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| 2006 Bmw 3-series Review | |||
| Whether you're about to spend $40K on a brand new car, or half that on a used car, it is always important to learn as much as you can about the used car. Read these car reviews to learn about all aspects of the vehicle. Each of the usedcar reviews cover interior and exterior features, options, road tests, and more. | |||
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Introduction
| Road Test
| Inside & Out
| Other Thoughts
| Last Word
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| Inside & Out | |||
A lot of us are tiring of the unwritten law that every car must get bigger and heavier with every redesign, but there you have it: 178.2-inch length (up by 2.2), 71.5 width (+3), 55.9 height (+0.8), 108.7 wheelbase (+1.4), and 59.1/59.6 track (+1.2/+1.2). Weight is up about 50 pounds to 3,285 on a stickshifted 325i.The benefits are pretty miniscule, with head, leg, and shoulder room never increasing by more than 1 inch and rear headroom actually slumping by 0.3. Back seat room for two adults is fine; the problem is with the seat itself, which is too low and unsupportive and leaves barely enough foot room under the front chairs. The ultimate back seat driving machine this ain't. But the front seats should fit everyone: 6-way seats leave room for the tall, adjustable side bolsters adapt to different body types, and a cushion extender is a boon for the long-legged. Tiltable head restraints, too, and good contouring in general. Some may scoff at BMW's penny pinching in not making the 325i's front seats powered; a minority of us appreciate the weight savings, simplicity, and faster adjustments. Many will also cringe upon learning the standard "leatherette" upholstery has always been code for vinyl, even though everyone reports it feeling nice to the hands. The 3-series' last redo brought attractive design to the interior and kicked the cheapness out; the new dash maintains the status quo. Most surfaces feel decently expensive and the burl walnut wood trim looks nice (poplar natural wood and aluminum are the no-extra-charge other choices). It's nice to see the clock, temperature, and trip computer all simultaneously present in the main displays. Historians will note the window switches migrating over to the door, the cruise controls reborn on a lower-left steering column stalk, new temperature knobs on new dual-zone climate controls, the buttons for the locks and stability control now up high between the air vents (to turn off DSC, hold it for three seconds), and the four pods on the instrument cluster cluttering into two. The remote fob now serves as the key itself, and all 3-series now have that trendy engine Start button. Some of those are arguable steps backward. An audible step forward is the stereo. All 3-series now have a 10-speaker (including two subwoofers under the front seats), single-disc, MP3-compatible system that includes an Aux input jack right in the center console. Hooray! Even this standard system actually sounds rich, in contrast to last time, when even the Harman-Kardon upgrade was garbage. The new step-up is a Logic7 surround sound piece with 13 speakers, which had better be phenomenal to top this. The DVD-based navigation system continues as an option, with one long-winded string attached: BMW's universally-hated iDrive interface, which is surely ten times more frustrating than having to read a map. Maybe we should just be grateful that iDrive's an option, for once. Gripes are minor: the rain-sensing wipers are cool, but give us a normal intermittent mode too, please. The turn signal is a dumb, counterintuitive device that bounces back to center whether it's on or off (often making you accidentally flip on the opposite signal to cancel it), and it always blinks a minimum of three times. Why do two flimsy cupholders spring out of the right-hand side of the dashboard, why does the third done hide within the center console like a reclusive gopher, and why are they all so small in diameter? Finally, the glovebox's skimpiness forces the owner's manual to sleep outside in the passenger's door compartment, usurping the whole place. The trunk is up by 1.3 cubic feet to 12 (pretty average), and that doesn't count the new handy 1.8-foot underfloor bonus bin left by the nonexistent spare tire. The lid is a little hard to get a grip on, but weighted well. Consistent with this car's sporty theme, the back seat doesn't fold down to expand the trunk, unless one pays the $475 BMW is asking, pathetically. |
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