[7] Bmw 335i Turbo Upgrade Becomes Daily Talks

DIGITAL EDITOR ANDREW STOY: It's not often I get stumped by a car, but I have no idea what this 2014 BMW 335i xDrive Gran Turismo is supposed to be. Yeah, I know what it is, kind of a five-door pseudo utility hatchback 3-series (actually, come to think of it, I don't know what it is), but…why? It doesn't have the rear cargo usefulness of a wagon, it doesn't have the ride height of a crossover, it isn't particularly attractive and it costs more than a sedan. Plus, with the recent announcement of the 4-series Gran Coupe, BMW has two very similar five-door hatches to sell.

Tell me again how this makes sense?

Let's get to the car-over or crosscar or whatever it is: Beneath the inexplicable body/badging, there's a BMW 3-series with a turbo straight six-cylinder, and that's a very good thing indeed. Add in the ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic and xDrive (one of my favorite systems in snow) and you've got the makings for a brilliant dynamic performer. In that respect, the 335i xDrive Gran Turismo is as good a car as any other F30 3-series.

The quirks of the body design throw a few weirdnesses in, however. Extra rear legroom courtesy of the longer wheelbase is welcome and enough to be noticeable. BMW also claims more cargo capacity than the wagon, but we recommended that all that cargo come from IKEA. Flat-pack boxes are about all that's going to fit under the low, wide hatch, and few dogs are going to relish riding beneath the expanse of glass.

Girth also comes at a price, in this case paid via the stylists' account. Simply put, the 3-series Gran Turismo is an awkward car, particularly up against the Sports Wagon -- a model that's gorgeous from any direction. Or for that matter the X3.

If you're part of the 3-series Gran Turismo target market, you probably know it already, and BMW has your car. Drop me a note, too -- I'd like to understand why this thing exists.

The 2014 BMW 335i xDrive Gran Turismo comes in at a base price of $47,775 with our tester topping off at $60,250.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR JAKE LINGEMAN: Yeah, the body style, and BMW's direction in general has me stumped, too. The 3-series sedan is great and the X3 is great. Do we really need a Gran Turismo in between? Especially with, like Andy said, the 4-series Gran Coupe hanging around, and for that matter the bigger X6.

At any rate, the 300-hp I6 is always great, and though I was hoping for a dual-clutch, this eight-speed transmission is fantastic. When you're on the throttle, it reacts nearly as fast as the double-clutch, and downshifts are about the same. It does seem like you would spend a lot of time clicking gears if you always used the paddle shifters. But it is fun trying to keep the revs between 2,500 and 3,500 rpm with the throttle pinned.

The front seats are comfortable and heated, and properly adjustable. The rears offer a ton of room, and also heat. The upgraded stereo gets nice and loud, while the buttons and main screen are easy to decipher and use with the one central controller.

I was a little surprised by the wheel/tire package. Not that it looks bad, but the profile was big. The run-flat tires felt very controlled over the back breaking post-winter roads. Steering is as good as it always is in the 3-series, made more enjoyable by the growing dry spots on the road. The AWD system worked great in sport+ mode. During the few times I went off the beaten path, I had no problems.

I wouldn't buy this car; I don't even really understand what segment I'd be shopping in. The Acura RDX I drove a few weeks ago offers more utility, the same power and a better price. Or I would just get a 3-series sedan. Actually a 4-series coupe, or an M4. OK, I'm done.

The 2014 BMW 335i xDrive Gran Turismo is equpped with a 3.0-liter turbocharged straight six.

ASSOCIATE EDITOR GRAHAM KOZAK: I drove this car. I didn't hate it, but even though I didn't know the price tag until I sat down to write these notes, I had a gut feeling that it wasn't going to present a good value.

It's not the drive that bugged me; no complaints there. Even at this late hour, when BMW's lineup is swollen with gross cross-sport-coupe-touring nonsense, “inline-six 3-series” still means something -- something positive, as Andy notes. The adjustable driving/suspension settings did have a notable impact on the way the car felt on the road (as opposed to simply adding resistance to the steering wheel). The eight-speed was actually fun in paddle-shifting mode.

The body style didn't get me too much, either -- sure it's gawky with that not-quite-fastback thing going on, but you can't see the rear end while you're in the driving seat. You can't really see anything in the rear of the car when you're in the driver's seat, though; this thing has some blind spots that sensors might help eliminate -- but be ready to shell out big bucks for those, as well as other features like backup cameras, that are cheap to add on even the most econo of econoboxes.

I normally don't feel like the M Sport packages add much, given their hefty price tags. In this case, I don't know. But that money is probably better spent on other areas, like tech. And the dynamic package, which has more of an impact on vehicle enjoyment than honeycombed aluminum trim and “M” badges ever will, costs roughly one third as much as the M Sport package at $1,000.

All this gets to the root of my discontent with the car. It's fair to ask a decent sum for a vehicle as solid as the 3-series. And smooth, sweet engines like this inline six aren't going to get any cheaper, with fuel economy regulations forcing us to put up with ever-smaller inline-fours and -- gasp --threes.

But if that's the way it's gonna be, price the car accordingly. This pricing structure is, as it stands, insulting. Don't advertise a decontented car for $48K and pretend it's providing a premium experience, knowing full well you have to check $10K's worth of options to get close to the features on a new Kia Cadenza. Yes, you can drive off the lot in a stripper, but how many people do? Please, BMW, leave these “low advertised price” schemes to the econobox hawkers.

Then there's the name. I don't really care too much about the weird shape; to each his own, right? It's how BMW is trying to sell this irrelevant, inelegant body style that gets me. This is not what a Grand Tourer is. BMW is seeking to obliterate the meaning of long-standing vehicular taxonomies with its Gran Coupes, but I can't let this abuse of the GT nomenclature go. You want a GT? Get a Maserati 3500, not this thing. You want a liftback, for some reason? Maybe consider it. It's not a bad car, but it's hard -- if not impossible -- to swallow the price.

This is making me feel old and bitter. And I'm not old, nor am I particularly bitter by nature.

I blame you for this, BMW.

The 2014 BMW 335i xDrive Gran Turismo receives an EPA-estimated 24 mpg combined fuel economy.

SENIOR ROAD TEST EDITOR NATALIE NEFF: Sheez, I don't even know where to begin with the car. It's bad enough that I've borne a bit of a chip on my shoulder since roughly the debut of the original Bangle-butt 7-series. It was around that time that BMW decided to redesign every point of driver-car interaction, and to no good end: the stalks, the shifter, that infernal first-gen iDrive, all changed and/or added to frustrating effect. Change for change sake might be fine in theory, but when the new design actually diminishes the efficiency of the operation, and then I'm calling you out. And by you, I mean BMW.

(Then there's the matter of BMW's tendency toward, shall we say, arrogance. While it's sort of an inside-baseball matter, dealing with BMW from the position of magazine writer can be a frustrating matter.)

That's the baggage I have to deal with whenever I climb behind the wheel of a BMW, and for the most part, I think I do a decent job muting my biases, to neutrally approach any car and proffer as honest an assessment as possible. And to that end, I have to echo Andy: Why the heck does this car even exist?

I'm a hatchback/wagon girl, for the most part, favoring cargo capacity in car form nine times in 10 over utes, crossovers, trucks, what have you. It's a matter of combining two traits I favor over most anything else, automotively speaking: utility and nimbleness. And yet this design pushes me past whatever tolerance I might otherwise have for frumpiness. It's simply fugly, and not fugly like the original M Coupe, which was awesome. There is nothing redeeming in the lines of this car. It really should be called the 335i xDrive Maxx. As in Malibu.

But even more offensive than the shape is the sticker. Over $60K! Egad! I mean, besides navigation, it seriously feels like a strippo model, and yet somehow, between the enhanced USB, aero kit, lumbar support and variable sport steering wheel, this car carries almost $13,000 in options. Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable. (Even if that 3.0-liter turbo straight-six is as sweet as motors get. Jumping on it and letting that smooth, smooth power do its thing is almost enough to make you forget how stupid this car is. Almost.)

Base Price: $47,775

As-Tested Price: $60,250

Drivetrain: 3.0-liter turbocharged I6; AWD, eight-speed automatic

Output: 300 hp @ 5,800-6,000 rpm, 295 lb-ft @ 1,300-5,000 rpm

Curb Weight: 4,010 lb

Fuel Economy (EPA City/Highway/Combined): 20/30/24 mpg

AW Observed Fuel Economy: 18.9 mpg

Options: Technology package including enhanced USB, Bluetooth, smartphone integration, BMW apps, advanced real-time traffic information, BMW online, navigation system with touchpad, instrument cluster with extended contents, remote services, head-up display ($3,150); M Sport package including aerodynamic kit, M Sport steering wheel, 18-inch light alloy M Sport wheels, sport seats; shadowline exterior trim, anthracite headliner ($3,100); premium package including comfort access keyless entry, lumbar support, satellite radio with one-year subscription ($2,200); dynamic handling package including adaptive M suspension, variable sport steering ($1,000); cold weather package including heated front seats, heated steering wheel, retractable headlight washers, heated rear seats ($950); Harman Kardon surround sound ($875); M sport brakes ($650); glacier silver metallic paint ($550)

This content is created and maintained by a third party, and imported onto this page to help users provide their email addresses. You may be able to find more information about this and similar content at piano.io