[David00]

I bought my first car in 1986, and have driven many since then. I own a few cars, and have frequently rented cars over the years for business trips. While I have an engineering background, my relationship with cars is primarily that of a driver.

I enjoy driving, and prefer a manual gearbox. I’m a long-time BMW fan, being fortunate enough to have had a 3-Series (E36) 318iS Coupe as a company car in the mid-90s. I loved the E36 series so much that I bought a 1997 E36 323i Coupe in 2001, which was an outstanding car in many ways. Sadly I had to part company with it earlier this year with 250k on the clock. It was burning oil (the Nikasil cylinder lining issue), the bodywork was rusting, and it was looking tired. I held onto it for so long as I loved driving it, and couldn’t find a suitable replacement despite having test-driven a few other BMWs over the years.

The catalyst for this change was the BMW 4-series Coupe (F32), a car that the motoring press enthused about, and which various online forums identified as the (long awaited) spiritual successor to the E36 Coupe. I traded my trusty old steed in for a second-hand 2014 BMW 420i M Sport. This is a manual petrol car with a good trim level. I could have bought a more powerful engine, but on paper it had comparable horsepower to my 323i.

I test drove this model a few times, so knew roughly how it handled. But test drives are not real world experiences, and although all seemed fine at the time, many issues have surfaced over the year hence this review. It’s just my opinion, as a driver, and hope it may be of interest to other drivers considering a similar purchase.

Bulk and handling. On paper the F32 isn’t much wider than the E36. But it feels bulkier, and not in a good way. I’d characterize the E36 as a sports car. The F32 feels like a saloon. This is most obvious through the steering, which in the E36 felt like you were in touch with the road, but in the F32 has been disintermediated by a power steering system that acts flawlessly but blandly. The one area that’s not saloon-like is its suspension. This is firm to the point of being uncomfortable. It transmits every bump in the road through to the car chassis, and with the state of many of the UK’s roads these days it makes for unpleasant driving.

Noise. When you start the car, the engine makes a banging noise and sounds like a Diesel. Don’t worry said the salesman, they all do it. And he’s right, the engine casing is so thin now that you can hear the internal mechanical activity. And there’s a lot of road noise, the run flat tires mean that the ambient cockpit noise level is louder than that in an E36.

Indicators. Everything that can be electronic is – so while the E36 had a mechanical indicator stalk (with a switch inside), the F32 has more of a paddle stalk. You press it lightly for a short burst of indicator flashing, and press and hold briefly for a flashing sequence that doesn’t stop until you have completed a turn and straightened the steering wheel. It’s something you get used to. However if you’ve pressed the stalk lightly and then want to cancel this, the logical action is to press the stalk in the other direction – but often this causes it to flash the other way. I sometimes find I’m indicating left (by mistake), then right, then left again, trying to get the damn indicators to stop. When this happens the only way I've found to cancel it is to push and hold the stalk in the other direction, then flick the stalk back again. You have to try it to see what I mean.

Cup-holders. In my F32, there are two cup-holders, just in front of the gear stick. They are covered by a small plastic shelf that you need to remove – and store somewhere – if you want to use them. But if you do put something in them – like a large disposable coffee cup full of hot coffee with a lid, you will find your hand knocking the cup as you select 3rd or 5th and coffee spilling. It’s a stupid ergonomic design flaw.

Gear Suggestion Indicator. There’s a gear “suggestion” indicator on the dashboard that tells you what gear the ECU thinks the car should be in. So while you may be enjoying driving in 4th gear, the indicator is telling you to go to 5th or 6th. And as noted on many online forums, there’s no way to disable this, other than by switching the car to Sports mode. Do I want an indicator implicitly criticizing my driving style – NO I do not. Why can’t it be disabled – or have the option to show the current gear I’m in?

Engine at low revs. My E36 would work flawlessly in low revs. Sometimes when pulling away especially when turning onto a main road, I’d be below 1000 rpm in 2nd gear, and the engine would still perform. But in the F32, I’ve stalled countless times where muscle memory has told me it will be fine and the car has decided it isn’t. Originally I thought this was something to do with the small engine size – it’s only a 4-cylinder 2.0l (plus turbo) compared to my E36’s 6-cylinder 2.5l, with the lightweight engine crankshaft and pistons lacking angular momentum. But now suspect it’s a lot more to do with the car’s ECU. I don’t know the actual reason but only the frustration of stalling when it shouldn’t.

Clutch. Major Issue! When I first bought the car, I sometimes found it hard getting into gear. It was as if the gear selector wasn’t able to engage. I went back to BMW dealers and sat in comparable cars to check their gear action. But over time realized it was because I wasn’t depressing the clutch far enough. I assume the synchromesh mechanism was blocking my change. But why wasn’t I pressing the clutch down properly? I also found that in urban driving when I was changing gears a lot, my foot started to hurt - badly. That’s partly because the clutch is very heavy (a lot of resistance to being pressed) in the F32 – a common complaint made to dealers. But it’s also because the clutch pedal sits very high by default. Just look at it compared to the clutch pedal on other cars. I know there’s a place to rest your foot to the left of the clutch, but I – like many other drivers – have grown accustomed to having my left foot resting lightly on the pedal. It’s just much easier to change gears like this. The issue is that your foot is held very high – unnaturally so, which strains the front of the ankle – and then has to traverse a much greater arc in order to fully engage the clutch. For me, it’s the combination of the ongoing high starting point, long travel, and pedal resistance that means the F32 clutch has a serious design flaw. But why is this? It’s because the F32 uses a hydraulic clutch linkage, rather than a cable. Just like old airplanes used to use control cables, but then replaced these with hydraulics. But having to force hydraulic fluid from a cylinder into a small pipe takes a lot more effort that simply pulling a cable. On airplanes the hydraulics are servo-assisted – but not on the F32. Hence the resistance and long-travel required to push a piston to force hydraulic fluid down a pipe to drive another piston/actuator at the clutch end. This has resulted in a clutch system that is not driver friendly, and makes driving the car a nightmare in urban areas. And of course the reason why I wasn’t depressing the clutch pedal enough was muscle memory that couldn’t adjust to the much long traverse required.

The one place the F32 excels is the open road. It’s a great autobahn cruiser in 5th or 6th gear – although isn’t that what the 5-Series is meant to be? It’s not at all good in urban environments, and tiring to drive. There is no fun.

My other cars are more than 10 years old – they are all petrol manual, and a joy to drive. One is a Golf V which feels like a better car than my F32. I think cars of that era had reached a zenith of performance as driving machines, while innovation over the last 10 years has been around cost reduction, safety, emissions management and nice-to-have features, that don’t add to (and in some cases take away from) the driving experience.

Perhaps another factor is that car brands used to target specific customer segments. So BMW and Mercedes went after the upper end of the market with luxury high performance vehicles, and were good at it. Now every manufacturer is trying to please every customer segment. I wonder if the need to deliver all the other series and variants meant that BMW couldn’t spend enough time on the F32 and allowed a car with the issues above to be released. Who knows?

There are of course many good things about the F32, and I appreciate them without always being consciously aware. But all these good things have been negated by the issues above. I have reached the point with my F32 where I’m not enjoying it, which is the trigger for its replacement.

[Jeff123]

I am beyond the point that you seem to have reached. I am sick of the sight of it after 2 years and 3 months, and 37k miles. It literally is a pain in the backside, the seats are rock hard and so is the suspension on UK roads.

[xenon]

You're going to be a way off the E36 in terms of involvement. I had a 318iS for a while and it was a cracking car to drive.

On your F32 you might find removing the CDV will help.

[Vasumir]

Manual 440i owner here, and despite the annoying cdv, I don't find the clutch heavy at all... I really don't get why people are finding it heavy. Mine is an LCI model, so whether they changed some things in relation to the clutch I don't know, that or you all need to get down the gym a bit and strengthen those legs

Speaking of the LCI, that solves your cup issues and I know there have been suspension changes. I'm on the passive msport suspension, don't really have any issues with comfort. I seem to recall a lot of people saying that sport mode in adaptive was too hard? Don't know if yours is passive or adaptive? Plus I see you're on run flats, most people ditch those and find ride is much improved.

I believe the LCI also changed the indicator stalks, so you might find that a lot of your problems were addressed with the LCI model

It's a shame you're not enjoying it, good luck with the hunt for your next car Any front runners?

[David00]

Initially I thought it was just that the clutch is heavy - it is heavier than most cars I have driven. But realised the issue is mainly around excessive ankle rotation, from a high starting point where human anatomy makes it harder to deliver the compressive force required. I used to be a long distance runner and do a lot of walking, it's not a strength problem :-)

Have passive suspension, which is rock hard. Haven't tried an LCI model, and am sure that BMW would have addressed many of the issues I raised, some of which you suggest have been improved.

One of the reasons for posting is I don't know what to replace the F32 with. I'm interested in an EV, but battery technology isn't there yet; don't want to be replacing the battery array in 4 years as it's degraded. And I have an affinity for petrol engines.

I think some cars from the late 2000s offer a better driving experience than more modern cars. So I'm contemplating whether to buy another older car that may offer a better driving experience. I even thought about buying another E36 - but that idea was vetoed by my wife.

[Londoner]

Appreciate this isn't particularly helpful but the F3X series seems to be (from clutch to MPPSK to the cup holders) primarily designed for the auto box. I mmmmed and rrrrrred for ages - never owned an auto before but reviews for the manual were all so poor. Do I miss the engagement of a manual? Sometimes, but the ZF8 is just so sweet - goes along way making up for it.

[xenon]

Yes that is true. If you haven't tried it, David, the ZF8 gearbox is sublime. My only issue with the F3x series which made me jump ship was the appalling noise. Nice to drive in other respects though.

[SuperHamz]

Originally Posted by David00

Gear Suggestion Indicator. There’s a gear “suggestion” indicator on the dashboard that tells you what gear the ECU thinks the car should be in. So while you may be enjoying driving in 4th gear, the indicator is telling you to go to 5th or 6th. And as noted on many online forums, there’s no way to disable this, other than by switching the car to Sports mode. Do I want an indicator implicitly criticizing my driving style – NO I do not. Why can’t it be disabled – or have the option to show the current gear I’m in?

This can be disabled using the Carly app/odb adapter (https://www.mycarly.com/en/app/bmw/), I had a friend of mine disable this on mine as I can't stand the indicator, he also switched on the speedo on the digital display which is a nice touch, although a little below the eye line for it to be in the best position.