In this episode, we review another one of my personal vehicles, my 2014 BMW 328i with xDrive.
From Dream to Driveway
I’ve always wanted this car. For years, I read about how the BMW 3-series was the benchmark car, and I felt like owning “the Ultimate Driving Machine” would be pretty awesome being that I’m a car guy. Every time I went to go buy a BMW, the deal didn’t happen. In one instance, the dealer sneakily changed things, and in another, someone else bought the car moments before I got there. I felt like I just wasn’t supposed to have a BMW.
So three years ago, when my wife and I went looking for a new vehicle, I steered us to a BMW dealership. When we saw this vehicle we loved it. Everything felt too good to be true, but here we are. We still own the car and it’s been pretty much trouble-free. The only issues that we’ve encountered are broken door handles and the leather on the center console started to peel prematurely BMW replaced everything under warranty without any hassle. Other than those items, we’ve logged 55,000 miles without any major issues.
The original MSRP of this vehicle was just about $51,000. I picked it up as a certified pre-owned vehicle. It was a year old and had ~8,000 miles on it. I paid $34,900. That’s BMW depreciation working in my favor.
The Minimalistic Interior
Spending time inside the interior of the BMW is not too shabby. It is very Germanic… My wife actually finds the interior to be bland. If it wasn’t for the red leather she wouldn’t have been interested at all. We test drove a black-on-black 3-series, and she said that it was just boring. I have to agree. The red leather really does something to spice up the vehicle, especially offset against the white exterior. I think that this is the perfect color combination for a BMW.
Equipment Packages
This vehicle comes equipped with several equipment packages. First and foremost, is the M-Sport package, which means that inside we get the best steering wheel of any car I’ve ever driven. You also get these super comfortable adjustable M-Sport seats which have really nice side bolsters to hold you in place in the curves. On the outside, you get different 18-inch wheels as well as a different aerodynamics package on the front, sides, and rear. It also comes with the Navigation package, the Technology package, the Premium package, the Concierge package (which I have no idea what the heck that does).
Mostly Unmodified
This BMW has surprisingly made it through my three years of ownership with minimal modifications. I installed an all-black kidney grille up-front. It has all-weather floor mats, 35% window tinting all around (which has only got me in trouble once), and I de-badged the rear. That’s it! That’s atypical for me when it comes to vehicle ownership. I’m always looking to tinker. I just haven’t felt the need to really do that to this car.
A Constant Reminder of How Good a Car it Is
You know, it’s funny. I drive my Ford F-150 and my other car pretty much all the time. This vehicle was retired once it reached around 60,000 miles. I handed over the keys to my wife. She puts maybe 200 miles on it a week. So it rarely sees action. Whenever we go somewhere as a family, we take the F-150, so I don’t get to drive this car very much. Every time I get in it, I realize just how good of a car it is.
Now I know a lot of BMW purists talk about how the e90 was the pinnacle car or the E46 is the car you need to have, but I don’t have those. I have this, the F30 BMW 328i, and having not driven those, I have to tell you that this is a great car. It’s got a little turbo four-cylinder that puts out 240 horsepower and 255 pound-feet of torque. That’s plenty for this car. I know BMW underrates their power output from the factory, and I would say that this vehicle is definitely underrated. It’s just peppy as hell!
Drive Modes
It has 2 different sport modes. There are Sport and Sport Plus, which are very similar. I believe that Sport Plus just disables traction control. When you shift into Sport mode the vehicle downshifts to get into its peak powerband, the steering becomes a lot tighter, and the throttle response becomes stronger. The car just seems to come alive. You can really feel the BMW in the car. What makes it even more exciting is if you put the transmission in the sport mode as well. It holds on to the gears longer, it shifts a lot faster too. This is obviously the mode you want to drive it in if you’re looking into spirited driving. BMW also has a screen on the center console that I think is pretty cool. You can set it to Sport display, which shows you your power and torque output.
The last drive mode is Eco Pro. This mode gets you the highest gas mileage. The throttle becomes a lot heavier. You really have to push it to get the car to downshift. The steering is really light too. My favorite part of this mode is that when you’re on the highway, and you let off
the accelerator, you can actually see the transmission shifts into neutral. So you’re basically hypermiling to get the best fuel economy that you can. To me, I just think that’s pretty impressive!
The car has multiple personalities. Each of them is there to get the kind of driving-style that you want. I think that’s just amazing. BMW has dialed in this vehicle to accommodate the different ways in which you might be using it.
Not Without Its Quirks
So I know that you’re probably thinking to yourself “this car can’t be perfect” and you’re right. There are a couple things about this car that I feel is just weird. It has front and rear parking sensors, but if you shift into reverse, the front sensors are active and will ding to let you know that you’re about to hit something in front of you even though you’re in reverse. Stupid!
Another quirk about BMWs that I think is lost on people, and probably myself included if I’m being honest, is the ability to tint the air from the AC. So you can have a 71 degrees interior with just a tint of hot or cool to it.
The door lock button is in the middle of the car – right in the center of the dash. So once you get out of the car, to unlock the back doors, you either need to have the key on you (which surprisingly I don’t always have) or you need to reach in and hit the button. That feature drives my wife crazy.
There are a lot of things in this vehicle that you have to do twice to make them happen. To unlock the door, pull the handle TWICE. To turn off the car, push the button TWICE. To unlock the hood, pull the hood release… TWICE.
One of the other things that I can say I’m not a fan of with this vehicle is the sound of this engine. It’s a wonderful engine. It has plenty of “pep”, but it’s so raspy. I feel like I’ve watched every YouTube video on every exhaust with the hopes of finding something that I can do to this vehicle to make it sound better, but everything sounds like crap.
Well, that about wraps up this review. I think it’s painfully obvious that I really enjoy this BMW!
