BMW 320d long-term test review: first report

After years of depriving UK buyers of BMW saloons and estates of the option of four-wheel drive, the firm relented a couple of years ago. On the 3 Series, xDrive brings with it a £1500 premium over the equivalent rear-wheel-drive model. It’s a price that could well be worth paying if the winter is going to be as bad as some newspaper is doubtless about to say.

That increased list price isn’t the only premium you’ll pay over the rear-drive 320d. The xDrive’s fuel economy is hit, too, officially down by 4.1mpg over an automatic reardrive 320d’s 60.1mpg, with CO2 emissions up from 116g/km to 123g/km, too. There isn’t anything you’d ever notice between them in the 0-62mph times, though.

British 3 Series buyers have clearly taken to the security of xDrive, because one in four 3 Series is now sold with the permanent all-wheel drive system. The set-up’s usual drive split is 40% front, 60% rear in order to try to preserve some of BMW’s famed rear-drive poise, although up to 100% of drive can go to either axle, depending on the conditions and what the Dynamic Stability Control system tells xDrive to do. Perfect, then, for helping you to avoid that lamp-post on the annual day of ‘snow chaos’ (copyright, Daily Mail, Daily Express) we experience in the UK.

In addition to that new engine and all-wheel drive system, this 3 Series sports all the usual facelift gubbins you’d expect. There’s revised styling (I think it’s the best-looking car in the class in this colour and spec), some clever changes to the suspension to improve rigidity, increased spring and damper rates to sharpen up the handling, smartened-up interior trim and revised specification levels with more standard equipment.

Which brings us nicely to the chosen trim level: M Sport. It’s more popular with British 3 Series buyers than all the others put together, accounting for some 55% of sales last year and the same again so far in this year. You get the usual M Sport add-ons, so bigger alloys, a bodykit, sportier suspension, some sporty trim and those allimportant M badges.

As for the optional extras, we really wanted to delve deep into what’s on offer, so this is about as fully loaded as BMWs come. Highlights include a top-of-therange multimedia package, some clever parking assist technology, adaptive suspension and upgraded 19in alloys. The priciest option we’ve got is the £2000 M Sport Plus package, which adds things like a rather impressive Harman/Kardon stereo and M Sport brakes.