German Car Zone

It’s the premium car with mass appeal. BMW’s 3-Series wears an upmarket badge, but its popularity and sales success mean it has featured in the UK top 10 best-sellers list for the past three years. Described by bosses as “the heartbeat of the brand”, it accounts for a huge 45 per cent of BMW’s British sales.

So to keep the classy favourite at the top of its game, the saloon and Touring estate have had a mid-life update. The styling has been refreshed, interiors spruced up and engines tweaked, while as before there’s a choice of ES, SE and M Sport models. Nearly half the cars sold in the UK come in the latter trim, so we picked the revamped 330d M Sport for the model’s first UK test.

The six-cylinder 3.0-litre diesel has been revised to give more power and torque, while emissions and economy are also improved. But the competition is tough. Audi’s new A4 is better to drive than ever, and in racy S line trim the 3.0-litre TDI quattro is a real sports saloon to challenge the best BMW has to offer.

Don’t forget Mercedes, either: the C-Class has unique styling in Sport guise, and here our long-term C320 CDI faces up to the reworked BMW. Jaguar’s X-Type has recently benefited from a facelift, too, so this test gives us a chance to find out if it can still compete with the German class leaders.






1st BMW 330d M Sport auto
Sharp looks, great to drive – but has BMW played too safe with update?




2nd Audi A4 3.0 TDI S Line
Bigger, better, but is our current class favourite still the best?




3rd Mercedes C320 CDI Sport
Sharper looking and more agile, Merc is a strong choice




4th Jaguar X-Type 2.2D auto
Is ageing saloon still a worthy contender in this market?






















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M

What do they mean by this: "BMW played too safe with update" ?
Do they mean they wanted more major exterior changes for the facelift?

^I don't get it either,anyway this FL is all i hoped for from BMW

And the Jag interior is a joke seriously.

But they sure did try to make it look the part..lol. Its borderline overdone...in an X-Type.

M

If I had to rank these cars, that's how it would have turned out too. I'm a fan of the new A4, I think it looks really good in these pictures. However, the 3er is still very hard to resist for a lot of people. Gosh I miss diesel engines.

Reading reviews about the Audi's interior makes my bloody boil!

The 3's facelift is great!

Yes, it's typical really - Auto Express tend to say this about most manufacturers' facelifts (the recent changes to the A6 being a good example).

I think the 250 CDi would have done better than the 320 CDi...

It's not safe...it's just an extremley well thought out and resolved progression.

Weird, its not exactly a new car we talking about, its just a facelift with minor changes.