BMW 335i Touring 2009 Review

Road Test

Price Guide: $111,700
Price as tested: $116,480 (includes Panorama glass sunroof $3080, high-finish aluminium decorative trim NCO, metallic paint $1700)
Crash rating: five-star (Euro NCAP)
Fuel: 95 RON PULP
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 9.8
CO2 emissions (g/km): 223
Also consider: Audi S4 Avant – when it arrives!

Overall rating: 3.5/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 4.0/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 2.5/5.0
Safety: 3.5/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.0/5.0
X-factor: 4.5/5.0

About our ratings

BMW introduced the 3 Series Touring locally with the E46 generation car that preceded the modern E90 model. At that time, if you liked the 3 Series but needed a wagon, you had but one option, the 320i. What you got was a relatively expensive package with performance in inverse proportion to the dollars.

Early last year, BMW introduced the 335i Touring, with its formidable twin-turbo six-cylinder engine. This variant has since been upgraded along with the rest of the 3 Series range. To say that it's a car that leaves you awestruck is a slight understatement. Who would have thought that wagons could be this much fun to drive?

Finished in Space Grey metallic and 'Saddle Brown' Dakota leather, the aggressively styled 335i Touring signals clear purpose before it even moves out of the parking spot. To be honest, the Saddle Brown trim is not this reviewer's cup of tea, but the car's presentation was otherwise excellent.

Slipping behind the wheel, you're immediately struck by the BMW's combination of style and ergonomics. In the case of the latter, BMW's current interior is leaps and bounds ahead of examples of the company's design from a few years ago. Puddle lights in the door handles facilitate easy access at night and there's the keyless entry and start function, which is also welcome. BMW provides a key slot in the dash, but with the 335i's Comfort Access you don't need to insert the key there if you don't want to do so. As long as it can detect the presence of the key in close proximity, the car will open, start and operate as if the key were being used conventionally.

The seats are not deeply contoured, but provide surprisingly good lateral support in corners and are a bit more comfortable than expected. As a key element of the easily adjusted driving position, the steering wheel is of a size that works well with the level of power assistance, but without detriment to the view of the instruments.

The lane-change facility for the two-stage indicators is clearly delimited by stronger spring loading, so you can't go wrong. If we have an ergonomic issue with the 335i Touring at all, it's the car's cruise control switchgear, which is adequate, but not up to the benchmark for this class of car, as typified by Mercedes-Benz's C-Class range.

Control of the sat nav is enabled through the iDrive system, which is more and more intuitive with each new model BMW releases. There is a sense that it still distracts the driver's attention from the road more than it should, but there's also the consideration that it's so easy to set a destination for the sat nav, that drivers will be tempted to use it on the move. The problem therefore doesn't lie with the system so much as the driver's complacency increasing with familiarity using the system.

As an exercise in packaging, the 335i Touring is not so adept. The huge optional sunroof eats into rear-seat headroom. Average-height adults will find their heads brushing the headlining. Rear-seat legroom is also borderline for adults. This would be a car that kids might conceivably outgrow by about the time they're 15 -- in the sense that they might not have enough legroom for comfort on longer trips.

The luggage compartment is pleasing for its capacity in a car that's not huge and has rear-wheel drivetrain components beneath the boot floor. Owners will appreciate the tailgate window that opens separately from the tailgate and the 60/40 split-fold rear seat will lower almost flat, providing the ability to accommodate large, bulky objects such as a small cabinet, for example.

On the move is when the 335i Touring will most impress. The engine has a bass burble around the midrange, but takes on the determined note of an impact-drill at speeds from around 5500 to 6000rpm. At this point -- and particularly on the overrun -- the high-pitched whistle of the two turbochargers can be heard quite plaintively.

The power delivery of this engine is startling, although there's a slight hesitation from a standing start if you just plant the foot. It's like all the electronics are having a pow-wow to decide how to handle the driver's request. Should the driver select the sequential sport mode by shifting the gear lever of the six-speed automatic across to the left, the engine and transmission work much faster to deliver the power required.

A 'moderate' launch in the dry is easily bound to place the 335i Touring ahead of 99 per cent of traffic. It's the result of an athletic engine, a very capable transmission, well-tuned rear suspension and the electronic dynamic control systems that oversee the whole ensemble.

Traction control can be disabled from a button in the centre fascia, but it's hard to provoke wheelspin in ordinary circumstances, even with the system disabled. That's testament to the car's fat and sticky tyres.

Furthermore, the 335i Touring's engine appears happier at high revs and really delivers in the last quarter of the rev range. During the week the 335i Touring was in our possession, it recorded an average fuel consumption of 11.4L/100km. Given that we weren't shy about using the twin-turbo's 225kW reserve of power, that's probably what you would call good enough...

The engine could be heard -- or rather felt -- on slight uphill grades. There was some minimal vibration because the transmission would remain in a higher gear, forcing the engine to operate as low as 1500rpm, where it's prone to emit some vibration. In defence of the engine, the vibration was barely noticeable and the powerplant was virtually inaudible at highway speeds.

On the subject of the transmission, the six-speed automatic offered manual shifting with a lever, or the driver could choose to change gear with the paddles that turned with the steering wheel. As with other similar systems, the paddles work with the transmission in either the sequential sport mode or the default drive mode.

To change down, the driver uses the thumb on either hand to push the respective paddle forward and upshifts are effected by pulling the paddle back with the opposing fingers of either hand. With the hands at the 10 to 3 position, this reviewer found the paddles a bit of a stretch.

The system controlling stability and traction was discernible when it intervened, but with a car of this performance potential, we're satisfied that its intervention was appropriate and timely, if not altogether seamless.

Some will find the BMW's ride to be unacceptable. The 335i Touring's ride was undeniably firm -- and it wasn't helped by the low-profile runflat tyres, which thumped over typical suburban sealed road imperfections and hummed on coarse-mix bitumen -- but nowhere near as badly as some low-profile tyres on other cars we've driven.

The counterpoint is the car had limpet-like roadholding, although it was knocked off line by bumps mid-corner when pushed hard on a less than ideal section of road.

Handling took the definition of neutral to a whole new level. With the right (or actually wrong) sort of provocation, the tail would emit a peep of protest in the form of very slight oversteer on a trailing throttle, but the stability control corrected that in very short order. Exiting faster bends with power applied, the 335i Touring would just push more, in a progressive way.

Steering in this car was a joy. The ratio was quite direct and the response to input from the driver immediate. Power assistance was adequate at parking speeds -- although some may find it unnecessarily heavy -- and it became arguably a little too light at open-road speeds, but the feel was impressive at any speed. When it came to washing off speed, the 335i Touring provided yet more straightline grip, strong braking and good pedal feel.

Braking and cornering reserves are great to have but it's all the better to avoid accidents if you see them coming in the first place. To that end, the 335i Touring's adaptive bi-xenon lights were highly effective and illuminated dark corners just as well as they did in the M3 Convertible tested by the Carsales Network recently. Note, however, the low-beam setting was a real shock to the system and it took a little while for eyes to re-adjust to the lower setting.

As already mentioned, the 335i Touring is not quiet at all times. When the engine's working, you know it and the tyres don't mind being rough-and-tumble. Inside the car, if you listen closely, you'll hear soft fittings rub and squeak together at times. It's not very noticeable and much of it seems to be attributable to the large double sunroof and its power-operated blind, but it is there.

So the 335i Touring is not by any means perfect, but its 'imperfection' is tolerable and its mastery of some trades is beyond doubt.