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I praised the beauty of the 6-Series Coupe as vigorously as I spelled out my dislikes for the 7-Series sedans, and now I find out that Adrian Vanhooydonk designed both the 7 and the 6, while other designers drew up the 5 and the 3.
True, Bangle directed the work, and he is responsible for taking any heat, but a BMW board also must approve any design. According to product communications manager Dave Buchko, BMW’s standard policy was that the board could not intrude on the designers’ domain by suggesting specific alterations, but could only approve or disapprove the final design.
The new design stretches the car by 2.2 inches in length and 3 inches in width, both of which expand interior room. Increased use of high-tensile steel makes the body lighter, and yet 25 percent stiffer. Front suspension is now of double-pivot design, and the rear has a new five-link arrangement.
BMW’s unique Active Steering, which also stirred controversy on the 5-Series, is adapted as an option for the lighter 3. It is carefully designed to enhance, rather than intrude on, driving instincts. Some claim it does too much for the driver. I think it is one of the more significant improvements in decades for both safety and performance handling. The system allows a quick-steering feel of maximum response and agility at low speeds, but firms up for razor-sharp adjustments at higher speeds.
Racing is fun, but in real-world driving, loss of control is often the result of over-correcting after an emergency swerve in other words, swerving to miss something but turning too far, because of over-boosted power steering or over-boosted adrenaline, and then having to counter-steer abruptly to correct the first move sometimes worsening the whole situation. Having compared the 5’s system with and without Active Steering, and now running the 3 on autocross courses, slaloms, and at high speeds on the race track, I’m convinced it enhances a driver’s ability at the outer limits by virtually eliminating the need for steering correction. With Active Steering, the car reacts so precisely that you needn’t correct, so naturally you don’t over-correct.
The Dynamic Stability Control also is very technical and impressive. You can set it for total control, or shut it off if you feel the need to use the throttle to swing the rear out a little, or you can set it for a third setting that gives you some, but not total, skid control. We tried all three settings on the controlled autocross course, outlined by cones. If it had been a practical joke, it was a good one.
The starter told me I had the system switched on fully for my first autocross run. I said I’d prefer to run first with it off, then add some, then full control, but he said as long as it was on full, to try it that way. I made one turn to the left, then went hard into the purposely placed sand in the second turn, to the right. I skidded sideways through the sand, taking out about a half-dozen cones and winding up off the track. Later, the fellow was overruled by another official, who said the system indeed was fully off, rather than on. Next run, with it on full, the car refused to skid in the same sand.
For more high-tech stuff, consider the active cruise control, with radar-controlled intervals to maintain a preset gap behind the car ahead, and active xenon headlights that throw some light around corners as you start to turn into them. And a hill-holding feature with the stick shifts means you can stop on a steep incline, with one foot on the clutch and the other on the brake. When you step off the brake to hit the gas, the brake holds for three seconds, giving you time to get on the gas and ease off the clutch without rolling backwards.
The dreaded overly technical “iDrive” system is an option, but only if you get the navigation system, so you can avoid it for ergonomically sound knobs and buttons.
The added size means that fans of the current fourth-generation 3-Series may want to pounce on one while they still last. It just may be possible that the 3 has been made a bit larger to make room for future sales of the smaller BMW 1-Series. We’ll have to wait and see.
If I had one complaint, it is the usual snow-belt driver concern that rear-wheel drive is less effective on ice and snow than front-wheel drive. But the BMW 3-Series, with its 50-50 weight distribution on the front and rear axles, is simply the best rear-wheel-drive sedan on the planet. It has been for a decade or two, which is the reason virtually every car-maker, admittedly or secretly, chooses the 3-Series as its handling benchmark when designing new models. They haven’t caught up yet, and judging by the first drives of the 2006 models of the 3-Series, the gap may be widening.
(John Gilbert writes weekly auto reviews, and can be reached at cars@jwgilbert.com
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