R&T: 2007 BMW 335i

[PanterroR]

If you're a golfer, you gotta love the gap wedge. Mine has 52 degrees of loft, and is good for about 100 yards barring any sort of operator error. It's called the gap wedge because it neatly fills the void between the sand wedge (80 yards on a good day) and pitching wedge (maybe 115 when the ball's sitting up nice).
Automotively speaking, BMW's latest gap wedge is the 335i Sedan, a perfect fit between the solid, reasonably quick 328i and the hell-for-leather M3. With a nice round 300 bhp and a like amount of torque from 2979 cc, it falls squarely between the 3 Series bookends (whose respective outputs are 230 bhp and most likely 400 bhp for the upcoming V-8-powered M3). And acceleration-wise, this latest sedan isn't far off the recently departed E46-body M3…our test subject clicked off a fleet 5.0-second trip to 60 mph, ripping through the quarter mile in 13.5. That's a fair fight with a Cadillac CTS-V.



Read more @: RoadandTrack.com

 

[cawimmer430]

Great review.

0-60 in 5.0 seconds eh? Where are the Lexus fanboys?

BTW, looks really good in that color and with those wheels.

 

[PanterroR]

0-60 in 5.0 seconds eh? Where are the Lexus fanboys?

Let the ******* cry...

 

[Osnabrueck]

I'm really impressed by the 5sec. sprint figure. BMW really was being conservative with their performance claims.

 

[Imhotep Evil]

As Marcus said, american magazines use torque braking take off technique.
So shouldn't really be a real world thing but impresive non the less.

 

[Bruce]

Aside from the outright straight line speed, a slalon figure of 68.7 mph is damn good.

Thanks Saša

 

[Cashmere]

Great review.

0-60 in 5.0 seconds eh? Where are the Lexus fanboys?

BTW, looks really good in that color and with those wheels.

+1

whats up with the LEXUS Fans? My other friend has been going on about how the LS460 is faster to 100 then the 335i!! im like ***? are u okay

I eventually had to show him that race between the 335 and the M3 to bang sum sense into him....

poor lexus fans

 

[ree]

5.0 second?!! That's an amazing time...

 

[PC Valkyrie]

Very impressive numbers for the 335i. Road & Track is my favourite North American magazine for performance numbers because they are consistent in reporting their results (they always do a 700ft slalom run which is a much better indicator of actual handling than a skidpad number).

Here are numbers for comparable cars from the same magazine.

IS350/G35/335i/S4/M3/C55

0-60mph (s): 4.9/5.4/5.0/5.4/5.0/5.0
0-100mph (s): 12.7/13.5/12.3/13.6/12.0/11.9
1/4mile (s@mph): 13.5@103.1/13.9@101.8/13.5@104.5/13.9@101.2/13.5@105.8/13.5@106.6
skidpad (g): 0.84/0.88/0.90/0.86/0.87/0.86
700ft slalom (mph): 66.7/65.5/68.7/65.8/68.3/67.6

It takes the previous generation M3/C55 to match/come close to the performance of the current 335i, and it's only at higher speeds where the M3/C55 can pull away. It kills the S4 in everyway. And the IS350 is pretty damn good too. Numbers don't lie as much as people's personal biases.

Of course, all of these acceleration numbers were done with high rpm launches for the manual transmission cars, whereas the automatic IS350 and C55 are just press and go. Keep that in mind for everyday street encounters.

 

[PC Valkyrie]

And one other thing.....it's sad to see that there is nothing in the immediate future from MB to take on the 335i or IS350 in its price range. Maybe Audi will come up with a powerful answer to the 335i/IS350 when the next A4 becomes available.

 

[PanterroR]

And one other thing.....it's sad to see that there is nothing in the immediate future from MB to take on the 335i or IS350 in its price range.

They simply have no answer to Munich Magic...

j/k... You're right, PC. But i don't think that any of them will sit and wait... Competition forces you to answer and/or improve... But of course, a guy like you knows that...

 

[Imhotep Evil]

Very impressive numbers for the 335i. Road & Track is my favourite North American magazine for performance numbers because they are consistent in reporting their results (they always do a 700ft slalom run which is a much better indicator of actual handling than a skidpad number).

Here are numbers for comparable cars from the same magazine.

IS350/G35/335i/S4/M3/C55

0-60mph (s): 4.9/5.4/5.0/5.4/5.0/5.0
0-100mph (s): 12.7/13.5/12.3/13.6/12.0/11.9
1/4mile (s@mph): 13.5@103.1/13.9@101.8/13.5@104.5/13.9@101.2/13.5@105.8/13.5@106.6
skidpad (g): 0.84/0.88/0.90/0.86/0.87/0.86
700ft slalom (mph): 66.7/65.5/68.7/65.8/68.3/67.6

It takes the previous generation M3/C55 to match/come close to the performance of the current 335i, and it's only at higher speeds where the M3/C55 can pull away. It kills the S4 in everyway. And the IS350 is pretty damn good too. Numbers don't lie as much as people's personal biases.

Of course, all of these acceleration numbers were done with high rpm launches for the manual transmission cars, whereas the automatic IS350 and C55 are just press and go. Keep that in mind for everyday street encounters.

Thank you PC Valkyrie. But as this is an american magazine I put little faith in it vs. the likes of Sport Auto and/or EVO.

The IS 350 tough good in acceleration will probably be murdered on any track by the 335i and even the 330i.

 

[B_l3M_a2W]

C&D pulled 4.8

 

[PC Valkyrie]

C&D pulled 4.8

Just like C&D pulled 4.8 for the M3 and 4.7 for the C55......and so on and so on.

For comparisons the best is a head to head test done on the same day, same conditions. 2nd best is comparing results from different days but FROM THE SAME MAGAZINE because different magazines have different testing procedures.

 

[warot]

Where were these pictures taken? Really cool landscape. Cool car too

 

[Matt]

cool review... I drove that car and I can pretty much say that its damn good, in every respect. Ive been cruising the Lexoyota fanboy websites for comparisons on this car with the IS...some of the stuff they say is really funny.

 

[Merc1]

As Marcus said, american magazines use torque braking take off technique.
So shouldn't really be a real world thing but impresive non the less.

M

 

[Merc1]

Very impressive numbers for the 335i. Road & Track is my favourite North American magazine for performance numbers because they are consistent in reporting their results (they always do a 700ft slalom run which is a much better indicator of actual handling than a skidpad number).

Here are numbers for comparable cars from the same magazine.

IS350/G35/335i/S4/M3/C55

0-60mph (s): 4.9/5.4/5.0/5.4/5.0/5.0
0-100mph (s): 12.7/13.5/12.3/13.6/12.0/11.9
1/4mile (s@mph): 13.5@103.1/13.9@101.8/13.5@104.5/13.9@101.2/13.5@105.8/13.5@106.6
skidpad (g): 0.84/0.88/0.90/0.86/0.87/0.86
700ft slalom (mph): 66.7/65.5/68.7/65.8/68.3/67.6

It takes the previous generation M3/C55 to match/come close to the performance of the current 335i, and it's only at higher speeds where the M3/C55 can pull away. It kills the S4 in everyway. And the IS350 is pretty damn good too. Numbers don't lie as much as people's personal biases.

Of course, all of these acceleration numbers were done with high rpm launches for the manual transmission cars, whereas the automatic IS350 and C55 are just press and go. Keep that in mind for everyday street encounters.

I agree, Road and Track is a good magazine, but some of their comparo results are strange though. There is no way I'm buying than a Acura TL is a better sports sedan than the new G35. The Lexus IS350 well....I can see the luxury and power winning them over, but the TL heck no.

I just got my issue in the mail today BTW. It is packed with good stuff this month for a change. Road and Track had been getting a little boring lately.

M