Thought I'd tell you about the BMW Coparison Drive event which I attended in Montreal on Saturday.
Basically, the intention is to allow you to compare the BMW 3-Series against what BMW deem to be it's closest competition. To this end they put the 328Xi up against the Audi A4 2.0T Quattro, Merc C300 4Matic and Lexus IS250AWD. They admitted other cars could be considred to be competition but claimed these were what their customers told them they were most often compared too. I was surprised the Infiniti G35 / G35x wasn't there, but otherwise it seems a sensible choice.
There were also the 323, 328i, 335i and 335d availavle to drive -not directly part of the comparison but interesting none the less.
The course was short and speeds relatively low but it was still great fun and showed up the car differences all the same. There was a simulated on-ramp - decreasing radius curve you had to maintain 40km/hr through; an ABS demo (hard braking through a tight chicane), various slaloms, curves and hairpins to negotiate at 15 - 45 km/hr, an "emergency double lane change" maneouveur and finally a "high speed" (80km'hr) straight line brake test.
There were no instructors in car, apart from a first lap familiarisation lap, but they were stationed around the track to offer advice. They were all members of BMW driver train team and very willing to answer general driving / car / BMW related questions. There were also a couple of engineers to give "long ansers to short questions" as they put it.
I'm not a BMW fan in particular, had never driven any BMW before and expected to prefer the Audi. What really surprised me was how much more composed all the BMW's were in the cornering and braking test. They always felt to be going much slower than the other cars, even though speeds were identical.
The Lexus in particular felt really floaty and disconnected to the road, no feedback not at all confidence inspiring. The Merc had a great sound, was very nice inside but seemed more ponderous (althought the course was very tight and it is a larger car which would not have helped). I expected to really like the Audi but also found it's steering to lack any feel.
Of the BMW's they all drove very similarly with the obvious differences in straight line acceleration you'd expect from 200, 230 and 300hp cars. The most impressive car? ... the 335d, great acceleration, handled identically to the 335i and no aural (or other) clue it was a diesel.
Also there, but alas not available to drive, were the current M3 and the yet to be released Z4 hard top convertible ... both beautiful cars, expecially the Z4.
Highly recommended if you are thinking of the purchase of this class of car, or even if not and you just want to try them out.
Cheers,
Paul
