2023 BMW M340i xDrive First Test: M Is for Motor

The 3 Series has undergone a mid cycle face-lift—also known as a life cycle impulse or LCI in BMW-speak—for 2023 that adopts elements of BMW's in-your-face design language without disfiguring the more recognizable cues. The lower center grille has swollen in size, the outboard brake-cooling ducts are now surrounded by gloss-black boomerangs, and the rear fascia sports a crude-looking diffuser that can't possibly be functional. It's not pretty, but next to the M3 and XM, the M340i looks positively restrained.

The bigger change comes inside, where BMW has retrofitted the iDrive 8 infotainment system that's also found in the electric BMW iX and i4. It combines a 12.3-inch digital instrument cluster and a 14.9-inch infotainment screen under a single piece of curved glass standing atop the dashboard, per the latest automotive design trend. Designers have used the additional digital real estate as an excuse to remove nearly all the physical buttons for the audio and climate systems. You can still scroll and click through the screens using the large control knob on the center console, or jump between core functions (nav, phone, media, etc.) using the buttons just ahead of the iDrive controller. We won't be surprised, though, if these controls also end up in a dumpster in the near future. The user interface was clearly designed around the idea that most drivers will tap and swipe the touchscreen instead.

Whether the big screen qualifies as an upgrade depends on how comfortable you are with digitization of the driving experience. The graphics are beautifully rendered and iDrive's organization is still easy to follow, but like so many modern cars, the system is starting to feel cluttered by a weather app and calendar integration and a dozen other apps that we're not convinced anyone actually uses. As more features get crammed into these screens and the buttons on the dashboard disappear, automakers are needlessly complicating the way we interact with our cars. That's not a problem unique to BMW, but whoever addresses it first will win over our hearts and wallets.

Looking beyond the new infotainment system, the quiet cabin and supportive seats make the 3 Series a great tool for passing miles quickly. The chassis is so stable, the engine so relaxed at 80 mph, that you'd need Germany's unrestricted autobahns to fully appreciate the M340i's poise. A Mercedes-Benz C-Class offers a more spacious rear seat, but the 3 Series has ample room for small passengers or larger ones if the journey is short, and the trunk is positively cavernous.

The G20-generation 3 Series isn't exactly a fish out of water when the pavement twists and turns, but backroads don't feel like its natural habitat, either. The disconnect starts with springs that are too soft. In comfort mode, the M340i has more squish than practically every car it competes against. The optional $550 M Adaptive Suspension allows you to dial in more stiffness using the car's Sport mode, and the difference is stark. But instead of buttoning down the body motions, the firmer damping simply speeds up the bobbing and bouncing that keeps this 3 Series from feeling as composed as its ancestors.

To be fair, the test numbers reveal the M340i xDrive moves like a legitimate sport sedan. On staggered Michelin Pilot Sport 4S tires, it logged 0.92 g of lateral grip and a 25.0-second figure-eight lap that lands it in the same league as a Nissan Z. The standard M Sport brakes hauled the nearly two-ton sedan from 60 mph to a standstill in a short 104 feet.

But as we alluded to at the beginning, the M340i fails to capture the magic that made the E90, E46, and E30 3 Series so enchanting. The steering is quick and accurate, yet the electric power assist flattens the effort so that turn-in feels the same—no matter how fast you're moving or how tight the turn is. The feedback comes through your eyes and your butt, not your hands.

Buying the 3 Series with the bigger engine used to be the ticket to sport-sedan nirvana. In the $59,395 BMW M340i xDrive, though, the sense of sportiness stems from the hard-charging 382-hp inline-six and the quick-shifting eight-speed automatic transmission, rather than the steering and body control. That's been true for almost a decade now, and yet we can't shake the memories of the cars that built the 3 Series brand.

Without the spectacular chassis dynamics, the M340i isn't the unique proposition it once was. It's a powerful, comfortable, and luxurious sedan, but those attributes aren't exactly rare among sedans costing as much as our $70,020 test car. Where the 3 Series once represented a one-of-a-kind car, it's now one among many.