BMW 3 Series 330i M Sport 2019 UK first drive

It’s the classy, expensive look and feel about the car’s various cabin fittings that probably most clearly sets the car apart from its predecessors. For the first time in a 3 Series, you feel as if you’re snug in a bubble of widescreen, chrome-garnished, expensively solid modern luxury in the driver’s seat.

The digital instrumentation may not be the most conventional or readable you’ve ever seen but, between the digital dials and the head-up display, it certainly furnishes you with every last bit of driving information you’re likely to want in one way or another. This tester particularly liked the layout of the oversized head-up display screen, which usefully prioritises putting a speedometer, selected gear indication, your selected driver assistance and cruise control settings, and navigation directions and mapping into your natural line of sight.

BMW’s new 10.3in Operating System 7.0 infotainment system (standard on M Sport cars, optional elsewhere) is, at first acquaintance, a bit less easily navigable than iDrive multimedia set-ups used to be, mostly because there’s now a home screen on it whose content and layout you can configure to your own preference – but, until you do, it simply serves as one more layer of complication. Thanks to BMW’s rotary controller and its surrounding shortcut keys, though, you’re never too far from the menu or function you need – and, meanwhile, BMW’s latest voice control software rarely misses with a navigation destination or music request, even at its first attempt.

The 3 Series’ driving experience is tweaked and tailored from a spot on the centre console not far from that iDrive controller. Instead of a toggle switch to jump between drive modes, the G20 has a line of individual mode buttons adjacent to the gear selector: Sport, Comfort and Eco Pro on all cars, plus an additional Adaptive mode for cars with Adaptive M suspension. A double-press of the Sport button allows access to secondary Sport Plus and Sport Individual modes, the latter permitting the mixing of softer settings for one system with firmer/noisier/angrier ones for the next.

It’s heartening to report that, even in Sport Plus mode, the 330i M Sport’s four-cylinder engine isn’t made to sound too digitally contrived by the car’s audio system’s engine noise impression routine. Equally, the engine’s audible character isn’t quite left unmolested, so you’re just about aware that there’s a bit of digital remastering going on when you’re delving deep into the car’s accelerator pedal travel.

Genuine or otherwise, the engine doesn’t sound like a perfectly balanced straight six, and it doesn’t rev out with quite the silken freedom of one either. It’s something you won’t fail to notice if you’re familiar with older, higher-end 3 Series - but that you do feel unfair complaining about when, in 2019, there is only one sport saloon left on the market that offers multi-cylinder petrol power for 330i M Sport money: the Kia Stinger GT S. Everything else in this niche now uses a high-output four-cylinder engine, just like the BMW. And, for the record, while you’d probably give the 330i’s motor the nod, for its mix of responsiveness, range, outright performance and smoothness, over any direct rival made by Jaguar, Mercedes or Audi, you’d have to admit that an Alfa Romeo Giulia Veloce’s turbo four-pot is a little bit more potent- and zesty-feeling.

The 330i’s engine can certainly be refined when you want it to be – and pretty frugal too given that 40mpg is easy to hit in mixed, unhurried use. The car’s eight-speed automatic gearbox combines well with it whatever the style you’re adopting, engaging gears smartly and choosing them well in ‘D’; being more eager to downshift and hold revs in ‘S’ without becoming hyperactive; and shifting quickly and with assurance in manual mode.

The car’s ride and handling has similar versatility – assuming, that is, you’ve plumped for adaptive dampers. The 330i M Sport comes with passive sport suspension, 18in alloy wheels and run-flat tyres as standard, but if you splurge on BMW’s M Sport Plus option package, you get 19in rims, adaptive dampers, performance tyres (Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S) and BMW’s M Sport active diff at extra cost.