Know why that 3-series driver tears up an on-ramp out of nowhere, swoops across three lanes of traffic right in front of you, then settles into the fast lane for a nanosecond before departing toward the horizon at warp speed? Because he can.
Yes, we must admit that there's a reason the BMW 3-series attracts all the very worst people. The 3-series is capable of so much that you can't help but take advantage of what it has to offer. It's as if you're enveloped in a little bubble of BMW-branded entitlement. Personally, we blame our founder, David E. Davis, Jr., who returned from a mountain-road jaunt in 1968 absolutely transfixed by the newly introduced 2002 and created an identity for BMW with which we've lived ever since.
We'll also admit that the arrival of this 2012 BMW 328i sedan in our corner of Michigan had many of us in a total sweat of our own. The new F30 version of the BMW 3-series (BMW guys love speaking in vehicle codes, don't they?) is a very important one, because it represents the Munich company's concerted effort to address a post -- recession world of limits, in terms of both fuel costs and the very affordability of the automobile itself. For this reason, we were quick to specify a Four Seasons test car with BMW's turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, as this match between sophisticated chassis and fuel-sipping powerplant will be duplicated across lots of brands and car categories.
The shape of the new 3-series lived up to our expectations, if not our dreams. Associate web editor Evan McCausland noted, "I love the new snout. The remainder of the car's exterior is evolutionary, but the pinched headlights and the sharp fender creases add flair to an otherwise familiar design." This car isn't exactly high art, but the F30 looks good enough that we all cringed when associate web editor Jake Holmes returned to the parked car after an epic thunderstorm and found it dimpled by hail. (We probably helped finance a semester of college tuition for the offspring of the dent-removal guy.) Meanwhile, copy editor Rusty Blackwell said, "The swoopy interior is very welcoming and attractive, and I especially like the asymmetrical grip on the shift lever." McCausland also gave the iDrive electronics his endorsement, although he noted that you have to snap your iPhone into a specialized cradle in the center console to get full access to BMW ConnectedDrive.
When our test began, the 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine seemed like it'd be a big concern, yet it quickly became a nonissue in a couple of ways. First, the presence of 240 hp at 5000 rpm and an even more impressive 255 lb-ft of torque at 1250 rpm did not leave us asking questions about any perceived power gap compared with the in-line six-cylinder of the last-generation 3-series. Deputy editor Joe DeMatio said in the car's logbook: "When you're bounding along at 90 mph on the freeway, you're barely aware that you no longer have a BMW in-line six at your disposal."
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