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What is it?
The facelifted version of BMW’s fifth-generation 3-series. BMW says it has made 2500 changes to its predecessor, which has been on sale since 2005. But this is still a facelift and not an all-new model.
Each of the steel body panels on the new 3-series apart from the newly contoured bonnet has been carried over unchanged, BMW’s designers have still done enough in altering the look of the fifth-generation 3-series to make sure the facelifted model is clearly rec...Read the full article

So if it's only 14bhp more than the previous model how can it slash a massive 0.6 secs off the 0-60mph time?

sniff diesel:

So if it's only 14bhp more than the previous model how can it slash a massive 0.6 secs off the 0-60mph time?

There are probably a number of small contributory factors that achieved the rather surprising improvement.  (Or maybe BMW supplied a non-standard spec for the road test, like some manufacturers traditionally do).

In general though, power = top speed and torque =acceleration.

They've finally restyled those nasty Chinese-knock-off-style rear lamps. PRAISE THE LORD! So much better!

Paul J:

(Or maybe BMW supplied a non-standard spec for the road test, like some manufacturers traditionally do).

 

Wasn't a road test. Those are the book figures from BMW.

With the combination of more power (albeit 14bhp) and torque it is quite possible to considerably improve the acceleration times on a previous model. With torque now available over a more useful range and recalibrated gearing to suit, 0-62mph probably isn't the best appropriation for measurement but I wouldn't think the new model has disappeared into the distance by 100mph.

Possibly its a combination of the increase in torque and the decrease in weight.

So here we go again...it's a BMW so is far better than anything every created since before time began. It will be vastly better than the impossible to improve last version, may end each journey with more in the tank than it had when it started and be able to lap the Nurburgring faster than a Black Hole but...it still looks awkward, still has a dashboard with the visual excitment of a washroom hand dryer and..who thought of teaming a sky blue metallic paint job with a jersey cow brown set of seats?

    BMW..I wanted one so desperately in 1968 when they were just an impossibility to see let alone buy. In 1970 one of the local architects managed to find enough notes to buy a brand new 2500 in Fjord Green and it seemed so wonderful that I almost considered trying to steal it!. When our local Doctors wife got a new white 2002 Ti in 1972 she seemed more exotic than Raquel Welch, Bridget Bardot and Francoise Hardy rolled into one! Then..after years of planning..I got a new 520i in August 1985 which had rubbish brakes, then in October 1986 a new 325i Sport which..was wonderful..really wonderful then because I had to carry a wheelchair, in October 1989 a 525iSE which was so slow and a big disappointment so when requirements changed, in November 1991 a fully loaded 318iSE but by then BMW ownership was becoming a bit of a liability trying to stop it getting stolen. Since then, BMW ownership has lost vast amounts of desirability..every half successful widget salesman gets one free and hammers the thing around arrogantly in a fug of cheapo aftershave and testosterone..so now why would anyone want one and join a rather questionable club? Nice to drive..oh yes!..nice image?..not any more!

Horatio, very good.

Couple of points to add to this sense that BMW has lost its attraction.

One, a recent test in Germany of cars claiming under 5 litres/100 km fuel consumption(>60mpg) on the official cycle produced the worst result for BMW group. A BMW 320d with stated 4.9l consumption produced actual consumption of 6.3l on a real-world test cycle of 100 miles, 25 miles city driving, 40 miles A and B roads and 35 miles motorway, an increase of 28.6%. A MINI Cooper D Clubman produced 5.7l consumption against 4.1l stated, an increase of 39%! By the way, VW and Peugeot turned out the most realistic consumption figures with increases of no more than 0.3l than stated.

Two, according to the latest monthly sales figures BMW sales in the UK were down by almost 40% compared to same month last year. Okay, word may have got round on the facelifted 3 series, so killing sales of the runout model, but would imagine that 1, 5 and 7 series figures must be well down too. Even MINI, which up till now was seen as runaway success for BMW and an offsetter of sales slowdown in BMW's own large models, due to the economic recession, was down a mighty 32% in sales compared to August last year. Maybe it's true that a lot of estate agents coveted the MINI like no other, and we all know what's become of estate agents in the UK.

Horatio Q Birdbath:

BMW ownership has lost vast amounts of desirability..every half successful widget salesman gets one free and hammers the thing around arrogantly in a fug of cheapo aftershave and testosterone..so now why would anyone want one and join a rather questionable club? Nice to drive..oh yes!..nice image?..not any more!

 

You, Mr Birdbath, are spot on sir. To me, driving a BMW these days is no more exclusive than wearing a fake Rolex, and consequently is probably on a par, in the desirability stakes, with a genuine Burberry cap. With ownership of the aforementioned expensive designer headgear comes the gradual realisation that members of the public will now automatically assume that you're either an undercover football hooligan, or just some semi-literate, unemployed waster from the local council estate. Why? Because what started out as a desirable, exclusive and expensive fashion item has been seized upon by the all-pervading chav element in society, whose then insatiable demand for something appearing to be expensive and exclusive has resulted in the item being actually perceived as anything but, in the eyes of the original target market.

BMW has now reached the same point. I was given a bottom of the range brand new 316 SE company car in 1995 and everywhere I went it turned heads, sparked off conversations with admiring strangers and generally had an aura of 'specialness' about it.  But  what's special about BMWs these days? The  3 series is actually more commonplace than the Ford Mondeo, the 1 series is a mundane and cramped hatchback too small for use as a family car, the 5 series is just breathtakingly ugly, the 7 series the most unimaginitive way in the world to spend 50 grand on a car, the 6 series..... questionable at best, the X5 the absolute height of brash look-at-me status symbols, the X6 the absolute height of brash and hideous look-at-me status symbols, etc etc etc,

No one would deny that BMW build very well engineered car,that by all accounts are great to drive. In fact they may even be the best car you can buy, on a pound for pound basis. But the fact remains that they do have a bit of a 'Burberry' problem, to the degree that personally I would find it hard to choose a BMW nowadays.

good god you lot do some moaning, would anything make you happy. 

basset:

good god you lot do some moaning, would anything make you happy. 

Maybe moaning makes them happy?