BMW’s in general have always been a bit of a mixed bag with me. Because they have been so popular , and always done so well in certain magazine tests I have always been someone who has appreciated these cars quietly and from A far. For years they have had their most lack luster (to the author at least) efforts praised, usually above the offerings from Audi, Mercedes Benz and even Porsche. I will be blunt, the E30 M3, E39 V8 M5, and E46 M3 were all great cars. The S54 M coupe is to this day one seriously flawed but spectacularly memorable car that I always hold in a high and special place. However, the rest of the range was well… I just didn’t like them. The factory efforts never had the benefit of forced induction and it was expensive and many times pointless to seek more hp. The interiors were seriously sub-par when compared with their Audi equivalent, traction in the real world where it rains and snows was egregious and well, I digress. To put even more of an emphasis on why in particular the M3 range always left me cold is that, simply put, I own a 500 hp B5 S4. It will lap faster, leave the line harder, and is in every way more entertaining. Then something strange happened. Audi (the manufacture of many cars featuring not just turbo, but also quattro all wheel drive) introduced the B6 and B7 S4s. I will be honest, you will likely not see one of these as a P3 project car because the have V8’s that don’t make great power, don’t get great fuel economy and don’t handle all that well. So Audi (temporarily) leaves forced induction, which in many ways it pioneered and what does BMW do (other than ruin the new M3 with a V8)? Yup, you guessed it , here comes the 335 coupe, 335 convertible, 335 sedan and they are twin turbo’d and available with either rear or all wheel drive… WTH??? Well, for a little while I was gutted. I took solace in the fact that these cars featured slash and cut Bangle design, which initially I railed against. However, as if things could get any worse, the styling (particularly on the coupe) has grown on me. These E90 cars come with (let’s be honest) more than 300 hp and will run to sixty in around 5 seconds. YIKES. Needless to say, here at P3 we had to have one. If you have read any of the above material you knew it wasn’t going to be me or Jordan, so that job comes down to Rick. As far as we know Rick must not be able to drive stick because he ordered his in steptronic. You can rest assured that over the next year of this feature we won’t let him live that down.
Now that we had a car, and had decided to make it one of our 08/09 project cars all that was left for me to do was drive one. So, I went looking for once because there was no way in heck I was driving an Automatic. Upon finding one I remembered what it was I loved about BMW’s…. their freaking crazy obsessive lawyers and their state of the art iDrive. If that chime were to have sounded 1 more time, I wouldn’t have been able to drive the car. I would have immediately gotten out in protest and possibly kicked the car. That didn’t happen. If you work for BMW or are one of their design engineers, please go drive an Audi with MMI or even a Lexus and replace iDrive (which is total crap) with one of those competent and easily superior systems. After my rant I started the car and was met by a surprisingly sophisticated, complex and low exhaust burble. My first thought here is that the tone is just perfect and will really be hard to improve upon. It needs a few more Db, but honestly in is just so correct as it is. We shall see what gains and compromise can be made here but it surely won’t be first on our list. Pulling away the car seemed to have the composure and suspension compliance that has made BMW famous and the standard by which others must be judged. The shift action was positive enough but in many ways substandard to the newest offerings from Porsche and even Audi. The interior design doesn’t connect with me , being at once square and slashed (perhaps an attempt and flow from the exterior) while using textures that are subpar even for an Acura product. The seats are comfortable and it is easy to get in a correct and composed driving position. “So the motor, what of the motor?”, you may be asking. Well, it easily trumps the competition from Infiniti, Audi (3.2 A5), etc. I would have to say the first most startling revelation I had was that, with a PSS9 or equivalent suspension upgrade and a chip (both of which we will be trying soon) I would FAR prefer this car to the new M3. Power delivery on the factory map is far to linear for you to get excited about the car being a twin turbo, it is almost as if they wanted to disguise that fact. They couldn’t hide it , because why it delivers V8 like torque it returned a fantastic 24.4mpg on my drive. That is exactly what a turbo can do for you.
taking the car on one of my favorite back roads proved what so many swear to , and that is that BMW is the ultimate driving machine. I wouldn’t echo that sentiment but I would however say that as a regular non M car this car is fantastic. Switching all the nannying gear OFF this car rotates well on the brakes, puts power down great out of even the tightest switchbacks and overall let’s one really “meld” with their car. That isn’t easy for a manufacture to do in a car like this that has to be everything to everybody. Slap an M on the back and buyers know (and half expect) for the ride to be a bit on the germanic and jarring side. Not so with this 335. It provides an almost British like highway ride with a truly responsive shock and spring that responds quickly even to mid bend bumps.
Overall the car really is as impressive as everyone says it is. As we await our 135i coupe that costs (GASP) about $2,600 less than our 335i coupe… it is hard for me to fathom why anyone would buy the 135. It weighs near as dammit the same, it costs near as dammit the same and it looks like someone stuck their 335 long ways in the trash compactor room from Star Wars Episode IV. Other than the smashed more compact dimensions not exactly wowing me our little 135 is going to really have to shine to best the 335, which I am sure we will be able to whip into a state of tuned excellence for not too much dough. Here comes the rating
P3 overall rating as a factory built car 4 stars
P3 overall rating as a tuned car N/A
build quality 5
appearance 3.5
handling 4
drivetrain 4
brakes 3.5
p3 passion meter 3
P3 parts meter 4.5