The all-new BMW 3-series blows the socks off the old one - and looks set to leave every rival trailing in its wake. What's most encouraging of all about this new, sixth-generation BMW 3-series is that, despite its very obvious eco credentials and numerous technical innovations - which range from a dizzying new eight-speed, paddle-shift gearbox to an intriguing new Eco Pro driver control system - it's still just a good-looking saloon that drives rather beautifully at heart. Always was and, I'm exceedingly glad to report, always will be, it would seem, no matter how green the world around it may become. But then, given that BMW has shifted over 12.5 million 3-series since the summer of 1975 and has gone from being a maker of mere enthusiast cars to a global powerhouse in the interim, it was never likely to get this particular recipe wrong. The 3-series means so much to the Bavarian Motor Works on so many fronts that only the farm, the whole farm, and nothing but the farm was going to be aimed in the direction of its creation. And besides, you don't starve your greatest cash cow by going all radical or ecological all of a sudden, not at a time when the world economy has got the heebie-jeebies.
展开▼
