BMW 3 Series gets mild facelift, major mechanical updates

The 3 Series for BMW has been a huge success all over the world but it hasn’t quite hit the right chord in India. The Bavarian carmaker has now taken the wraps of the first major update to the 3 Series and will hope to find its success here. If you are looking at the picture, you may not spot much of a difference because there isn’t. Only the headlights and taillights get minor tweaks – LED units for the front that are optional, and reshaped LED taillights.

So does the mechanical update make a difference then? The chances most likely are that they won’t, at least with the new variants. Because the two new variants added to the 3 Series line up are the 340i and the 330e hybrid, both highly unlikely to make it to India considering our diesel biased buying preferences. 

The 340i gets a twin turbo straight six petrol mill that’s good for 325PS of power, 20PS more than the now defunct 335i and has 447Nm of torque. BMW says that the 340i can do the 0-100 sprint in 4.8 seconds when mated to the 8-speed automatic gearbox. With the 4WD xDrive tech, the sprint is marked at 4.6 seconds. For the first time, the 3 Series also gets a plugin hybrid with 253PS/420Nm of power and torque. The hybrid gets a range of 35km.

These two models aside though, the 3 Series line up gets a host of mechanical updates. The 8-speed automatic gearbox gets wider gear ratios that promise to make it a bit more efficient, retuned front struts, rear dampers and adjustments to the power steering will make the 3 series a better handling car. BMW is also offering a track handling package for the petrol powered 3 Series that includes sports steering, adaptive M suspension and M Sport brakes.