2023 BMW 330i Review | The right car at the wrong price
This is the updated G20 BMW 3 Series, the latest iteration of what is arguably the quintessential premium mid-size sedan. Common with the answer to the question, what if you need one car to do everything? Stay tuned to find out if that’s still the case, but before that, like the video, subscribe to the car sales channel, and give us a comment down below with your thoughts. The latest 3 Series brings revised styling, more equipment and fancier tech, and resumes battle against the likes of the Mercedes-Benz C-Class, Audi A4, and Alfa Romeo Giulia, among others. Now, not
to begin on a sour note, but we have to talk about the price of this car. There’s no easier way to say this. The BMW 330i now starts at just over $93,000 plus on-road costs. On the one hand, that’s pretty much exactly the same price as its main rival, the Mercedes-Benz C300. So it sounds competitive, but it’s a $10,000 increase over the pre-facelift car, but that’s not the whole story. When the G23 series first came out in 2019, the 330i cost $70,900 plus on-road. This car, with options, but before on-road costs, is more than a
hundred grand. Now we all know the world is a very different place than it was in 2019, and yes, this face lifted version does have more
styling and wider rear tires. Nine colors are available, but only plain white is standard. With metallics, like this black, an extra $2,000, and the pair of special individual finishes another $3,800. BMW is now offering a five-year unlimited kilometer warranty. Though BMW uses condition-based servicing, i.e. the car will tell you when it needs a service depending on how you’ve been driving it. The two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine carries over unchanged, which means a healthy 190 kilowatts and 400 Newton meters for a claim zero to 100 time of 5.9 seconds, and claim combined fuel consumption of 6.5 liters
per hundred K. Power is sent to the rear wheels through an eight-speed automatic gearbox. Now before I cover the interior itself, let’s talk specification. You might hope that with such a large price increase everything would be standard, but not quite. BMW has added M Sport seats with lumbar support and a leather surround for the instruments, but this car also has the visibility pack, which includes metallic paint, the sunroof and adaptive LED headlights. That’s another $4,800. The comfort pack adds heated seats and steering wheel and a Harmon Kardon and stereo. That’s an extra $3,100. And blackout
exterior trim adds a further $500. This is where it gets a bit confusing because the M340i gets most of this optional kit standard, heated seats, sunroof, fancy stereo, as well as all-wheel drive, and another a hundred kilowatts. It’s only around $5,000 more expensive. Anyway, by and large, the 3 Series interior is tip top, lots of nice materials, great driving position, plenty of space, and relatively easy to use. The big news for this facelift is the addition of this massive curve display, which is being rolled out in basically all new BMWs. It’s slightly intimidating in its
size and scope, but fairly easily navigated and Apple Car Play makes it easier again and goes full screen. Infotainment uses BMW’s latest iDrive 8, which has much greater voice control, more sensitive touch operation, as well as the traditional rotary controller. Basically you now just say a command and the car does the rest. Hey, BMW, set the temperature to 20 degrees. – I will set the temperature to 20 degrees Celsius for the driver. And even knows if the driver or passenger is talking. This is important because all the physical air con controls are now gone, as
has traditional row of preset buttons for the audio. Now we just left with volume and track controls and a couple of demister buttons. Everything else has been put in the touchscreen. The other screen features the digital instruments which offer a number of different views. Can display sat nav or media or G readings and there are also four views for the head up display. All selected via the right hand spoke on the steering wheel. All the safety gizmos are present and correct and the current generation 3 Series has a five star and cap rating, albeit from
2019. Despite only being a mid-size sedan, there is plenty of room here in the back for two adults at least and I’ve got separate temperature controls and a pair of USB C ports for charging, fold down center armrest with cup holders and Iso fix points in the outboard seats. Another new standard feature is the electric boot which opens to reveal 480 liters of space which is quite a lot, and it gets even bigger if you fold the rear seats down. Now, BMW no longer uses the ultimate driving machine tagline. We’d hope that this thing is
still pretty good to drive. And it is. I mentioned at the top that for years, decades even, the BMW 330i has been the answer to the question what if you need one car to do everything? And the G20 more than continues that tradition. Things got a bit shaky with the last generation the F30 because, unless you optioned adaptive dampers the chassis was a bit all over the place. It was too soft so it didn’t ride and it didn’t handle but they’re standing once again and it’s back to being great. I’ll start with the everyday stuff.
I’ve got the drive mode set to comfort, and well there’s not that much to talk about really because it all just kind of works. The ride isn’t a magic carpet. You can feel the road beneath you but it’s still more than comfortable. There’s a little bit of wind and road noise at highway speeds, but it’s no big deal. The biggest issue, if you can call it that is that in comfort the accelerator is quite doughy. You really need to give it a decent push to get a response. To solve this, simply hit the sport button
which firms up the suspension, add some weight to the steering and sharpens up the thought of response but it’s a pleasant surprise to learn that it doesn’t overdo it. This suspension is definitely firmer but still perfectly acceptable and there’s more weight to the steering but doesn’t turn into a wrestling match like it could be some BMW’s of the recent past. In fact, you can pretty much drive this thing around in sport all the time, without too much fuss. Where the 330i really shines though, and puts clear air between it and it rivals is when you
treat it like a proper sport sedan. The engine comes up a little bit short. There’s plenty of torque but, it fades a bit at the top end so you’re better off changing up early. But no such complaints with the chassis. You can drive this thing so hard and yet it never feels out of its comfort zone. The bigger M sport breaks with just standard hold up there’s heaps of traction, great grip, accurate steering. You get feedback as to how the car’s behaving. Eventually it’ll push into under steer or occasionally over steer, but that’s all part
of the fun. Mercedes C class, Audi A4, Volvo S60, even the Jaguar xe. None of them drive as well as this BMW. The only one that really gets close is the Alpha Rome Julia Veloce. The fact that car doesn’t have any sort of sports mode for its ESP puts a ceiling on its ability that the 330i doesn’t have. You could rightly ask who’s gonna drive their 330 like this and well, I don’t really know but isn’t it nice to know it can do it? More to the point, if you’ve got one of these, you should
drive it like this, cause it’s tremendous fun. So, thumbs up all round for the 330i then. This has been one of the most difficult verdicts to figure out in a long time. The idea of a $100,000 330i seems ridiculous, but then it’s the same price as its main competitor, much better than cheaper rivals and very difficult to pick holes in. It’s fast, comfortable, great to drive, full of tech, et cetera, et cetera. However, at long last, I think I’ve got it. If you want a 330i, buy the pre face lift version. You do miss out
on some of the very latest toys but it’s pretty much the same car and you can get an early G20 with around 40,000 K’s for under 60 grand and a 2022 dealer demo, for about $75,000 drive away. That’s 35,000 less than this car. If you do want a brand new 3 Series spend a fraction more and get an M340i. It has everything that’s great about the 330i but with performance that’s in a different league. It is a true weapon and the one we’d buy. Thanks for watching. If you’ve enjoyed this video, give it a like,
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