It had been argued in some quarters that, in the aftermath of advances to the Mercedes Benz C Class and the Audi A4, BMW was under pressure with the new 3 Series to eliminate any of the flaws of the old model which, having driven several, were inconsequential.
However, if we accept for a minute that the excellence of the A4 had made the 3 Series slightly vulnerable, BMW had no alternative but to up the ante and sire the magnificent latest manifestation of its small executive class which I drove throughout a seasonally manic Bank Holiday Weekend.
Monsoon weather on the road to Bray is what you least expect in the first weekend of August, but what better conditions to see what this BMW is capable of in extremely trying conditions. It was a feature of the deluge that when the rain came like a bat out of hell.
Not that you would really feel what’s happening outside the cocooned assurance of this car, as the Dynamic Stability Control will detect the slightest of slightest skidding and responds within seconds.
On a road seconding as a river the 3 Series will alterante power between the rear wheels to improve the traction, but it happens so automatically that you don’t even notice, except for the surprise you get the handling which remains as light as when you started out.
Deep in the sinews of the car a mechantronical system is busy, all the time, weighing up wheel speed and torque and steering angle and the size of your butt for one purpose: drive power distribution is varied.
Stay with me, it gets better, if a little more complicated: sensors in the car are working as fast as Katie Taylor’s hands to accumulate and store intelligence while you drive about what’s known as pitch and yaw forces on the chassis. So far so good.
Armed with this info, the car adjusts the stabilisers and the dampers – settings are changed in a jiffy – so that their co-ordinated interaction opposes the car’s natural tendency to roll or sway on a bend. BMW calls it Variable Damper Control, but I prefer road hugging. The braking distance is also shorter.
The saloon offers a plethora of interconnected technologies – variable sport steering, XDrive, a much lighter chassis – that rearranges the sensitivity of the driving experience, with tried and tested engines: a lighter chassis translates nturaly into a more dynamic performance. Fancy an injection of pace: switch to sports mode with a flick.
The 3 Series is equipped with Adaptive Drive, where each axle adjusts the dampers at each wheel (the suspension settings) to accommodate an uneven surface, from a pothole to a kerb, so that from the car’s point of view, it’s all plain sailing.*
The soul of the latest 3 Series saloon is the incredible chassis – 50/50 front to rear weight distribution – and the rear wheel drive which segues your expectation and the car’s performance from the moment you allow the TwinPower Turbo four-cylinder diesel purr evolve into a growl.
Finally, I haven’t dwelt too much on the interior because the raison d’etre of the Series should always be what’s happening beneath, but because it is viewed by BME as a sporty compact executive, driver comfort is the primary objective.
It’s also true that leg room in the rear has been increased – the rear seats can be configured with a 40:20:20 split – and passengers will enjoy the bigger window space (the pillars are thinner), but driver orientation is everything from the cockpit seat and keyless ignition to the busy but efficient instrument panel angled at you.
My 316d SE is priced at E36,839 (J Donohoe BMW, Enniscorthy, Tel. 053 9 242526, but you get a lot of car, a lot of economy and a lot of value for that type of money, and the first among equals is a staggering 62.8 mpg. Think about the fuel economy for a moment. From Wexford to Bray and back, for example, for twenty Euro.
Now you can afford to buy two newspapers again on a Saturday.
*Adaptive Drive: high speed data transfer system that networks sensors.
