SOME men just love cars. Not just teenagers without a penny to their name, but mature and maybe some not so mature adults as well.
Last week the red BMD 320d Sport that I drove attracted many envious glances from teenagers as they nudged one another at the sight of the car and I also had a few adults come up to me and ask questions about the car.
This is the sixth generation of the 3-series, the world’s best-selling premium saloon. The 3-series is very important for BMW as it’s responsible for one-fifth of the company’s global sales. The new model is larger and more spacious than the model it replaces, but lighter, quicker and more fuel-efficient.
Being a sport version the 2.0 litre 320d the front seats are a bit lower than normal, but not too low. Hard to believe that my front seat passengers still appreciated the heated seats in mid May. Leather seats tend to be cold in the mornings and while some people cannot bear heated seats, there are three different settings to keep your back at the right temperature.
On the dash there is an excellent screen display where you can all get all the information you need about the car; you may never have to read through the driver’s manual. And I loved the radio controls where you can scroll up and down through the wavelengths and choose the station you want, once you are within the coverage area of that particular station.
The reversing camera, which costs an extra
?¬413 is excellent. You get three different colours when reversing: green, amber and red, so if you are careful there should be no scrapes on the paint work. If you leave the car in neutral when exiting and press the alarm the horn will sound, this is a great way to remind you to return to the car and put in park mode. A very clever idea. The boot should be big enough to carry your set of golf clubs and no need for a spare wheel as all BMWs have run-flat tyres.
On the road this is a gorgeous car to drive and I really appreciated the automatic as it makes life much more relaxing for the driver; and of course the driver is the most important person in the car. For car lovers the steering is very precise and if it’s speed you are after then you can get from zero to 100km/h in approx 7.6 seconds. My test drive was an automatic, but there were toggles at the side of the steering wheel if I preferred manual gear changes.
Prices for the sport version start at
?¬40,800 and metallic paint and leather seats bring the price up to
?¬43,387. Then there are a host of extras, the most expensive of which is sport automatic transmission, and they all brought the price of the car as tested to
?¬48,581.
Emissions are low which means road tax is only
?¬160 and it’s very easy on the diesel.
Just one problem, where in these austere days do you get the money to buy a BMW? Why not try BMW themselves. In its first full year BMW Financial Services loaned
?¬89 million to Irish car buyers, with 75 per cent of applications approved. And Irish car dealers were loaned
?¬150 million of support money. So it’s not just the Troika, we are getting money from, we are getting it from everywhere.