Took an hour long test drive of the BMW M340i: 4 key observations

Sport / Sport+ modes definitely make you craving for more. Could try out for only short duration.

BHPian sourab86 recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

Test drove the new BMW 340i in Bangalore yesterday, for a longish 1hr duration. The route taken was Horamavu -> Hennur airport road -> turn towards Yelahanka new town intersection which merges to the airport road highway -> Airport road back to Hebbal -> back to Horamavu.

Due to traffic conditions, most of the drive was in comfort mode, tried out eco-pro for a while and sport / sport+ modes for the short duration on the airport road.

Few observations, especially around low speed ride in comfort mode:

• Low speed ride over speed breakers and potholes is very compliant now. The car didn't scrape at any of the speed breakers, and there were quite a lot of them on this stretch. Albeit, I was manoeuvring them at not so high speeds (10-15 kmph). The test drive person from BMW accompanying me did mention that the older M340i used to scrape at least a couple of those.
  Q - Does the suspension height also get raised by the presence of adaptive dampers vis-a-vis the older model?

• The ride didn't feel firm at all over the rough roads (gravel, broken stretches) taken at not so crawling speeds. (Adaptive dampers at play..!).
  The low speed ride over speed breakers & rough roads was the one I was interested in trying out the most with the introduction of adaptive dampers.
  Will love to hear from experience of other folks as well on this aspect, test driving this model soon.

• Sport / Sport+ modes definitely make you craving for more. Could try out for only short duration. The steering firms up, gear shifts become more perceptible, and acceleration more responsive with the car ready to shoot at the slightest press of pedal. Sport+ had the pops and burgles audible inside.

• Lack of lumbar support is one of the sorely missed things I can list out. My daily drive is creta, and the seating position is more comfortable (=upright) (at least for me subjectively). Post this 1hr drive, my lower back was complaining. Maybe (in excitement of the drive), I didn't really spend much time to adjust the seating position best suited to me, but I did raise the seat height to the highest point.
  So I'm becoming apprehensive a bit about this point, and this potentially may be a deal-breaker for me as I don't want to repent due to back issues on long drives.
  In other M340i ownership reviews, I could see folks taking lumbar support pillow. Looking to check with other M340i owners on the best ways they've tackled the seating position conundrum. Please share your opinion on this aspect.

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