Rental Car Ruckus 2: Electric Boogaloo

[Jake]

2014 BMW 328i xDrive M-Sport

My 128i has an "extended maintenance package" on it from a past owner, which covers oil/brakes/wipers til July 2015 or 100k miles. So, when the brake pad warning came up on Wednesday night, I called BMW of Alexandria and dropped the car off. This package also gives you a free loaner car. I was handed the key to an Alpine White '14 328xi:



Quick details on this thing. The "xi" or "xDrive" means it's AWD. It's powered by BMW's N20 motor, which is a 2.0L turbo 4-cylinder, rated at 240 hp and 268 tq. The transmission in this one is the ZF 8-speed automatic, same as what every other manufacturer is putting in everything. No paddle shifters (but they are an option).

Mine is equipped with the "Sport Line" package, which gets you the traditionally great BMW sport seats, different wheels (that I like), and some different trim, including a red stripe across the dash and on the key. It's also got the Cold Weather pack (heated front/rear seats & steering wheel), rear view camera, parking sensors (front and rear), HIDs, keyless go, and a moonroof.

Found the sticker in the glovebox. Not a cheap car:



When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter,
I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter.

Oh wait, no, that's just the 4-cylinder clattering to life when I pressed the Start/Stop button.

Seriously, the noise this motor makes is one of the biggest letdowns of the car. It's not very "BMW" sounding, and I know they've had 4-cyl motors before. Those had a bit of a snarl or growl to them. This one sounds like a Focus at idle and not much better when you're romping on it. The car will (by default, but you can disable it) shut the motor down at stoplights. The auto-restart is miserable and completely bereft of refinement, which, given the price of the car... not good.



So anyway, once you get the clatterbox a'clattering, how does it all drive? Very well, actually. The car is larger than the outgoing E90 3-series but lighter. This AWD model still manages to weigh 3,600 lbs. Regardless, if you can get over the noise of the N20, the power it makes is pretty impressive. This car scoots when you pin the throttle.

The ZF 8-speed is largely tuned for comfort and MPG in this application and wants to get into 7th or 8th gear quickly. However, it doesn't hesitate to drop three or four gears and push you back in the seat when you get all "more throttle!" on it.

There's a button near the shifter that lets you choose between EcoPro, Comfort, Sport and Sport+ drive modes. EcoPro makes the throttle operate on dial-up, I guess to make you less likely to drive quickly? Comfort is your every-day go-to and it's... fine. Sport stiffens up the electronic power steering and only allows the transmission to use gears 1-6, while revving higher between shifts. Sport+ stiffens up a bit more and turns off the DSC for you.



Let's see, other notes...

* AWD is AWD. It plows into turns and straightens up after a second, once the system starts moving power around. I'd buy RWD, I think.
* The latest iDrive is pretty good. The screen is higher-resolution (think "Retina" iPhone display for pixel density) and the control knob has a touchpad on the top so you can draw letters to enter your destination, I think.
* You can have "Sport gauges" come up on the screen, ooh!



* It's comfy. This F30 3-series is the same size as the older E34/E39 5ers. It would be a fantastic highway cruiser, and I bet the 4-cylinder would get 30 mpg at 75-80 mph.
* Looks sharp in white, I'd buy white or blue.
* Mine has the "base" audio system with 7 speakers and 205 watts of amplification. No under-seat subwoofers (that's the Logic7 "hi-fi" system) so anything with a lot of low-end gets muddy and loses clarity. Overall a very good base system, though. Worlds better than most.

My biggest takeaway from this 328 is that I don't know if I'd buy it. If I were shopping the 3-series/A4/C-class type of car, I don't know if the BMW would be my favorite or a good "go-to." I drove Mike D's A4 and liked it a lot, and I think the new C-Class is very pretty. I'd have to drive them all and cross-shop. It's just not that special in 4-cylinder, AWD, automatic form, and I think the competition in this segment is pretty fierce.

Still though, very good car. Just not for me.