[scottwww]

Winding Road Issue 19 reviews the BMW 335i Convertible (page 31), BMW 1 Series Convertible (page 46), and other makes and models.


For more see http://windingroad.com/

[scottwww]

Winding Road issue 20 Tech Focus: BMW's New M3 Engine

[Mike0328]

Found a couple of reviews specific to the 328xi...

Sleek 328xi Coupe Does BMW Proud
March 24, 2007 Hartford Courant

2007 BMW 328xi Mini-Review
Daily Technobabble


2007 BMW 328xi Sedan
CNet- Mar 27, 2007

(yes I know this last one has already been posted here, but I'm putting it here for completeness...

Enjoy!
Mike

[Mike0328]

Here's another 328xi review...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/?p=3083

Best quote:
"Normally, when I’m driving a ride that’s not mine, I’m as gentle as Johnson & Johnson´s baby shampoo. But saying no to this car is like turning down an invite to the champagne room. From Lindsay Lohan."

[bluebug]

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...LOG06/70308001

I made what I thought was a mistake about five minutes before typing this blog: I clicked absentmindedly through our online Geneva show coverage and stumbled across just what I had tried to avoid: photos of the next BMW M3. (Labeled officially as a concept, but based on recent history, there's no reason to expect the final production car will look much-if any-different.)

See, we had BMW's official M3 pics days ago, but I purposely ignored them. The reason: I didn't want thoughts of the next super coupe to spoil my anticipation for the subject of this blogosphere entry, the 2007 335i sedan. As you might guess, this has happened to me before.

But as I looked over the pictures and read my man Jonny Wong's summary of what lies beneath the M3's skin, I felt none of my feelings or impressions of the 335i melting away into anticipation for the M car. No doubt the M3 will be a marvelous driving tool, one enthusiasts and critics will continue to rave about years from now. Yet so many mid-to-high-level sports-oriented cars have extended so deep into the performance envelope that pining over their maxed-out brethren is somewhat akin to winning the latest Powerball jackpot, then dreaming only of investing the cash so you can become even richer.

When it comes to cars at this point, wishing you had the next step-up is dangerously close to hedonistic self-indulgence, and it's virtually pointless. The fact is, no matter how much you drop on a car, it's almost a given that you'll eventually run across someone who has something "better." Feeling like the $#!^ because you just took delivery of a Bugatti Veyron? Well, here comes your Monte Carlo neighbor in his, except he paid the factory an extra $250,000 for an additional 175-hp. You, my friend, are now an inadequate loser; you may as well send your Veyron back to the factory and just get a bus pass.

Unless, of course, you can reconstruct human nature and just enjoy what you have, which brings us back to the 335i.

I stopped comparing this car to other cars within 10 minutes of my first drive. That might sound strange, considering automotive journalists are by definition almost compelled to do just that. Otherwise, how do you know if a car is, relatively speaking, any "good?"

Here's how: You feel it. The twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter's fat torque and upper rev-range power. The weighty steering that allows you to place the car wherever you want, whenever you want. The brakes that stop you now. And a sport suspension/chassis combination that absorbs the hardest driving you can throw at it while providing as much feedback as you'll ever need.

Actually, I lied. I did compare this 335 to one car: the old M3. I didn't have a choice, because on the road-even ones covered in snow and salt-this new sedan feels and performs eerily similar. No, it doesn't quite have the hi-rev punch, but the mid-range torque pretty much negates that. The chassis might not snap into corners with exactly equal authority (and I'd prefer a limited-slip diff), but it feels nearly the same. I drove on public roads (not racetracks or skidpads) without data logging equipment, so I can't tell you the 335 accelerates as fast as an M3, brakes as well or pulls as many lateral gs. But as someone with a good amount of M3 seat time, I can tell you that I didn't think I was missing a lot, or that I had experienced much better in any previous version of the 3 Series. Hell, I covered 50 miles before I even remembered this was a turbocharged car, and that realization had nothing to do with any turbo lag (it doesn't exist) or other characteristic giveaway.

Speaking of giveaways, our test car's $44,795 price tag isn't quite the bargain of the decade, but I don't need the cold weather package, the premium package or the park distance control. I'd keep the $1600 sport package (suspension, wheels, tires, sport seats and steering wheel) and buy the car for $40,995. That's about $9,000 less than the about-to-be-replaced M3-one of which happened to pull up next to me one afternoon as I cruised along. I didn't envy its driver one bit.

Some might call that going backward. I call it forward progress.

[zenmaster]

[Zadjali]

Car and Driver comparison tests



First Place: 2007 BMW 328i
Second Place: 2007 Audi A4 2.0T
Third Place: 2007 Saab 9-3 2.0T
Fourth Place: 2007 Volkswagen Eos 3.2
Fifth Place: 2007 Volvo C70 T5

Comparison Tests

[southernnorthcarolina]

The last paragraph of the Car and Driver review:

The BMW’s rear seats were distinctly snug, and headroom suffered with the top up. The dark interior left testers cold, as did the Bimmer’s tops-in-test pricing. But the 328i prevailed on a parley of traditional BMW virtues: classic good looks, superior dynamics, autobahn ride quality, and an exceptional sense of partnership with its driver. “Feels like a proper BMW,” wrote one tester, “which is the whole idea. Bravo!”

"The dark interior left testers cold..." Ummm, guys, your test car had a black interior. Black is, generally speaking, dark. If you'd specified coral red with aluminum trim like I did, no one would ever complain that your interior is dark. Tacky, maybe. But certainly not dark.

[Stinger]

Thought I'd share with the board that Motorweek (available on PBS and Speed TV) is airing an episode next week that reviews the 2007 335i Convertible.

More details here: http://www.mpt.org/motorweek/upcomingshows.shtml

episode: #2638 begins May 25.

[Stinger]

Probably the lamest review of the 2007 convertibles but there is some nice video of the cars. Both the 335i and 328i are reviewed.

[RedStripe]

http://www.latimes.com/classified/au...autos-highway1

From the Los Angeles Times
RUMBLE SEAT
Top this, Transformer
Looks hot, drives great, comfy in any weather. It's hard not to like BMW's new convertible.
DAN NEIL

May 23, 2007

SIX weeks hence, our collective fore-lobe will be obsessed with the large and loud summer movie "Transformers," a film based on an irredeemable and just plain odd Saturday morning cartoon that ran briefly 20 years ago and was created specifically to help shill toys to children. (Historical note: In Japan the cartoon was called "Fight: Super Robot Lifeform Transformers.") This film has been directed by Michael Bay. Instead of popcorn, I'm thinking a large bucket of hot buttered antidepressants.

So while we're bracing for that awesomeness to wash over us, consider the 2007 BMW 335i Convertible, a car whose quicksilver transformation from coupe to convertible looks like something cooked up by Industrial Light & Magic. Virtually indistinguishable from the 335i Coupe (with a fixed roof), the Convertible can achieve its CGI-like metamorphosis while sitting at a stoplight (23 seconds): The three roof panels levitate apart from one another, shuffle together and sink in a stack under the open deck lid, a minor symphony of servos and levers performed pianissimo. When the rear-hinged deck lid closes and all seals compress, you're looking at a whole different car. Call it Solaris Prime.

Let's dispense with some shopkeeping first. BMW's new convertible comes with a choice of two engines: a naturally aspirated 3.0-liter inline six good for 230 hp (328i, starting at $43,200) and the exquisite twin-turbo 3.0-liter putting out 300 hp (335i, starting at $49,100). That makes the convertible versions of the car $7,900 and $8,300 more than their fixed-roof siblings, respectively. The convertible's structural reinforcement adds 441 pounds to the curb weight of the automatic-equipped 328i and 375 pounds to the 335i. A six-speed manual transmission is standard; the six-speed automatic is a $1,275 option, and worth every penny in this town.

Aside from weight and cost, the big problem with retractable hardtops is packaging. These solid-panel mechanisms don't fold as compactly as multi-bowed, twill canvas tops. That means designers have to make room for them in the boot, and this leads — as it does in the VW Eos and the Volvo V70 — to a strange elongation in the rear quarter of the car. Likewise, in both of these cars, the arching curve of the roof requires the rear seats to be low to allow for adequate headroom. Combined with a rising shoulder line, this arrangement leaves rear-seat passengers feeling buried up to their neck in car.

Not so with the BMW. The profile of coupe and convertible are nearly the same — the convertible does sacrifice the graceful landing the fixed roof makes at the deck lid — and the rear-seat passengers can look out comfortably, provided the front-seat passengers are merciful in keeping their seats forward.

The other big issue with these tops is cargo space. The Bimmer convertible provides a spacious 12.3 cubic feet of trunk space with the top up (a major improvement over the previous ragtop model's 7.7 cubic feet). The stowed hardtop shrinks trunk space to 7.4 cubic feet, much of it under the folded roof panels. The optional Comfort Access feature ($500) will move the roof panels out of the way to making loading easier.

Cargo cultists will also appreciate that the rear seat backs fold flat to provide a large parcel shelf behind the front seats; and the rear-seat pass-through opening (part of the $750 Cold Weather package) is huge, big enough to accommodate not just skis but a set of golf clubs.

Perhaps there is one more downside: complication. You'd really have to see this top in action — with its elastic stringers pleating the roof liner and close-tolerance hinges scissoring together — to appreciate what a bit of precision engineering it is. Can it go wrong? I've already heard from an anguished reader who reported his BMW's super-roof went haywire and it took four weeks to fix. Tsk tsk.

In terms of driving dynamics and performance, I could cut-and-paste what I previously wrote about the 335i Coupe. These are unbelievably refined automobiles, powered with hydraulic smoothness by the company's new twin-turbocharged inline six, complete with direct injection and the Double

VANOS variable valve timing. With a bank of Bosch computers running the show, this engine generates 300 foot-pounds of torque practically everywhere the tach goes. Combined with the glycerin-smooth ZF transmission, the powertrain has a rheostatic, dial-a-speeding-ticket quality, summoning a progressively urgent rush of power from a dead standstill until your necktie is flapping in the wind like a hurricane pennant. And, by the way, can you bottle that sound?

If you feel like changing gears yourself, the ZF provides pewter-like blobs behind the steering wheel (forward for upshift, back for downshift). Like other recent sport auto trannys, the ZF blips the throttle on downshifts to provide rev matching.

With an extra 400 pounds aboard, it seems self-evident that the convertible wouldn't be quite as spry as the coupe, but from the seat of the pants, it's hard to discern. The car still bolts to 60 mph in 5.7 seconds, all while the turbos gargle great warbling streams of pressurized atmosphere. With the $1,300 Sport package girding its loins, our test car disported in utterly shameless and beguiling ways.

I would also note that the car's 20/29, city/highway mileage is downright decent for a 300-hp, 2-ton convertible.

With the top up, the cabin ambience — quiet and composed, elegant, as solid as a bank elevator — is indistinguishable from that of the Coupe. With the top down, life is equally good. With the windows up, the seat heaters on and the wind-blocker in place, you could drive al fresco to a Green Bay Packers game. Or a Sun Devils' game. Among the dazzling tech trinkets is an infrared-reflective coating on the leather upholstery that, says BMW, reduces surface temps by nearly 40 degrees.

It's two, two cars in one. It doesn't turn into a death-dealing robot, save the world or liberate millions in box-office receipts, but BMW's little transformer is certainly boffo.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
dan.neil@latimes.com

*

2007 BMW 335i Convertible

Base price: $49,100

Price, as tested: $58,520

Powertrain: Twin-turbocharged and intercooled. Direct-injection 3.0-liter DOHC inline six-cylinder with variable valve timing; six-speed automatic with manual-shift mode; rear-wheel drive.

Horsepower: 300 at 5,800 rpm

Torque: 300 pound-feet at 1,400 to 5,000 rpm

Curb weight: 3,957 pounds

0-60 mph: 5.7 seconds

Wheelbase: 108.7 inches

Overall length: 180.6 inches

EPA fuel economy: 20 miles per gallon city, 29 mpg highway (unleaded premium)

Final thoughts: Tantronicon

[RedStripe]

The New York Times
June 3, 2007
Behind The Wheel | BMW 335i Convertible

A Grand Opening for BMW’s Quick-Tanning Machine
By LAWRENCE ULRICH
DRIVING a BMW 3 Series after some time away is like being reunited with a favorite band. The in-line 6 sounds its opening notes and you think, “Hey, I remember that song.”

The car picks up the tempo and glides through a tricky two-lane passage, and your hips shimmy right along. As the performance approaches a lighter-waving climax, you’re reminded that, among sport sedans, the 3 Series is like Dylan or the Clash: the one you can always come back to.

Of course, a company doesn’t keep a car on top for 30 years by rehashing the past, but through regular reinvention.

The Bangle school of styling that so provoked BMW purists (their motto: forever square) with its restless kinks and bulges, has grown into a mature, often-imitated style that can no longer be casually dismissed. The look definitely flatters the 3 Series. It was liberally applied to the fifth-generation sedan for 2006. A coupe soon followed, along with a welcome rarity, a wagon as fun and shapely as it is practical.

On an unreasonably cold spring morning, I pulled on a wool hat to avoid spoiling my first date with the luxurious 335i convertible. Starting at $49,875, it is the most expensive and style-conscious of the current 3 Series lineup. (A new limited-edition 420-horsepower M3, featuring the first V-8 ever installed in the series, will top the range later next year).

Having failed for years to outhandle and outfinesse the BMW, the competition has been trying to hammer it into submission. The best of the budget alternatives is Infiniti and its recently redesigned G35. A more powerful G37 coupe — on sale in August, with a sedan version to follow — will develop a class-leading 330 horsepower from a 3.7-liter V-6.

Such V-6 engines take up less space than in-line sixes of the same displacement. And BMW could no longer stretch its smaller, 3-liter in-line 6 and still fit it under the 3 Series hood. So to keep the sport-sedan stalkers at bay, it had to whip out the automotive version of pepper spray: a pair of quick-spooling turbochargers boost the direct-injection 6 to a nice round 300 horsepower and 300 pound-feet of torque. Even the burly new M3 with the V-8 will produce 5 less pound-feet of torque (295) than the turbo models.

That makes the 335i the first turbocharged gasoline-powered BMW sold in the United States. The engine makes a vocal argument to being the best turbo powerplant this side of a $130,000 Porsche. Free-spinning and seamless, it evinces none of the power lag or spiky peaks you expect from turbochargers, achieving peak torque at a low 1,400 r.p.m.

The result is a 3 Series that feels roughly as quick, but less high-strung, than the current-generation M3 (rated at 333 horsepower). For the new convertible, BMW cites a snappy 5.5-second run from 0 to 60 m.p.h. when equipped with the terrific six-speed manual transmission — only two-tenths of a second behind the 335i coupe. If you don’t want to pump a clutch pedal, the $1,275 six-speed Steptronic is among the fastest and smoothest automatics around; don’t forget to throw in $100 for paddle shifters.

Trusty brakes feature every imaginable technology, including a self-drying feature that ensures that they are always ready for action on a puddly day. The brakes automatically keep the car from rolling backward when you’re starting off on an uphill slope, a feature every luxury car should consider.

Blessedly, the 3 Series can be ordered without the iDrive systems interface and its dreaded rotary control knob. And the Active Steering — which adjusts steering ratios to make for easier parking and supposedly better handling — is another option whose price, $1,400, isn’t justified by the benefits.

For style, speed and handling you can see and feel, choose instead the $1,300 sport package. It adds a firmer suspension, sport seats with power adjustable side bolsters and handsome 18-inch wheels with sticky run-flat performance tires. It also raises the top speed limitation to 150 m.p.h., compared with just 130 m.p.h. without the package.

During my blast north of New York along the Hudson River, the BMW’s mad turbocharged rush was a new thrill. More familiar was the unity of power, steering, shifter and brakes that no other car in this class can quite reproduce. The suspension is supple when you want it, firm when you need it, and the car will cruise or command any road, depending on your mood.

With the day warming and my hair whipping, I tried and failed to think of a hotter combination of four seats, open roof and excellent performance at this price. The 3 Series defies the stereotype of convertibles as fair-weather toys, and that real men and enthusiasts must do their serious road hunting from inside a closed-roof cave.

The 3 Series also addresses a longstanding bane of convertibles: the combination of tender thighs and searing-hot seats. The seats, armrests and shift knob feature BMW’s so-called sun-reflective technology. The leather is treated with pigments that BMW claims will reduce surface temperatures of dark-leather seats by up to 36 degrees on sunny days or 27 degrees for lighter-colored leathers.

Count the power hardtop as another first on a BMW. On the plus side, the top powers down in a fleet 22 seconds, and it takes just one second longer to click shut. The side and rear glass areas are together more than 30 percent larger than those of the prior cloth-top convertible, minimizing blind spots, letting in light and greatly improving visibility, including the view from the back seat.

But as with most folding hardtops, the roof adds weight and complexity, and seriously reduces the trunk space when stowed. At 3,946 pounds, the Bimmer weighs about 400 pounds more than the coupe. About 300 of that is because of the top, the rest from the stiffened structure that convertibles require to keep tremors at bay. Watching the top’s stacking, origami action is breathtaking, but so is the thought of how much it might cost to fix after a decade of use.

With the top down, trunk space drops from 12.3 cubic feet to 7.4, though it seemed smaller. With the roof open, I tried and failed to stow two wheeled carry-ons. A clever $500 Comfort Access option lets you open or close the top with the key fob, or to partly raise the roof for easier access to luggage.

As ever with BMW, the phrase “You get what you pay for” is both a compliment and caveat. My beautiful bright-blue 335i checked in at $54,540. Worth every penny, I’d say, but that’s still a whole lot of pennies.

So allow a word of praise for the 328i versions, whether sedan, coupe or convertible. (The 328i convertible starts at $43,975.) The starter Bimmers used to feel like something you settled for, with smaller engines and well under 200 horsepower. But the latest 328i models get a robust 230 horsepower from a 3-liter aluminum-magnesium 6, and the engine is so flexible that you’d swear it had 30 more horses in reserve.

Yes, a twin-turbo 300-horsepower BMW convertible is the stuff of summer dreams. The 328i model helps to keep that dream more attainable.

INSIDE TRACK: Solar power.

[Jobu]

Autoweek E92 Review 6/1/07: Still King of the Coupes

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...8/newsletter01

[Stinger]

Motorweek review of E93s:

[Jobu]

The latest from Autoweek on the E92

http://www.autoweek.com/apps/pbcs.dl...1024/1532/FREE

[Stinger]

The new Roundel Magazine has a full review of the E93.

[gbonc335i]

Originally Posted by Stinger

Probably the lamest review of the 2007 convertibles but there is some nice video of the cars. Both the 335i and 328i are reviewed.

Somebody tell them to quit sitting on the #@$% paint!

[STATUS]

UM MAYB i missed it but where is european Car?

[ndahbar]

Originally Posted by Stinger

Probably the lamest review of the 2007 convertibles but there is some nice video of the cars. Both the 335i and 328i are reviewed.

Rofl that's the best review ever.

[scottwww]

Top Gear could be U.S. bound with British hosts

If Top Gear came to the U.S. would you watch it? I can't imagine that it could be only American cars featured on the show.

[dwarner4]

Originally Posted by STATUS

UM MAYB i missed it but where is european Car?

Here's their Long Term Report. Better late than never...