Howdy Folks! Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Just spent a few hours at the Drive for Team USA Event at BMW of Mountain View.
The Event
I pre-registered and set myself up for a Tuesday, thinking that turnout would be relatively low on a work day at 1p.m. Well... this was sorta true, but I still wound up waiting to get some time behind the wheel. The event staff were great and after a brief intro to the car (most of which I already knew courtesy of Bimmerpost) and some snacks, I hopped in line for my first test drive. The route was short at 4.6 miles with a brief freeway stint, a wide left-hand sweeper at the off ramp, and stop-and-go on the city streets.
The Cars
Drove everything they had on tap, including:
- Audi A4 Premium Plus 2.0 FWD
- BMW 328i (Luxury Line)
- BMW 335i Sport Line w/ 19s
- Lexus IS 250
- MBZ C250
Here are my thoughts, presented in order of my personal "worst to best".
Lexus IS 250
"So how was it?" they asked as I returned from the route.
"Completely uninspired."
I wanted to like this car. The minimalist exterior design has aged well and the 2-tone dark grey over ivory interior make for a light and airy cabin that IMHO captures the Scandinavian ethos better than BMW's Modern Line. The leather is soft and whatever material they used in the A-pillar/headliner is amazing to the touch. Regrettably, the praise only persisted until I drove it off the lot.
It seems Lexus equates "Sport" to providing a surprisingly harsh ride mated to an engine/transmission combination that absolutely hate each other. Dig into the throttle and the transmission will downshift only after you've completed your request forms in triplicate and submitted them to a mean-spirited government worker who's 3 hours late for her lunch break. Throttle tip-in is leisurely and the car just never invites you to drive beyond 5/10ths.
Pros: Beautiful interior, comfortable seats, decent media interface
Cons: Engine/transmission combo, rough ride, no fun
MBZ C250
The last C-class I drove was the W203 C240 Kompressor. Hated it. It sounded like George Jetson's flying car, but without the cool ability to fold into a suitcase. So my expectations were low.
The W204's engine/acceleration handily erased my recollection of its predecessor. It's punchy and meaty and it moved the car nicely while making decent engine sounds. Like the Lexus, the C suffers from an unhappy marriage to its transmission. Downshifts are slow to occur and the transmission occasionally felt unsure of its choice relative to my throttle input. A new transmission or re-programming could do wonders for this car.
As to handling, I didn't really push the C hard since it was my first drive of the day. Seemed to be a good balance of lux/sport, and I preferred it to the Lexus.
The MBZ media interface, COMAND, is button-filled mess. I spent 15 minutes in the car and it took me just about that long to adjust the radio's volume. The knobs/controls, dash, and steering wheel also feel like they shrunk in the wash cycle. Everything feels about 80% of it's "right" size, which is a criticism I had of the E9x cars. I'm not sure what there is to be gained by making the controls so small.
The seats were by FAR the softest/cushiest of all the vehicles, though I wonder if they'd provide effective support on really long trips. The leather is less sumptuous than the Lexus, but better than the Bimmer and the Audi.
If there's one area where this generation loses ground to its predecessor, it's the exterior design. The W203 was a real stunner and the new generation looks far too formal for my tastes. This is, of course, highly subjective.
Pros: Punchy and playful engine, comfortable seats
Cons: Bad transmission, overly-complex COMAND interface, conservative design
Audi A4 Premium Plus 2.0
The best way to summarize the A4 is to categorize the "good", the "bad", and the "ugly".
The good: The steering effort is nicely weighted at speed and seemed to provide the most "road grain". It reminded me a lot of my e46. The seats are amazing and it's easy to find a comfortable position that I could spend hours in. Interior materials and aesthetics continue to be a strong suit for Audi. It feels high-quality and definitely makes a good first impression. The 2.0 engine will get a spot here and in "the bad": It's fun and keeps the "butt-o-meter" happy, but it's a very coarse engine that sounds similar to the last time I got a spoon stuck in the garbage disposal.
The bad: Relative to the latest generation of i-Drive, Audi's MMI just isn't as intuitive. As a matter of fact, I gave up trying to switch from FM to Sirius after about a minute of fiddling with a system that didn't want to cooperate. As mentioned above, while the engine's power feels class-competitive, its sounds are not.
The ugly: Not sure if it's turbo lag or throttle programming, but something is WRONG WRONG WRONG here. I pulled away from a stop sign, went very gently into the throttle, and after about 2 seconds the engine surged ahead unexpectedly. VERY inappropriate behavior that seemed to play out when I accelerated from a dead stop or went from partial throttle to 3/4 or WOT. Lastly, the copious torque steer in the FWD car is a big buzz kill. For the enthusiast Audi shopper, I'd say Quattro is a must.
Having said all this, there's something about the A4 that's greater than the sum of its parts. It's a fun car to drive. In a strange way, the coarse engine note actually adds a bit to the fun factor, especially when compared to the 328's "silent treatment" below 4k.
Pros: Fun to drive, great seats, rockin' stereo, nice interior aesthetics
Cons: Torque steer, throttle tip-in, FWD
BMW 328i Luxury Line
At the risk of getting
, I spent a lot of time debating whether I preferred the 328i or the A4. The A4, IMO, has some glaring shortcomings that need to be addressed, but it's FUN. The 328i is a brilliant car and significantly better-executed, but it honestly didn't make me smile the way the A4 did (much to the chagrin of my hosts at the driving event.)
To be sure, the 328i does a lot of things right. Let's start with the N20. It's a sweetheart of an engine and the combination with the 8AT is a marriage made in heaven. I'm a die hard manual guy, but the auto (and not even the sport auto) managed the power band exactly the way I would have in a manually-equipped car. This combo may also be the best implementation of the driving modes, as the engine's flexibility is well-suited to relaxed cruising when wanted, great economy when needed, and acting like an irresponsible hooligan at any time desired.
This particular car was an Imperial Blue Luxury Line with Saddle interior. It felt premium in a way that previous generation 3ers didn't and embodies the best of what I love about my e46 whilst turning up the heat on Audi in quality and aesthetic... except for the leather. The cows who provided their hides for BMW Dakota leather must've been raised in the red light district of Munich and borne witness to unspeakable acts of S&M.
There's no other way to account for how unyielding and hardened these hides are. Soften up those hides and you've got a wonderful interior.
So why the predicament of picking the A4 or the 328i? I suspect it has do with the car being a non-sport spec. I can definitely understand why somebody would choose the N20 and have tons of
for those of you who did, but for me there's just something missing with this particular configuration. Below 4k rpm, the engine is so silent as to be absent. The seats are comfortable, but not quite coddling. The suspension is willing, but not quite playful. Acceleration is effortless, but there's just something visceral missing. Something I found in the 335i Sport Line.
Pros: Incredible combination of engine/transmission/suspension, big improvements in interior materials and presentation
Cons: Leather courtesy of Folsom Street Fair, N20 lacks visceral involvement
BMW 335i Sport Line
This thing is a BEAST! Of all the cars I drove, the 335i is the only one that actually had me doing
and
from an unadulterated dose of "Freude am Fahren" that greatly exceeds the recommended daily allowance.
The car wasn't shy about shoving me into the back of the deeply-bolstered sport line seats. Each crisply-executed upshift is met with a marvelously uncultured "burp" from the exhaust. On the road and through a turn, the car has that magical "glued to the ground" feeling that enamored me 11 years ago when I bought my 325i.
Sport seats are incredible and for us "'Muricans" it's a real shame that we can't spec the other lines with the sport seats. The bottom part of the seat in all of the other cars except the sport line was too short for my tastes and I've really come to love the extendable thigh support. Your mileage may vary.
After reading some initial reviews here and on the interwebz, I was concerned that the F30 may have lost some of its "BMW-ness", but after today's test drive I'm convinced that the M-Sport 335i will be a more than worthy successor to my e46 and remains a class-leader relative to its competitors. Long live the king!
Pros: Me likey. Me likey LONG time.
Cons: Waiting until next year to get one.