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-   -   BMW imports 3 Series facelift for testing (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/164816-bmw-imports-3-series-facelift-testing.html)

Last month, BMW unveiled the 3 Series facelift. Now the German carmaker has imported a couple of units of the car into India for testing.



According to Zauba, BMW has imported one unit of the 320i and one unit of the 320d from Germany. While the former has a 1,995cc, 4-cylinder, petrol engine that makes 180 BHP and 290 Nm of torque, the latter is powered by a 1,998cc, 4-cylinder diesel engine that develops 188 BHP and 400 Nm of torque.



The refreshed 3 Series gets minor cosmetic changes such as new bumpers with revised air intakes, LED day time running lights, LED tail lamps and optional full LED headlights. The car also gets a new set of alloy wheel designs and exterior paint shades. On the inside, the 3 Series get chrome highlights for the controls, air vents and central control panel and a sliding cover for the front cup-holders. The interior also gets a colour head-up display, and improved graphics for the navigation system.



The 3 Series facelift is expected to be launched in India later this year.

After seeing Zauba and decoding the vin on the 3 series imported for testing, it shows quite a few features present. Also it mentions that it is the India version, so could indicate this spec will be launched here. It had the following features over the present car :

M sport package
M adaptive suspension
Heads up display
Adaptive LED headlights
Navigation i.e bigger idrive too

Also the new B48 engine which improves NVH a big amount, and adds a small amount of power and torque.

This car looks like it will be the top of the line version though.

Most probably they will offer these as optional extras even on the top of the line variant. Doesn't seem likely that BMW will offer the M adaptive suspension to a customer who doesn't appreciate/recognise with it (even if its the top end).

Possible but I think they may bring in the normal adaptive suspension, which would be a great feature on our roads.

The new 3-Series has grown bigger and offers nearly as much rear seat legroom as the F10 5-Series. Then, the current pricing easily allows for an 'M-Sport' version of the 3. Trust me, there is a big difference between 'comfort' & 'sport' driving modes; it's all the more important for a country like India where the road quality can change from excellent to awful in a 5 km drive.

If BMW offers the adaptive suspension on the 3-Series, enthusiast owners will greatly appreciate it.

Great news! Hope the LCI sells more then the current version because the 3 series surely deserves to sell more then what it's doing right now.

I am not sure how many of these features will finally make it to India. I think it's still possible that BMW may remove some of them post their testing although, IMO, looking at the price of this car, it should come with all these features as standard except maybe the LED headlights & M sport suspension. Personally, I will be delighted if BMW offers HUD as standard.

Does the current one have navigation? I understand only the 328 had it. Has BMW extended this to the diesel as well?

The current sportline has really lame alloy's. I hope the LCI will have better ones.

I guess it would just be foolish of me to think that the 328i would ever make a come back in India, considering the extremely poor sales of the last one.

The 328i earlier had more demand than supply. BMW allocated a stupidly low number for India which is why you see so few on the road. There were many others interested, but either no cars or long waiting periods for more CKD kits.

It would be foolish of BMW to skip launching the 330i (328s new avatar) in India, with more allocation this time around.

There is now no more 328i anyway. Also no 335i. In their place, the new LCI will have the 330i and 340i. The 330i gets an updated 2L 4cyl engine from their modular series but it just makes a few more bhp/torque than the N20 in the 328i. 330i when launched will be about 255 bhp. The 340i gets the new modular engine series 3L 6cyl that makes 320bhp. This is rather serious territory, BMW is boasting of 4.6-4.8s 0-100 times for the 340i!!! As usual BMW is always conservative in their engine output numbers.

The LCI also gets seriously updated suspension and steering which will now make the 3 series a really even greater car. For India BMW specs included rough road suspensions so I am not sure whether the suspension upgrades will affect India.

I doubt BMW India will launch either of these (330/340i) models:mad: It will take drastic reduction in petrol duties by our govt. to make BMW even think of launching these petrol models in India.

So the 328i will remain an exclusive model for whoever has been mad enough to buy it. But I am sure these mad people have silly grins (Karan are you listening?) on their faces whenever they drive it.:D

Would love to see either the 330i or the 340i in India, pure enthusiast cars that won't be over 1 crore.

Well, it would mostly be near that figure. The 328i pricelist stated close to Rs. 52L+ on road Mumbai in fact more than a 5 series! The 340i or 335i would have been around Rs. 60-65L or so. The Audi S4 is close to Rs. 65-70L and so are the lowest priced AMG models.

It seems that almost any performance or enthusiast car is priced at least 50-70% more than the comparative normal models. This is not usually the case in developed markets.

I recently enquired with the Chennai dealer about booking a 328i and was told by the dealer that BMW no longer sells petrol 3 Series (except for M3). I thought dealer was fooling me, so wrote to BMW customer care directly. But unfortunately, they confirmed that petrol has been discontinued for mas market models...:deadhorse

I do not think they will entirely discontinue petrol. They will have the 320i to compete against the C200 and A4 TSi. But that engine is a severely detuned engine as compared to the 328i/330i, but I guess enough to compete.

Yes i was termed MAD by my family & few friends who wanted me to buy the 5 series.

But, currently i am enjoying the exclusivity :)

They have discontinued it as confirmed by BMW Corporate via email. Hope they launch petrol with the face lift.