ISUK

I have got a 320d on loan for a 24 hour test drive so I thought you might be interested in my initial thoughts.

Styling

The car looks deeply unimpressive to my eyes in Monaco blue (the colour of this test car) which is a shame as I have seen it in both Titanium, Sparkling Graphite and Artic and know that the design is anything but dull.. The colour masks all of the styling features and manages to make the car look top heavy when viewed from the front ? angle. The actual styling features on the car work well with the line running along the waist of the car flowing across the bonnet, around the inner edge of the headlights and into the front bumper. The demo car is in fairly basic spec and does without the xenon lights. The standard fit lights look ok but the xenons add a totally different, more technical look to the front which much better suits the character of the car. The rear trunk lid is easily the best interpretation of the high deck lid theme first seen on the 7 and continued with the 5. The detail on the corners flows seamlessly to the rear wings. The rear lights have come in for a lot of criticism but look good when you actually see the car. The only criticism would be that the clear reversing light section has a heavy opaque plastic edging which I initially thought was transit protection packaging which had not been removed.

Interior

This car has the base single binnacle dash design without the I-drive system and is trimmed in the base level grey cloth. The dash design looks clean and modern and all controls fall easily to hand. The stereo system is very easy to use without reference to the handbook. The engine start/stop button is a nice touch but I was disappointed to read in the handbook that the remote control ?key? requires a battery to operate it instead of the previous BMW key which recharged itself whilst in the ignition. This is a backward step and miserly cost cutting by BMW. The steering wheel, lights, indicator stalk and cruise control functions all mirror those in the E60. The climate control panel is very intuitive and easy to operate. The storage cubby under the armrest house the cradle for a bluetooth mobile if fitted and the aux in socket as well as a cupholder and additional power sockets. The button in front of the cup holder IS for opening the vent system to allow cool air in to keep your drinks chilled. It is easy to quickly find a comfortable driving position and the standard seats are much better in terms of under thigh support than in previous BMW?s. The window controls fall easily to hand on the door armrests and feel more natural there. As far as space in the rear seat goes I am 6? 1? and had no trouble sitting comfortably behind the drivers seat once I had adjusted it to be comfortable for me. Rear seat room is very good and I don?t know why road testers have pointed out a lack of rear headroom. I?ve been out for a 6 mile journey as a rear seat passenger and found it both comfortable and very quiet in the rear. I would say the interior space feels very close to that of the previous generation E39 5 series.

Refinement

The car is very smooth and noise levels are very low with little noise from either the engine or tyres. Wind noise is the most noticeable noise but this is due to other mechanical noises being extremely well suppressed rather than a specific problem. The diesel engine is very quiet on the move and has a real growl low down in the rev range. You could not easily tell it is a diesel powerplant from inside the car. The automatic box fitted to the car works well with this engine and is very responsive when put in sports mode. The car only has 360 miles on the clock so it still has a fair way to go before it is run in and giving maximum performance. 90mph is easily achievable well within the run in limits and the car is extremely smooth and quiet at this speed.

Handling

The ride quality on the 16? alloys and run flat tyres fitted to the car is very good. It holds the road extremely well and gives the driver a lot of confidence to exploit the level of grip on offer. I drove it pretty fast along some very minor back roads and it was sure footed and felt like a much smaller car. This chassis feels like it can handle a lot of power.


I would say that BMW have once again produced a clear class leader in the compact executive segment with the E90. This is a very impressive drivers car. I hope to get a loan of a 330i on Wednesday so it should be interesting to see just how well the chassis copes with that power increase.

I just hope I've done the right thing going for a 320d for 12 months. I'm getting a 24hr test drive of a 535d sport tomorrow night so I'll probably be in tears when I have to hand it back