2016 BMW 320i

This is the cheapest 3 series that money can buy and even then a decently optioned one would be well over 40 grand. I sampled the 320i in the beautiful wine country of Napa just north of San Francisco and my initial impressions on the car weren’t very good. My tester was a bare bone version with no navigation, no blind spot detection and not even a backup camera and Bluetooth. A Hyundai Sonata comes with more standard equipment for crying out loud!! Needless to say that there weren’t any leather seats either, the music system was ordinary, it had no parking sensors and the entire car just seemed bland. BMW will treat you with hard plastics which not only look and feel cheap but are also painful in places where one would rest their knees and arms. Is this the price that BMW would make customers pay for being poor and still aspiring for that glorious white and blue badge!! All this made me think that what in the world would possess someone to go out and buy one of these as when one could get a more powerful fully loaded Honda Accord or Toyota Camry for less money. I’m clearly not a fan of the Camry or the Accord when taking about enthusiastic cars but I would rather have one of  those over the baby bimmer any time.  

The horsepower and torque numbers aint great either, at a mere 180 HP and 200 lbft of torque. But for those numbers the 320i felt incredibly nimble. Peak torque is made at 1200 RMP and overtaking was never an issue. The power tends to fall off above 4000 RPM but for most daily driving maneuvers, this car has sufficient power. Don’t get me wrong here and line up your 320i against a 335i for a drag race as you will be beaten back n blue. All I’m saying is that the power feels more than what those numbers suggest. The transmission is top notch with the 8 speed automatic or the 6 speed manual. Mine was an automatic and I had no complains. Being a tiny engine, it’s incredibly frugal and will return up to 34 MPG on the freeway and 24 MPG in the city. It comes with the auto start stop feature that will help save a little more fuel. Thank god there is button to defeat this as it’s clunky and the entire car shakes when it kills the engine or brings it back to life. I’m sure BMW is working on this and will fix it soon. It has the same driving dynamics and balance that you would expect from a BMW and the car corners and handles decently well.

With a base price of $33,000 I would also look at the Lexus IS 200t, the Audi A3 and the Mercedes CLA 250 which would cost less and give you that premium feeling that you expect from a premium brand. In my opinion one should buy a BMW for their great driving dynamics which includes power, handling, suspension, transmission and so on and so forth and certainly not for the bragging rights of owning a BMW. If your heart is set on a BMW, then I would suggest spending the extra 5 grand and upgrading to the more powerful 328i or getting the 228i for similar money. That would be a better value proposition and would also have a better resale value. Overall the 320i is a decent car but in my book this it’s a sub $30,000 car.