Ok guys… [sips coffee]
This is very frustrating because what I took away from yesterday's test drives is the sort of thing you really want to sit down and discuss over a beer, not the sort of thing that translates well to a forum post - especially when I have a frightening pile of things to get done, none of which involve writing screeds about the minutia of German cars...
Where to start?
First impressions of the F30… Wow what a cheap interior. Damn what a nice infotainment screen. Hot damn! Power fold-in mirrors!
Let's fire this bad bow up… Wow, steering is like throwing a hotdog down a hallway...
The F30 gave me very conflicted feelings. Coming out of my S-Line A4, the interior feels a half-class down. Steering wheel has a nice girth, but the grain of the leather feels a bit rough - not 'buttery' like the Audi. Overall not a fan of BMW's Dakota leather. It's has a course, pebbly grain that feels out of place with the fluid swoops of the dash. The 328i I checked out with Coral Red leather helped things quite a bit - the contrast in the cabin felt much better than the black leather - If I was to buy one of these any color but black would be my first choice… iDrive is great… It beats the daylights out of MMI. Outstanding integration of a 'BMW experience', superb screen resolution and graphics capabilities. The UI/UX nazi in me was impressed. First time I could say I've felt a genuinely holistic digital experience outside of a Tesla Model S.
On the road, steering feel is an immediate, glaring disappointment. Driving back to back with an E90 it was clear, and sad how the character of the 3er has been irreversibly changed. Even in Sport+, it felt as though the car was just saying 'ok I'll make steering slightly more difficult' instead of imparting any kind of road feedback. It is terrible? No, but it's the same as the A4… artificial, video game'y, unBMW'ish. There's some cognitive dissonance between what you feel in your hands, and what you hear in the cabin…
Which brings us to these two engines..
The N55 is what you expect - totally adequate power, smooth, creates a pleasant soundtrack that's feels like the perfect facsimile of what you think a BMW should sound like in your imagination. A little bit slower on the uptake than I expected… Something about the action of the throttle didn't feel right to me, even in Sport+. Maybe it's just the sensation of being in a brand new car that still has packing plastic on the doorsills. Anyways, the soundtrack puts a smile on your face, everything seems right in the world, feels like one couldn't want for anything else in a Beemer…
But the N20… Boy oh boy, that N20! Guys - I gotta tell ya… BMW opened up pandora's box for the obsessive car shopper with this engine! It's like the engineers sent the four cylinder to I6 boot camp to hang out with a bunch of roughneck inline sixes to go through hell week and learn the meaning of performance. It's got character! It's a distinctly different experience from the I6 - At low speeds it develops power with a pretty mild demeanor - it goes about its business doing a very good impersonation of a six cylinder… Then when you open it up… It's like it's been listening for your signal, like a young Siberian Husky that's been cooped up in the apartment all day, ready to burn a bad one. The soundtrack… It's so adjusted, so sweetened, it's A THING. You could tell that engineers spent months tuning the soundtrack of this engine to be the best representation of a BMW experience. Is it better or worse than the I6? Well… It's DIFFERENT. It's rowdy, raspy, and very un-I6'like. But it's a different thing, and something really enjoyable unto itself. There's so much enthusiasm being projected from this engine, yeah it's been coaxed, massaged and coached to sound like this, but it's almost like you want to shout 'bbbeerrrerrrrmmmmm' along with it.
Performance wise, the N20 left little to be desired, even though it felt a couple ticks slower than the I6. Thing is, it makes up for that gap with enthusiasm, and a soundtrack that says 'I'm on this.' It really felt more like 270 than 240hp, and my gut told me this engine was a good tick faster than the 2.0T in the A4. To summarize… mostly effortless around town, then shouting when you open it up and matching all the bark with bite.
Then there was weight - Now I didn't check how full the respective gas tanks were of these two cars, but I did notice a sense of 'added lightness' with the 328i. It's subtle, but it's another spiff that you may notice with your spidey senses.
So back to the E90 - After testing these two fun cars, and their Mattel steering - We took a spin in a non-sport line 328i automatic. Immediately, before even leaving the parking lot, I felt at home. The steering on the E90 ten changes everything. You're driving with the car, not in the car. Yeah the interior is a bit of a mess, but the feeling you get looking over the hood is nothing short of sublime. Damn, I should have gotten one of these a long, long time ago. The NA I6 makes a nice sound, but feels underpowered, especially with the GM Sourced 6 speed. If you're going to go E90/92/93 seems like a late model 335i is the only way to go - preferably manual (they just started using the ZF8 tranny with the F30 gen, right?)
So what's this all mean?
A few things…
1: An F31 328xi wagon would do just fine if the right one came along. Steering be damned.
2: I'm suddenly interested in an E90 or E93 M3.
3: Renewed appreciation for what my A4 does right - especially how well the interior is sorted.
As for the N55 vs N20 debate… MIssion accomplished for the N20. The line between the 328i and 335i has been completely blurred by this new engine and I don't see the 335i having any clear superiority in normal driving conditions. I have to say that the 335i is now purely a choice of aesthetics - It's almost like comparing wines. Much as I felt that the I6 an ideal experience - when you factor in a price difference and the characteristics of the 328i - I'd have to say that nobody would be making a mistake or shortchanging themselves going for the 328i. It's a rowdy engine that is still BMW'ish in execution, just in a different way than what we're used to.
Forgot to mention suspension - The F30's sport suspension is VERY well sorted. Great balance of sharpness without harshness. Huge improvement when contrasted with my teeth-rattling s-line suspension.
Which one would I buy? Almost impossible to say. Feels like I'd have to spend a week or more commuting with each car to develop a concrete opinion. But all things being equal - and they're not, being that the 335i stickers for about $4k more - the 335i feels like an indulgence.
TL-DR - The N20 is impressive. F30 steering disappoints. There is no right answer in the F30 328i vs 335i debate it's genuinely subjective. Audi interiors will spoil you. Now looking at E90/E93 M3s. Also eager to test drive a F30 335i with a manual.
. And I vote for E90 M3, shouldn't cost much more than a new 328i.
