BMW facelifts 3 Series Gran Turismo

BMW insists it’s sold 130,000 of them around the world in the last three years, but you’d be hard pressed to spot a 3 Series Gran Turismo in a typical day’s driving.

It’s hoping that’s going to get a bit easier with a mid-cycle facelift that includes a big chop in fuel consumption, lifts in power, connectivity upgrades, more standard equipment and — as seen in spy shots in March — a mild styling makeover.

Its entire reason for being seems, so far, to be confused with the even-larger 5 Series Gran Turismo, but BMW has lifted its specification closer to what people expect from this size of car.

Europeans, at least, will get to choose from 18 different powertrain configurations, some of which pull the fuel consumption down by 14 per cent on the old motors.

There are new 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo motors for the 320i and 330i versions. The cheaper version’s consumption number for NEDC comes down to 6.1L/100km, while the 330 cuts that to 5.9L/100km, even though it has 185kW of power.

How? Well, the figure from the 320i is for the six-speed manual, while the more efficient eight-speed automatic is responsible for the cog management on the 330i.

The cheaper motor delivers 290Nm of torque from as little as 1350rpm and holds it to 4600rpm, while it has enough power to get to 100km/h in eight seconds.

The 330i jumps the torque output to 350Nm and pays only a 250rpm premium for it, with the peak hitting at 1600rpm, then falling away again at 4800rpm. That’s enough to rip almost two seconds from the 0-100km/h time, crossing the benchmark in 6.1 seconds.

The 340i scores a new all-alloy 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo motor, which is good for 240kW of power, making it a neat one second quicker to 100km/h than the 330i.

It has another 100Nm of torque, too, crunching out 500Nm from 1380rpm to 5000rpm, and is good for an NEDC figure of 7.0L/100km.

The 3 Series GT received a host of new diesel motors midway through last year, so they remain mostly the same. Mostly. There’s a new engine for the 325d model, with two turbochargers force feeding the 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine.

The new motor has been designed for better economy and improved noise, vibration and harshness, but also to make the power delivery feel more linear. Where the 318d, 320d and even 330d motors have their power peaks at 4000rpm, the 325d lifts this up to 4400rpm, even though the peak torque of 450Nm still peaks at 1500rpm (to 3000rpm).

It slips beyond 100km/h in 6.4 seconds, which is more than two seconds quicker than the 320d and only 0.7 seconds slower than the more 330d.

The diesel range is still topped by the 335d xDrive, with 230kW of power and 630Nm of torque and a 4.9-second burst to 100km/h.

While the strongest 340i and 335d have all wheel drive standard, the extra traction can (in Europe) also be had on all of the petrol engines and the 320d and 330d. It adds between 65kg and 70kg, and there’s little real benefit unless you live on a mountain.

Most of the engines don’t threaten the tyres enough to need all-wheel drive for acceleration, and 70kg of weight costs at the bowser. The power has to rise up the 330d’s level before the all-wheel drive version is quicker to 100km/h than the rear-drive version.

It remains a very big car, though, even with the underbody hardware unchanged.  It’s almost a luxury car in size, 200mm longer than any other 3 Series, at 4824mm. The wheelbase is 2920mm and that gives it 110mm more legroom for people in the rear seats.

The other unusual tweak for the interior is that the front seats sit 59mm higher than on the 3 Series sedan and wagon. It’s also generous for luggage space, capable of swallowing 520 litres in standard form or 1620 with the 40:20:40 rear seats folded down.

Other than the engines and the new standard LED front and rear lights, you’ll have to open the doors to find the upgrades over the three-year old version.

There are Sport, Luxury and M Sport trim packages and increased connectivity is one of BMW’s big pushes.

It gets the option of the Navigation Professional system from the 7 Series, while there is inductive charging for smart phones, new wood, leather and chrome and new fonts on the gauges.

For all of its focus on connectivity, though, it seems incredible that the 3 Series Gran Turismo won’t launch with Apple CarPlay. It won’t be ready until later this year.

BMW Australia currently offers only three 3 Series GT models -- the 320i GT (priced from $68,100), 320d ($70,400) and 328i ($76,800). The update model is due early in the fourth quarter of this year, and the importer will reveal full specifications and pricing for the local market next week.