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This is a long post. If you have a short attention span and/or no interest in BMW's, I suggest you whack 'Back' now rather than posting some sort of whine in the QuickReply box. It's just easier.
It has occured to me that I never did do a proper review of the 335i, which I owned for 3 months. I wasn't going to bother but I've people keep asking why I didnt do a writeup. On my recent trip to the States I hired an Infiniti G37, which in the US is the BMW 335i's main rival. Infiniti have been trying to pitch the G37 as such here in the UK for the last few years as well, so I felt it would be useful to do a head to head review of the two.
A bit about each car.
BMW 335i M Sport
The 335i is powered by a 3 litre twin turbo direct injection straight six engine and develops a 306bhp. This does't seem like a particularly high power output for a 3 litre twin turbo engine - especially when the normally aspirated 330i develops 272bhp. But the key to the 335i's appeal isn't peak power, as we'll cover later. The engine itself is not an all-new design but is a development of the older M54 engine which first debuted in the E46 in July 2000. It has a different injection system and obviously is turbocharged. In the UK the 335i is available only as an RWD car but is offered in both RWD and 4WD variants overseas. My car was a Coupe.
The 335i is quite an interesting idea from a design perspective. The design brief was to provide an engine which combined the driveability characteristics of a V8 with the packaging and fuel economy properties of a typical Straight Six.
Infiniti G37
Infiniti is to Nissan as Lexus is to Toyota. Infiniti have been around in the US market for many years, initially using rebadged Nissans but later moving towards more bespoke designs based on common Nissan platforms. There are much shared componentry between the two brands. The G37 is Infiniti's compact executive class car and competes with the BMW 335i and the Mercedes C350. Infiniti was launched in the UK in 2009. At the time they stated they did not aim to target the volume market and would be keeping retail very niche, exclusive and 'luxury'. I've not visited an Infiniti centre in the UK but I am told the service etc is very personal.
The G37 itself is powered by the same 3.7 litre V6 you'll find in the Nissan 370Z. In the G37, it develops a healthy 338bhp, a comfortable margin over the 335i. It is normally aspirated and is available in both RWD and also with Nissans ATESSA 4WD system. My car was a 2011 G37X with 4WD.
Exterior Impressions
BMW 335i M Sport
Unlike the G37, where the coupe is pretty much styled as the Saloon but with less doors, the 3 Series Coupe is quite different to the saloon. Almost all exterior body panels are unique, as are the front and rear light styles and the front and rear bumpers. The result is a car which unlike the rather awkward looking prefacelift saloon (largely fixed with the LCI Saloon introduced in September 2008) really does look rather handsome. You've got LED rear lights and standard fit Xenon angel eyes across the range. Infact the only real week spots in the E92's styling is that from some angles it can look quite bland - vast swathes of blank metal where on previous generations of 3 Series Coupe you'd find bodycoloured rubbing strips do not help here - and the simply artocious selection of OEM fit alloy wheel designs. My car had the 18 inch wheels which IMHO are the best. They still look horrible like the 19's but they promise to have less of an effect on the quality of the ride.
The performance credentials of the 335i are further accentuated by the two rear exhuasts - one either side. This is unique to the 335 - the lesser 6 cylinder models have a twin exhuast on one side, and the company-car-special 4 pots have just a single exhuast.
Infiniti G37
A direct comparison of the 'sportiness' of the styling would be unfair here as my G37 was not the top end Sport model. That said, it still looked pretty nice, though it had a hint of generic Japanese styling about it. Xenon headlights are again standard fit - without headlight washers in the US specification - and the car shares the 335i's approach to exhuast tips. Standard fit wheels are equally as dire as those on the 335i.
I don't think either car looked particularly premium. The Mercedes C Class sadly looks like a noticeably more prestigious car than either of these two here.
Interior Impressions
BMW 335i M Sport
The first thing to note is that the impressive widscreen display in my 335i is not standard. Infact it is available only when you specify Professional Navigation. Cars without Navigation have a dash that continues the lines set over on the passenger side right across as far as the instrument binacle. The interior thus looks rather bland without the widscreen and I will from here on in assume anyone in the market for such a car isn't daft enough to buy a poverty spec one.
The interior of the E92 is very colour sensitive indeed. In its standard look of black with silver trim it even looks slightly dull - the areas of the dash trimmed in the customers choice of 'trim' (ie silver, wood, or whatever) are so large that they often dominate the look of the cabin. The centre console no longer angles to face the driver as per previous BMW's, but the switchgear on the console looks nice and most of it feels of good quality, though the headlight switch is a tad cheap. The interior itself doesnt appear in any way symeterical. There is a direct contrast in the lines used from the front to rear along the door cards and those used on the dash itself. They don't match up or flow and it almost feels as though they could be from two different cars. They sort of are - the dash is shared with the Saloon whereas the doorcards are unique to the Coupes longer doors and trade the awful cheap plastic lined doorbins in the Saloon for felt lined pop-up storage bins.
Lovely steering wheel - nice mix of matt and perfortated padded leather. BMW do know how to make a decent steering wheel.
My car had Cream Beige leather with Wood trim which I felt lifted the interior and made it feel a lot nicer inside. The leather is soft and supple and feels of reasonably high quality. The plastics you touch are also of a decent level of quality for a car of this type other than the headlight switch. Overall despite a few questionable design choices its a nice place to be and broadly meets expectation for a premium Coupe. One area of dissapointment was that the drivers bolster was already showing wear despite only 25k miles.
So all good in here? Not quite..
This car had covered just 25k miles yet developed an increasingly large number of trim rattles during my ownership. It got to the stage where I actually lost count of how many there were - parcel shelf, dash, seatbelt trim, folding seats, pretty much you name it. This combined with a percular choice of mounting position for the windscreen wipers which clumsely resonate through the pedals at idle really did let the car down inside. I can think of a single intermittant rattle in my 9 year old almost 200,000 mile 5 Series yet here I was in a 2.5 year old car with just 25k playing, and losing, at 'count the rattle'. The interior may look nice but it certainly isnt screwed together in a way I'd come to expect from BMW. I will cover another potential reason for these rattles later.
Infiniti G37
The LCD display in the G37 is standard fit across the range and I shall compare it with the BMW in another section. On paper the G37 interior matches that of the 335i. Leather trim, power seats, etc etc.
In practice the interior of this car is a significant failing. It feels absolutely nothing like you'd expect a car of this calibre to feel. The general level of quality and even styling is unquestionably a significant step below that found in the 335i. The leather felt more similar to that in a Mondeo than a Mercedes.
Another car you find a lot over in the US is the Nissan Maxima. I've not been in one but if this car had been badged as one I'd not have been suprised by how it felt. It genuinelly feels like a Nissan. Not even a posh Nissan - just a Nissan. This is fine if it's competing with Ford et al but it isn't. This is priced and aimed right at the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4. It just felt so hopelessly generic and was full of black scratchy plastic and gave you zero sense of luxury or quality whatsoever. A huge dissapointment. Steering wheel felt like it had.. come from a Nissan. A theme here I sense..
The car had 20,000 miles on it and despite being a hire car had only a single rattle. So, at least Infiniti can screw an interior together a bit better than BMW managed with the E92 even if the stuff they are screwing together is, frankly, crap.
iDrive et al
BMW 335i M Sport
Being a post September 08 car my car as fitted with the newer CIC version of BMW's iDrive system. This is the same version you'll find across the current BMW range. It has a higher resolution screen, a built in hard drive and a completely redesigned user interface with new controller compared with the previous system.
And it's absolutely fantastic.
A real highlight of the car, the iDrive system works beautifully. It's intuitive, easy to use, pleasing to look at and seamlessly combines Audio and Navigation functions. Navigation works well and has fantastic graphics but STILL lacks full postcode functionality. It looks and feels great but as a basic Navigation aid is sadly still beaten by a £99 TomTom unit.
The hard drive allows you to store about 10Gb of music. It rips music from CD or allows transfer from a USB stick plugged into the glovebox. If you have an optional 6FL USB interface, as I had, you can stream from a USB stick or use an Ipod, but the iPod requires a £40 BMW cable in order to work.
Infiniti G37
An LCD screen controlling your entertainment and car settings is standard on the G37. It's no iDrive, however. The screen is smaller and lower resolution and the user interface is closer to those Ebay Double DIN units than it is to BMW's iDrive.
The control methodology is a clumsey selection of buttons rather than BMW's slick iDrive controller but it does have a USB port as standard which allows you to plug an Ipod in using a standard iPod cable with no need for a £40 cable from the dealer. BMW take note (Well, they did - the 2010 models dont need the special cable). Another bonus on 2011 onwards G37's is the standard fit reversing camera instead of parking sensors - but this could be a US specific thing.
On the Road
BMW 335i M Sport.
Get in, foot on the clutch, key in the slot and stab the gimmicky start button and the engine comes to life with a frankly terrific burble from the standard fit exhuast. It sounds almost aftermarket - a deep, bassy rumble. Pull away and the exhuast comes to life. This car sounds absolutely fantastic. It burbles along at low speeds and it sounds absolutely awesome when you put your foot down. It sounds like a powerful, muscular coupe. Absolutely great.
On the subject of absolutely great, the performance. On paper the 335i is good for 0-60 in the low 5's and 0-100 in about 13 seconds. And there is absolutely nothing to make you doubt the validity of these figures. This is a fast car. Any gear, any revs, it just goes. It's turbocharged, but using two smaller turbos. This means less lag, less waiting for the turbo to spool up and more effortless torquey performance. The benefit of this engine over that in the 330i is not overall power - the 330i driven hard isnt a world away performance wise - its just the ridiculous ease with which this power is delivered. There is almost nothing you can't overtake in seemingly any gear you choose.
Chosing gear. My car was a 6 speed manual and at first I didn't really gel with the box all that much. The gearshift is very precise, which is nice, but it was also exccessively stiff. I noticed this less as time went on but more because I was getting used to how it felt, I still think that on balance it needed to be a tad less on the stiff side.
Ride and handling? Handling first, ride after. The handling was excellent. This thing really does tear up your favourite moderately twisty road. I saw moderately twisty because hey, its a 1600kg car so if C roads are your thing you need a small hatch, but the handling is excellent. There is little real bodyroll and the steering feel is absolutely first class - the 335i is fitted with hydraulic PAS. To punt down a favourite road, the 335i was excellent - infact oddly the only thing that spoiled a blast down a great road was the excess of power meaning the fact you needed to back off or get a driving ban was never far from your mind and often distracted you from enjoying the road.
The ride..
Ah, yes.
The ride quality of this car is frankly poor. A combination of the run flat tyres BMW insist on fitting to these cars and the M Sport suspension but it really isn't good. And this is on the 18's - on the 19's its even worse (Curiously I'd not driven a car on 19s and RFT's, the car I drove with 19's on had Eagle F1's and rode not hugely worse than this one). A lot of people criticise the 335i for being too much of a cruiser but with this particular setup it falls short as a cruiser for me. The other side effect of the RFT's is tyre noise - there is plenty of this in the cabin as well.
Infiniti G37
My Infiniti was not a Sport model and I do not know what changes being a Sport model makes so please bear this in mind. It was also an automatic. It rode on conventional tyres on 17" wheels. The ride was noticeably better than that in the 335i despite the apalling Florida roads, but there was also a large amount of road noise. Handling and steering though? Both good. It neither handles nor steers QUITE like the 335i but it's definately acceptable, infact, it's really rather good. This was the big suprise for me - I was expecting the car simply to be a fake plastic Japanese premium car but it certainly has the ride and handling to go with the market its targeting. It drives very nicely, infact.
This is a more powerful car than the 335i. Nail the throttle and it accelerates hard, though never really feels any quicker than the 335i and I suspect that despite its power advantage, it isn't that much if at all quicker. The ATESSA 4WD system switches drive to the front if it detects a loss of grip but is RWD the rest of the time. It's normally aspirated engine requires more coaxing for performance than the 335i. The 335i just went, any gear, any time, but the G37 is comparatively lethargic until you hit its power band whereupon it really does **** off into the distance.
Infact the way this car rode, handled and drove really did go a long way towards redeeming itself in my eyes after the disaster that was the interior.
Final thoughts..
Of the two cars there can be no doubt that the 335i M Sport is the better car. It drives better, the engine is better, the interior is better - it's just a better all round package. In some areas the Infiniti runs it close but the interior is such a huge dissapointment that I cannot see how it can effectively compete with the 3 Series in this country, and judging from it's sales figures, it simply doesn't. It's a great car if you dont care about the interior but if you dont car about the interior then you probably wouldnt be buying this sort of car in the first place. In practice its the sort of thing that makes a fantastic rental car but something you'd buy.
I do feel that BMW have gone through a patch with the E90/E60 range where the overall quality of the product has taken a slight back seat to stuffing as much tech as possible into the car. The end result is a range of cars which are better than the models they replaced only in terms of how modern they feel rather than how they drive or how they are built. Indications are that this is being rectified with the next generation, which is a good thing, but we seem left with the E60 and E90 series whereby they are not built as well as the cars before them and justify an upgrade only in the pursuit of newness rather than a fundamentally better car.
So, back to the 335i. The perfect car? Well, not quite. There is no question of its ability but it isn't the quality product you'd expect and its ride quality compromises some of its ability as a cruiser as well. It never really felt like a hugely expensive car, even though with a list price inc options of some £44,000, it absolutely WAS a hugely expensive car. If neither of aspects concern you then the 335i is a fantastic and hugely capable all rounder and the N54 engine, despite all its reliability issues, is surely one of the worlds great powerplants. Just buy a warranty.
It has occured to me that I never did do a proper review of the 335i, which I owned for 3 months. I wasn't going to bother but I've people keep asking why I didnt do a writeup. On my recent trip to the States I hired an Infiniti G37, which in the US is the BMW 335i's main rival. Infiniti have been trying to pitch the G37 as such here in the UK for the last few years as well, so I felt it would be useful to do a head to head review of the two.
A bit about each car.
BMW 335i M Sport
The 335i is powered by a 3 litre twin turbo direct injection straight six engine and develops a 306bhp. This does't seem like a particularly high power output for a 3 litre twin turbo engine - especially when the normally aspirated 330i develops 272bhp. But the key to the 335i's appeal isn't peak power, as we'll cover later. The engine itself is not an all-new design but is a development of the older M54 engine which first debuted in the E46 in July 2000. It has a different injection system and obviously is turbocharged. In the UK the 335i is available only as an RWD car but is offered in both RWD and 4WD variants overseas. My car was a Coupe.
The 335i is quite an interesting idea from a design perspective. The design brief was to provide an engine which combined the driveability characteristics of a V8 with the packaging and fuel economy properties of a typical Straight Six.
Infiniti G37
Infiniti is to Nissan as Lexus is to Toyota. Infiniti have been around in the US market for many years, initially using rebadged Nissans but later moving towards more bespoke designs based on common Nissan platforms. There are much shared componentry between the two brands. The G37 is Infiniti's compact executive class car and competes with the BMW 335i and the Mercedes C350. Infiniti was launched in the UK in 2009. At the time they stated they did not aim to target the volume market and would be keeping retail very niche, exclusive and 'luxury'. I've not visited an Infiniti centre in the UK but I am told the service etc is very personal.
The G37 itself is powered by the same 3.7 litre V6 you'll find in the Nissan 370Z. In the G37, it develops a healthy 338bhp, a comfortable margin over the 335i. It is normally aspirated and is available in both RWD and also with Nissans ATESSA 4WD system. My car was a 2011 G37X with 4WD.
Exterior Impressions
BMW 335i M Sport
Unlike the G37, where the coupe is pretty much styled as the Saloon but with less doors, the 3 Series Coupe is quite different to the saloon. Almost all exterior body panels are unique, as are the front and rear light styles and the front and rear bumpers. The result is a car which unlike the rather awkward looking prefacelift saloon (largely fixed with the LCI Saloon introduced in September 2008) really does look rather handsome. You've got LED rear lights and standard fit Xenon angel eyes across the range. Infact the only real week spots in the E92's styling is that from some angles it can look quite bland - vast swathes of blank metal where on previous generations of 3 Series Coupe you'd find bodycoloured rubbing strips do not help here - and the simply artocious selection of OEM fit alloy wheel designs. My car had the 18 inch wheels which IMHO are the best. They still look horrible like the 19's but they promise to have less of an effect on the quality of the ride.
The performance credentials of the 335i are further accentuated by the two rear exhuasts - one either side. This is unique to the 335 - the lesser 6 cylinder models have a twin exhuast on one side, and the company-car-special 4 pots have just a single exhuast.
Infiniti G37
A direct comparison of the 'sportiness' of the styling would be unfair here as my G37 was not the top end Sport model. That said, it still looked pretty nice, though it had a hint of generic Japanese styling about it. Xenon headlights are again standard fit - without headlight washers in the US specification - and the car shares the 335i's approach to exhuast tips. Standard fit wheels are equally as dire as those on the 335i.
I don't think either car looked particularly premium. The Mercedes C Class sadly looks like a noticeably more prestigious car than either of these two here.
Interior Impressions
BMW 335i M Sport
The first thing to note is that the impressive widscreen display in my 335i is not standard. Infact it is available only when you specify Professional Navigation. Cars without Navigation have a dash that continues the lines set over on the passenger side right across as far as the instrument binacle. The interior thus looks rather bland without the widscreen and I will from here on in assume anyone in the market for such a car isn't daft enough to buy a poverty spec one.
The interior of the E92 is very colour sensitive indeed. In its standard look of black with silver trim it even looks slightly dull - the areas of the dash trimmed in the customers choice of 'trim' (ie silver, wood, or whatever) are so large that they often dominate the look of the cabin. The centre console no longer angles to face the driver as per previous BMW's, but the switchgear on the console looks nice and most of it feels of good quality, though the headlight switch is a tad cheap. The interior itself doesnt appear in any way symeterical. There is a direct contrast in the lines used from the front to rear along the door cards and those used on the dash itself. They don't match up or flow and it almost feels as though they could be from two different cars. They sort of are - the dash is shared with the Saloon whereas the doorcards are unique to the Coupes longer doors and trade the awful cheap plastic lined doorbins in the Saloon for felt lined pop-up storage bins.
Lovely steering wheel - nice mix of matt and perfortated padded leather. BMW do know how to make a decent steering wheel.
My car had Cream Beige leather with Wood trim which I felt lifted the interior and made it feel a lot nicer inside. The leather is soft and supple and feels of reasonably high quality. The plastics you touch are also of a decent level of quality for a car of this type other than the headlight switch. Overall despite a few questionable design choices its a nice place to be and broadly meets expectation for a premium Coupe. One area of dissapointment was that the drivers bolster was already showing wear despite only 25k miles.
So all good in here? Not quite..
This car had covered just 25k miles yet developed an increasingly large number of trim rattles during my ownership. It got to the stage where I actually lost count of how many there were - parcel shelf, dash, seatbelt trim, folding seats, pretty much you name it. This combined with a percular choice of mounting position for the windscreen wipers which clumsely resonate through the pedals at idle really did let the car down inside. I can think of a single intermittant rattle in my 9 year old almost 200,000 mile 5 Series yet here I was in a 2.5 year old car with just 25k playing, and losing, at 'count the rattle'. The interior may look nice but it certainly isnt screwed together in a way I'd come to expect from BMW. I will cover another potential reason for these rattles later.
Infiniti G37
The LCD display in the G37 is standard fit across the range and I shall compare it with the BMW in another section. On paper the G37 interior matches that of the 335i. Leather trim, power seats, etc etc.
In practice the interior of this car is a significant failing. It feels absolutely nothing like you'd expect a car of this calibre to feel. The general level of quality and even styling is unquestionably a significant step below that found in the 335i. The leather felt more similar to that in a Mondeo than a Mercedes.
Another car you find a lot over in the US is the Nissan Maxima. I've not been in one but if this car had been badged as one I'd not have been suprised by how it felt. It genuinelly feels like a Nissan. Not even a posh Nissan - just a Nissan. This is fine if it's competing with Ford et al but it isn't. This is priced and aimed right at the BMW 3 Series and Audi A4. It just felt so hopelessly generic and was full of black scratchy plastic and gave you zero sense of luxury or quality whatsoever. A huge dissapointment. Steering wheel felt like it had.. come from a Nissan. A theme here I sense..
The car had 20,000 miles on it and despite being a hire car had only a single rattle. So, at least Infiniti can screw an interior together a bit better than BMW managed with the E92 even if the stuff they are screwing together is, frankly, crap.
iDrive et al
BMW 335i M Sport
Being a post September 08 car my car as fitted with the newer CIC version of BMW's iDrive system. This is the same version you'll find across the current BMW range. It has a higher resolution screen, a built in hard drive and a completely redesigned user interface with new controller compared with the previous system.
And it's absolutely fantastic.
A real highlight of the car, the iDrive system works beautifully. It's intuitive, easy to use, pleasing to look at and seamlessly combines Audio and Navigation functions. Navigation works well and has fantastic graphics but STILL lacks full postcode functionality. It looks and feels great but as a basic Navigation aid is sadly still beaten by a £99 TomTom unit.
The hard drive allows you to store about 10Gb of music. It rips music from CD or allows transfer from a USB stick plugged into the glovebox. If you have an optional 6FL USB interface, as I had, you can stream from a USB stick or use an Ipod, but the iPod requires a £40 BMW cable in order to work.
Infiniti G37
An LCD screen controlling your entertainment and car settings is standard on the G37. It's no iDrive, however. The screen is smaller and lower resolution and the user interface is closer to those Ebay Double DIN units than it is to BMW's iDrive.
The control methodology is a clumsey selection of buttons rather than BMW's slick iDrive controller but it does have a USB port as standard which allows you to plug an Ipod in using a standard iPod cable with no need for a £40 cable from the dealer. BMW take note (Well, they did - the 2010 models dont need the special cable). Another bonus on 2011 onwards G37's is the standard fit reversing camera instead of parking sensors - but this could be a US specific thing.
On the Road
BMW 335i M Sport.
Get in, foot on the clutch, key in the slot and stab the gimmicky start button and the engine comes to life with a frankly terrific burble from the standard fit exhuast. It sounds almost aftermarket - a deep, bassy rumble. Pull away and the exhuast comes to life. This car sounds absolutely fantastic. It burbles along at low speeds and it sounds absolutely awesome when you put your foot down. It sounds like a powerful, muscular coupe. Absolutely great.
On the subject of absolutely great, the performance. On paper the 335i is good for 0-60 in the low 5's and 0-100 in about 13 seconds. And there is absolutely nothing to make you doubt the validity of these figures. This is a fast car. Any gear, any revs, it just goes. It's turbocharged, but using two smaller turbos. This means less lag, less waiting for the turbo to spool up and more effortless torquey performance. The benefit of this engine over that in the 330i is not overall power - the 330i driven hard isnt a world away performance wise - its just the ridiculous ease with which this power is delivered. There is almost nothing you can't overtake in seemingly any gear you choose.
Chosing gear. My car was a 6 speed manual and at first I didn't really gel with the box all that much. The gearshift is very precise, which is nice, but it was also exccessively stiff. I noticed this less as time went on but more because I was getting used to how it felt, I still think that on balance it needed to be a tad less on the stiff side.
Ride and handling? Handling first, ride after. The handling was excellent. This thing really does tear up your favourite moderately twisty road. I saw moderately twisty because hey, its a 1600kg car so if C roads are your thing you need a small hatch, but the handling is excellent. There is little real bodyroll and the steering feel is absolutely first class - the 335i is fitted with hydraulic PAS. To punt down a favourite road, the 335i was excellent - infact oddly the only thing that spoiled a blast down a great road was the excess of power meaning the fact you needed to back off or get a driving ban was never far from your mind and often distracted you from enjoying the road.
The ride..
Ah, yes.
The ride quality of this car is frankly poor. A combination of the run flat tyres BMW insist on fitting to these cars and the M Sport suspension but it really isn't good. And this is on the 18's - on the 19's its even worse (Curiously I'd not driven a car on 19s and RFT's, the car I drove with 19's on had Eagle F1's and rode not hugely worse than this one). A lot of people criticise the 335i for being too much of a cruiser but with this particular setup it falls short as a cruiser for me. The other side effect of the RFT's is tyre noise - there is plenty of this in the cabin as well.
Infiniti G37
My Infiniti was not a Sport model and I do not know what changes being a Sport model makes so please bear this in mind. It was also an automatic. It rode on conventional tyres on 17" wheels. The ride was noticeably better than that in the 335i despite the apalling Florida roads, but there was also a large amount of road noise. Handling and steering though? Both good. It neither handles nor steers QUITE like the 335i but it's definately acceptable, infact, it's really rather good. This was the big suprise for me - I was expecting the car simply to be a fake plastic Japanese premium car but it certainly has the ride and handling to go with the market its targeting. It drives very nicely, infact.
This is a more powerful car than the 335i. Nail the throttle and it accelerates hard, though never really feels any quicker than the 335i and I suspect that despite its power advantage, it isn't that much if at all quicker. The ATESSA 4WD system switches drive to the front if it detects a loss of grip but is RWD the rest of the time. It's normally aspirated engine requires more coaxing for performance than the 335i. The 335i just went, any gear, any time, but the G37 is comparatively lethargic until you hit its power band whereupon it really does **** off into the distance.
Infact the way this car rode, handled and drove really did go a long way towards redeeming itself in my eyes after the disaster that was the interior.
Final thoughts..
Of the two cars there can be no doubt that the 335i M Sport is the better car. It drives better, the engine is better, the interior is better - it's just a better all round package. In some areas the Infiniti runs it close but the interior is such a huge dissapointment that I cannot see how it can effectively compete with the 3 Series in this country, and judging from it's sales figures, it simply doesn't. It's a great car if you dont care about the interior but if you dont car about the interior then you probably wouldnt be buying this sort of car in the first place. In practice its the sort of thing that makes a fantastic rental car but something you'd buy.
I do feel that BMW have gone through a patch with the E90/E60 range where the overall quality of the product has taken a slight back seat to stuffing as much tech as possible into the car. The end result is a range of cars which are better than the models they replaced only in terms of how modern they feel rather than how they drive or how they are built. Indications are that this is being rectified with the next generation, which is a good thing, but we seem left with the E60 and E90 series whereby they are not built as well as the cars before them and justify an upgrade only in the pursuit of newness rather than a fundamentally better car.
So, back to the 335i. The perfect car? Well, not quite. There is no question of its ability but it isn't the quality product you'd expect and its ride quality compromises some of its ability as a cruiser as well. It never really felt like a hugely expensive car, even though with a list price inc options of some £44,000, it absolutely WAS a hugely expensive car. If neither of aspects concern you then the 335i is a fantastic and hugely capable all rounder and the N54 engine, despite all its reliability issues, is surely one of the worlds great powerplants. Just buy a warranty.
