Best in Class

When an automaker wants to impress observers with a new model, it boasts that it used BMW as its benchmark for performance, handling, and style. So when the time comes for BMW to revise its own models, where can it turn to improve its own near-perfection?

Five years ago, BMW’s large 7 Series, midsized 5 Series, and compact 3 Series had grown quite similar while setting different size standards. The Bavarian company decided to make a dramatic change, restyling all three models to move into a new era, and also to differentiate them more from each other. The whole automotive world stopped to observe, and criticism was harsh.

Revolutionary changes to the 7 Series four years ago prompted so much scorn that its contours already have been softened. Two years ago, the 5 Series was restyled less dramatically, but some criticism spilled over from the 7, just for changing a style that had met with such total accord, to coin a phrase. For 2006, BMW has redone the 3 Series, its most popular model, and a car that over the course of four styling generations since its beginnings as the BMW 2002 forty years ago has become the world’s leading sedan icon.

The new 325i and 330i models that make up the 3 Series will not be instantly loved by all, but they were redesigned with more restraint and resemble a downsized 5 more than the outgoing 3. The cars were stretched more than two inches longer and three inches wider, and the look—short front overhang, long hood, short trunk—was enhanced by distinct but subtle side contours.

The heart of any BMW is the engine. BMW’s current in-line six-cylinder engine, in either 3.0 or 2.5 liters of displacement, set a high standard for power and smoothness. The 3.0-liter in-line six has been transformed for both the new 330i and 325i, with improved lightness and durability. It is the first standard production engine using magnesium for its block, with aluminum cylinder heads, featuring dual-overhead camshafts with four valves per cylinder, BMW’s Vanos variable valve-timing, and Valvetronic, which is BMW’s management system that regulates valve lift for optimum power and fuel efficiency. The difference between the 330i and 325i is electronic: The 330i has 255 horsepower, an increase of thirty, while the 325i has 215 horses, an increase of thirty-one over its previous 2.5-liter.

The 3-Series’ legendary handling was enhanced by a frame stiffened 25 percent (by the use of high-tensile steel) and a revised and improved suspension. In addition, Active Steering from the 5-Series improves precision in high-speed swerves and lane changes, without inhibiting low-speed turning and parking agility.

Safety upgrades include side air bags; active cruise control, which maintains highway intervals as well as speed; active headlights, which throw light around corners as soon as you start to turn; low-profile run-flat tires, which can keep going for close to 100 miles after going flat; and brake pads linked electronically to the windshield wiper controls, so when the wipers are switched on—meaning it’s raining—the brake pads move close enough to the disks to dry them, assuring more effective stopping in foul weather.

As usual with BMW, all the 3 Series’ technical pieces come together in a seamlessly balanced machine. “We have combined the agility of a sports car with the usefulness of a sedan,” says Wolfgang Epple, director of the 3 Series. “It has all the genes and ingredients to once again be a leader in the industry.”

The new 3 Series bristles with technical improvements, even while leaving intact the heritage of the beloved outgoing model. That’s the result of a benchmark using itself as its own benchmark.