[Kafkaesque328]

Haven't posted on here in ages. Figured this was worthy of a discussion. I'm sure there are a bunch of 'drove the new 3 series' discussions but here are my impressions having the car for a few days as a loaner while my 2016 328i was in for service. It was a black standard sport line model with leather, convenience package and a bunch of other options I guess and drove it on some back canyon roads near my house etc. My impressions.

Just to preface this, I have kind of lost interest a little in this whole thing and am by no means some road testing expert bro so I am not going to start talking about G force and skidpads and 1/4 miles and all of that but here are my real world impressions based on (A) having spent almost 6 years in an F30 3 series (both w/M sport suspension) and (B) the epic hype surrounding the new 3 series and how it was supposed to be such an improvement over the F30.

2nd disclaimer, I'm not writing this to make people with the new 3 series upset or people who think the F30 was the worst 3 series ever upset, these are just my impressions.

I wasn't overly impressed or at least, not any more impressed with this car than the F30. My feeling is neutrality. It also reinforced what I have always felt, that automotive mags pedal insane levels of hype and that car guys generally buy into said hype. Lets start with the supposedly new and improved steering. I frankly don't notice a difference. It felt like light, numb, BMW EPS. Thats it. Again, I'm not an expert but I didn't think it was any better. My friend's base Mazda 3 has better steering feel. This is still the bane of the new 3 series existence. The steering has no feel. However, I did have the variable sport steering in a 430GC loaner I had once and that was noticeably better. But in terms of standard steering, I felt no improvement over the previous car.

In terms of the much lauded interior and how it such a supposed improvement. I mean, its nice but aside from the sort of landscape Tesla-esque iPad size screen in your face and the digital gauges, in terms of just interior quality its the same as the last one. It is however quieter inside so I guess they used more insulation this time around. There is no wind noise which is a definite improvement over the F30. If you start looking and tapping around though, there are plenty of cheap cost cutting bits in the cabin. Hard plastics, kind of cheap touch gear and knobs here and there like the shiny fake chrome air vent flow dials etc. Kind of ho hum and isn't as nice as my friends new A4 or even the C class. The nav screen, the backup camera and all that is obviously nicer but I don't care much about that kind of thing beyond a certain point. Im combining tech and interior but yeah, the tech is obviously pretty far ahead of the F30 and the iDrive is still intuitive and there is touch screen and you constantly have the headline news up the screen so you can like, look at the news while you're driving and and probably look at facebook or other such bullshit, but again, dont really care so I'm not their target. My current car has nav, premium, well its all in the signature, but anyway, I don't long for more tech in my current car. The 'old' nav and all that is fine and I don't have a problem with it and I don't long for a huge screen in the car. I'm old. And yes, I realize this is bias to what I like/value so objectively, yes the tech is better in the new car. One would hope so, right?? This is seems like an obvious thing

Engine, driving feel, etc. So, again I had the sport which is the base model. It had shitty all season run flats, which blow and were noisy. The suspension is whatever but doesn't touch the M sport suspension. So if I had driven a new 330i w/the M sport, it would have been better. I DO like that they tuned the exhaust to be a more audible and aggressive sounding, thats nice but I think they started doing that with the F30 330i models so anyway. They definitely dialed up the fake active sound engine noise a lot in sport mode and there is more induction/turbo noise so thats kind of nice, I guess but it reminds me of the new GTI's fake engine sound which can be a little much. I find the active sound in the F30, that sort of fake growl to be more refined. It doesn't really feel any faster than the F30 328i and it sounds like on paper, its not which is weird because it has more power and is lightweight. It prob gets better gas mileage for sure but didn't drive the car long enough to notice and I was driving the shit out of it.

I found the transmission programming in comfort to be a bummer and even more geared towards fuel economy than the F30. I drive mine in comfort most of the time and have no problem with it. BUT, I am running the JB+ which improves that a lot and can't really remember what the stock 328 feels like.

I could go on, and I'm not bashing the car, its fine, its a nice car but to think it is some like grand return to the 3 series of old is ludicrous. Absurd. It doesn't even remotely rival the driving feel of the E90 or E46. Thats never going to happen again so people who want that feel can go buy one of those for like $9000 on craigslist right now.

I walked away appreciating my car and it reinforced my current lease end plan. My lease is up in 4 months and if BMW offers the $4000 discount on contracted residual on the MY2016s that they were doing on the MY2015's last summer, I am going to buy my car. If they don't, my exact car w/the same options can currently be found on dealer lots for like $23k or so, so I will just buy another F30, drive it it for 3-4 years til its paid off and then get something else. "Bro, buy another F30?!" Yes, I like it. I love this car actually. It has given me zero problems and I like it. I still have the JB+ juice box on there and its plenty of power, good fuel econ, I like the suspension a lot interior is fine, blah blah. Driving the new 3 series was going to be a determining factor for me but nothing about it makes me want to pay the premium for it vs. just staying in an F30. I guess if they ran old lease deals like they used to and I could get a $50k M sport new 330 with comparable options to mine for $350 a month like I did on this one, but that aint happenin.

Also I'm tired of leasing, am not leasing another car and the old ridiculously good lease deals like the one I got on this car are a thing of the past. So thats about it guys. Anyone else agree and still like their F30 or have I missed the 2nd coming of automotive Jesus?

TLDR: I thought the new 3 series was fine but didn't find it particularly better in any real world way, aside from tech and stuff, than the F30. I still like the F30 so I guess I'm crazy.

Hope everyone's been doing ok. Its been ages.

Kafka

[Beek]

Thanks for sharing your opinions, I had a 530e loaner last month and it was ok but I could not tell when the engine was running or when it was running on battery. It took me ten minutes to figure out if I wanted it to move I had to push the throttle, I was foolishly trying to start the engine?

[silver.f30]

I felt the exact same about my experience with a 2019 loaner. Overall I thought the tech was pretty cool, but the amount of sound pumped in when you hit the gas was excessive and over the top. Somehow hitting the gas of the 2019 330i with the windows up was lounder than my 335i in the garage with sport on and the windows down.

Another note: the one I drove has lane keep assist. In my experience, it was awful. There were multiple times I would have my blinker on and slowly switch lanes just to have the system pull me back. It also required too much force to override and tried to pull me into another lane in a construction zone where the previous lines had been marked over in black. I quickly found a way to disable the feature entirely

[adhrp]

Originally Posted by Kafkaesque328

Also I'm tired of leasing, am not leasing another car and the old ridiculously good lease deals like the one I got on this car are a thing of the past. So thats about it guys. Anyone else agree and still like their F30 or have I missed the 2nd coming of automotive Jesus?

Kafka

OMG the world must be coming to an end! About 50% of the content of lease vs buy threads on this forum are you passionately arguing for leasing!

Jokes aside, I really enjoy my F30 and am not at all tempted by the new 3 (although I haven't driven one yet), in large part because I don't particularly like how it looks.

[TodmordenLad]

Good write up, thanks, and I'm not surprised to hear what you say. Motoring journos love their superlatives and as a result, I take most of what they say with a pinch of salt. They're paid as much to entertain as inform these days.

I'll be hanging onto my F36 for a while and am very unlikely to trade it in for a new 3, or even new 4. It's not the last word in handling and tbh, no stock non-M car ever will be but I like the looks and the engine/gearbox combo is a peach.

Im not sold on the exterior styling of the new model and like you, don't place that much importance on new interior designs or new tech. So, I should save myself a few $ anyway

[Framamind]

Nice write up, and I couldn't agree more.
I'm on my third day with this 330i loaner, and again, it's nice, but not groundbreaking like some publications have stated.
I think one thing I feel is justified from the published reviews, is that the G20 chassis does feel a bit stiffer than the F30, and this loaner is not even an m-sport.
Sure, it's a little soft with the overall ride, but it had less body roll, IMHO.

Interior is a lot quieter, but the materials are meh. I swear the upper part of the dash looks and feels considerably cheaper than the F30.

Just my two cents.

[Kafkaesque328]

Originally Posted by Framamind

Nice write up, and I couldn't agree more.
I'm on my third day with this 330i loaner, and again, it's nice, but not groundbreaking like some publications have stated.
I think one thing I feel is justified from the published reviews, is that the G20 chassis does feel a bit stiffer than the F30, and this loaner is not even an m-sport.
Sure, it's a little soft with the overall ride, but it had less body roll, IMHO.

Interior is a lot quieter, but the materials are meh. I swear the upper part of the dash looks and feels considerably cheaper than the F30.

Just my two cents.

nail hit on head my friend, and its not your imagination, the dash is harder than the old one. Lot of cheapo materials in the cabin now, just a nicer screen and the digital gauges and all. But yeah, nothing groundbreaking in my opinion about the new model.

Originally Posted by adhrp

OMG the world must be coming to an end! About 50% of the content of lease vs buy threads on this forum are you passionately arguing for leasing!

Jokes aside, I really enjoy my F30 and am not at all tempted by the new 3 (although I haven't driven one yet), in large part because I don't particularly like how it looks.

Haha, touche! Was waiting for that. Yes... I know. Well lets just say, the past 9 months has been the hardest, most trying time of my life and I barely came out of it alive and in the course of all of this, my priorities have changed and the things I cared about beforehand seem meaningless now.

The F30 has been a faithful steed and I like it just fine. I'm tired of the lease cycle and for example, due to said circumstances, I am like way over on my miles now so I would get hosed on miles in the end. I am tired of stressing little dings and scratches that I think I might get hit for at lease end and I just kind of want 'my car' now vs. renting a new car every 3 years. I still think leasing can be a great option and its worked for me up to now but its time to move on. Last I checked, the $4000 off RV only applied to 2015 models and they put that in place last July. The discount on 2016 models now is only $800, not worth it. But my SA at Crevier told me that they will likely roll out a similar program this summer for all the 2016 3 series that will be coming off lease because dealers get hit with a massive glut of inventory so fingers crossed that they'll apply the $4k or similar to the 2016 models and I'll just buy it. Cuz even buying a 'new to me' CPO 2016 off the lot would be a drag. My current car has the tinted windows, I had all this coding done. I really don't want the hassle of starting over.

It would still cost more than what I would pay for a similar used model off the lot, but I got such a good deal on the front end, it ends up being a wash. So $13k and change to lease this car for 3 years. RV is $32k (insane). $4k off that would be $28k, so figure thats $41k (not including taxes and shit) for a car with an MSRP of $49k, so in the end, its still an ok deal. And again, none of it matters to me anyway hardly anymore. Some people on here are probably old enough to remember the movie the Deer Hunter w/Christopher Walken and DeNiro. I am basically, metaphorically speaking, Walken now, at the end of the movie. Anyone who has seen the movie might get it.

Anyway, yeah... the new 330i evoked zero excitement in me.

[CajunBMW]

Originally Posted by Kafkaesque328

Haven't posted on here in ages. Figured this was worthy of a discussion. I'm sure there are a bunch of 'drove the new 3 series' discussions but here are my impressions having the car for a few days as a loaner while my 2016 328i was in for service. It was a black standard sport line model with leather, convenience package and a bunch of other options I guess and drove it on some back canyon roads near my house etc. My impressions.

Just to preface this, I have kind of lost interest a little in this whole thing and am by no means some road testing expert bro so I am not going to start talking about G force and skidpads and 1/4 miles and all of that but here are my real world impressions based on (A) having spent almost 6 years in an F30 3 series (both w/M sport suspension) and (B) the epic hype surrounding the new 3 series and how it was supposed to be such an improvement over the F30.

2nd disclaimer, I'm not writing this to make people with the new 3 series upset or people who think the F30 was the worst 3 series ever upset, these are just my impressions.

I wasn't overly impressed or at least, not any more impressed with this car than the F30. My feeling is neutrality. It also reinforced what I have always felt, that automotive mags pedal insane levels of hype and that car guys generally buy into said hype. Lets start with the supposedly new and improved steering. I frankly don't notice a difference. It felt like light, numb, BMW EPS. Thats it. Again, I'm not an expert but I didn't think it was any better. My friend's base Mazda 3 has better steering feel. This is still the bane of the new 3 series existence. The steering has no feel. However, I did have the variable sport steering in a 430GC loaner I had once and that was noticeably better. But in terms of standard steering, I felt no improvement over the previous car.

In terms of the much lauded interior and how it such a supposed improvement. I mean, its nice but aside from the sort of landscape Tesla-esque iPad size screen in your face and the digital gauges, in terms of just interior quality its the same as the last one. It is however quieter inside so I guess they used more insulation this time around. There is no wind noise which is a definite improvement over the F30. If you start looking and tapping around though, there are plenty of cheap cost cutting bits in the cabin. Hard plastics, kind of cheap touch gear and knobs here and there like the shiny fake chrome air vent flow dials etc. Kind of ho hum and isn't as nice as my friends new A4 or even the C class. The nav screen, the backup camera and all that is obviously nicer but I don't care much about that kind of thing beyond a certain point. Im combining tech and interior but yeah, the tech is obviously pretty far ahead of the F30 and the iDrive is still intuitive and there is touch screen and you constantly have the headline news up the screen so you can like, look at the news while you're driving and and probably look at facebook or other such bullshit, but again, dont really care so I'm not their target. My current car has nav, premium, well its all in the signature, but anyway, I don't long for more tech in my current car. The 'old' nav and all that is fine and I don't have a problem with it and I don't long for a huge screen in the car. I'm old. And yes, I realize this is bias to what I like/value so objectively, yes the tech is better in the new car. One would hope so, right?? This is seems like an obvious thing

Engine, driving feel, etc. So, again I had the sport which is the base model. It had shitty all season run flats, which blow and were noisy. The suspension is whatever but doesn't touch the M sport suspension. So if I had driven a new 330i w/the M sport, it would have been better. I DO like that they tuned the exhaust to be a more audible and aggressive sounding, thats nice but I think they started doing that with the F30 330i models so anyway. They definitely dialed up the fake active sound engine noise a lot in sport mode and there is more induction/turbo noise so thats kind of nice, I guess but it reminds me of the new GTI's fake engine sound which can be a little much. I find the active sound in the F30, that sort of fake growl to be more refined. It doesn't really feel any faster than the F30 328i and it sounds like on paper, its not which is weird because it has more power and is lightweight. It prob gets better gas mileage for sure but didn't drive the car long enough to notice and I was driving the shit out of it.

I found the transmission programming in comfort to be a bummer and even more geared towards fuel economy than the F30. I drive mine in comfort most of the time and have no problem with it. BUT, I am running the JB+ which improves that a lot and can't really remember what the stock 328 feels like.

I could go on, and I'm not bashing the car, its fine, its a nice car but to think it is some like grand return to the 3 series of old is ludicrous. Absurd. It doesn't even remotely rival the driving feel of the E90 or E46. Thats never going to happen again so people who want that feel can go buy one of those for like $9000 on craigslist right now.

I walked away appreciating my car and it reinforced my current lease end plan. My lease is up in 4 months and if BMW offers the $4000 discount on contracted residual on the MY2016s that they were doing on the MY2015's last summer, I am going to buy my car. If they don't, my exact car w/the same options can currently be found on dealer lots for like $23k or so, so I will just buy another F30, drive it it for 3-4 years til its paid off and then get something else. "Bro, buy another F30?!" Yes, I like it. I love this car actually. It has given me zero problems and I like it. I still have the JB+ juice box on there and its plenty of power, good fuel econ, I like the suspension a lot interior is fine, blah blah. Driving the new 3 series was going to be a determining factor for me but nothing about it makes me want to pay the premium for it vs. just staying in an F30. I guess if they ran old lease deals like they used to and I could get a $50k M sport new 330 with comparable options to mine for $350 a month like I did on this one, but that aint happenin.

Also I'm tired of leasing, am not leasing another car and the old ridiculously good lease deals like the one I got on this car are a thing of the past. So thats about it guys. Anyone else agree and still like their F30 or have I missed the 2nd coming of automotive Jesus?

TLDR: I thought the new 3 series was fine but didn't find it particularly better in any real world way, aside from tech and stuff, than the F30. I still like the F30 so I guess I'm crazy.

Hope everyone's been doing ok. Its been ages.

Kafka

Thanks. My impression too. I had my 2018 in last week for an oil change, filter change, and software update and I got a new 330 for the day. Made sure to use it a bunch for errands and as a kid hauler to get them to their activities to get a good feel for the car. It was nice and if I was in need of a new car I would go for a new 3 series. I prefer the 340, but the new 330 had all the pep needed for around town and would be a good choice for a daily driver. But having a newer F30 as my daily driver right now, my road tripper as a soccer dad and a family car for taking kids to school, etc. I would not change a thing with my current car. I am really happy with it as is. I was as you stated neutral, not because anything was bad or that it wasn't really nice, it is just that I am used to my car and like it just the way it is. Yes I would like to mod it and wish it had a few different features, but for me with my needs it is perfect. If my old bmw had been totaled 2 years later I would definitely buy a new G series 3 series instead and I am sure I would be very happy.

[adhrp]

Originally Posted by Kafkaesque328

Haha, touche! Was waiting for that. Yes... I know. Well lets just say, the past 9 months has been the hardest, most trying time of my life and I barely came out of it alive and in the course of all of this, my priorities have changed and the things I cared about beforehand seem meaningless now.

Sorry to hear! Glad that things have improved and hope they continue to. Welcome back