numbers. It’s priced at Rs 62.9 lakh, ex-showroom. There are three colours to choose from: Dravit Grey, Tanzanite Blue, and Sunset Orange. My ideal spec would be one with Alpina wheels, but from what BMW offers in India, I’d like to get the gloss black grille; everything else (like those all-black wheels) seems a bit superfluous. The G20 in this form isn’t a bad looking car, and the fact that it has a 382 bhp engine and all-wheel-drive system makes it even better.
#Want
More details are available here: www.BMW.in
