[84.monsoon]

What I like:

• A monster of an engine in the B58. True wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing that can cruise peacefully but also lunge forward like a leopard at the tap of the throttle.
• Solid, build completely rattle free. Doors are heavy and shut with a reassuring Thud, both front and back.
• Amazing Dravit Grey color.
• Nice interior quality with the Alcantara leather seats and generous Carbon Fiber inserts and that sexy black headliner
• Outstanding acceleration, but with very confidence-inspiring Braking.
• Space at rear is surprisingly sufficient for two tall people.
• Usable boot, even with presence of a donut spare tire for emergencies (and you may well need that spare frequently due to the small sidewall tires, which tend to get damaged easily on potholes)
• Sophisticated exterior looks, with a lot of piano black pieces and those delicious 19-inch wheels. Screams sports car!
• The stunning iDrive 8 - massive single slab, curved screen that is rich in functionality, but fairly intuitive to grasp.
• Masks speed like a magician - it feels absolutely no different whether you are driving at 100 KPH or 150 KPH

What I don’t like:

• The ride gets quite rough on bad roads with a lot of potholes and undulations. The triple whammy of lack of adaptive suspension, 19 inch wheels with very low profile tires and wide off-set rear tires, means that the any road imperfections are amplified and transmitted those inside the car.
• Very thin, hard and uncomfortable door armrests on the front driver-side. The armrest is very narrow with a hard edge, causing discomfort for forearms during long drives.
• No sun blinds for the rear seats, or for the rear windscreen – these were totally expected at the price point.
• The engine feels a bit heavy in slow-moving traffic not as nimble and responsive in this setting as the B48 in my older car, the 530i.
• I miss the gearshift lever which was always special in the BMW’s. The drive by wire slider control feels like a toy.
• The seats are quite hard and narrow and not very well suited for long drives, unless your back and behind are made of steel. Not the best for long journeys.
• The Harmon Kardon system - I expected more out of a system that claims to have 400+ watts of power output. The system lacks the depth and punch expected.

Some BMW History & Why a new Car?

Some of you might have read my G30 530i review. (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...-530i-g30.html (My BMW 530i (G30)!)). I got the car in 2017, right as the generation was launched and kept it for close to 5 years. The car was an absolute gem. It was trouble-free, drove really well and was fast and quiet. It had a really plush interior and adaptive suspension. However, being someone who lives 3 km from my place of work, I was using the car mainly for my long-distance run to the Hills every other month. The car behaved amazingly well on the freeways and made every trip pleasurable and memorable.



However, on a date-to-day basis, the car was a bit too long and big for my needs. I do not use a chauffeur and entering and exiting my driveway into the street lined with parked cars was a bit of a pain each time. The pandemic period also meant I was not going out of town so often and also not going into the workplace. The car was increasingly idle during 2020 and 2021. On top of that, I acquired the new Thar in January 2021 (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/test-...ic-copper.html (My 2020 Mahindra Thar Review (Mystic Copper)!)), which meant I had to split the few kilometers that I drove between my two cars. The Thar soon became the daily driver due to the effortless way you could drive and park that car in city traffic conditions, as I started going back to office and also for shopping, errands etc. I had only done 19,000 km in the BMW in 4.5+ years that I had the car with me. I made a half-hearted decision to sell the car before the extended warranty expired at the end of 5 years, as I was worried about sudden value depreciation once the car went out of warranty. A fellow BHPian from Bangalore bought the car in April 2022, for close to 60% of my purchased price – thanks to the steep price increases on luxury cars, the depreciation seemed to be a whole lot less than it used to be, say 6-7 years ago. On some days, when I think about the finish, level of comfort and luxury in that car, I still wish I had not sold it. The G30 530i is indeed a gem, highly reliable, gave me a very comfortable ride on good roads and even on bad ones, with that awesome adaptive suspension, the enthusiastic engine always rewarding to drive.

All was well for a few months, and I was relieved to not have to maintain the BMW and pay for expensive repairs every time rats would enter the bonnet and start biting the wires. Made a couple of trips to the hills on my new Thar as well. Although interesting, these drives tended to be bouncy and choppy, and not really enjoyable after the first few hours. On the few occasions that my family used my car, they were always complaining about the impracticality of the Thar.

I started missing my BMW a few months after I sold it. Things were starting to get back to normal and I wanted to go on more long-distance trips down to the hills in the Southern part of the state. Every time I would go for a long distance trip in the Thar, I would remember how fast and blissful the drives in my 530i were, compared to the relatively slower and bouncier drives in the Thar. Eventually, I stopped driving and started taking trains on my trips to the hills. Withdrawal symptoms from the BMW started appearing and I started wishing I had not sold the 530i.

The two-year lease through my office on the Thar was coming to a close by the end of 2022, offering an opportunity to lease yet another new car with tax advantages. By the middle of last year, I started evaluating what my second car could be, so that side-by-side with the Thar, it would offer me a nice garage – a flexible combination of cars that can take on different use cases for my trips - provide a combination of luxury and utility. I love driving sedans, so it was clear the second card had to be a sedan again, given I had such a pure-bred SUV as my first car.

Alternatives considered:

The first car I thought of buying was the Mark 4 Skoda Octavia. It seemed to be the perfect package at a reasonable price point, that would get me a fast ride, and a reasonable set of features. There were also a few sparingly used Octavias that came on to the market in Chennai towards the end of last year. What I liked about that car was that it had a modern interior, a tank like build, very comfortable and ergonomic layout, decent interior space, and a powerful engine. A nearly new 2021 Octavia came to the market towards the end of the year, reasonably priced around Rs. 27 lakhs. What I had read and heard about Skoda DSG’s reliability was one of the reasons, I hesitated to pick up this car. The news of Octavia being withdrawn from the Indian market started floating around, and that gave me some more pause. By the time I could get into a new lease scheme. I was worried that the car may be out of stock and withdrawn from the market. Later on, we found that just as expected, Skoda did we draw this car on April 1, 2023 from the Indian market.



The other alternative I looked at was to get a moderately used BMW from some reputed used car dealers in Chennai. I checked out a previous generation 330i (F10 2017 with 50K kilometers on it, being quoted at 28 lakhs). The interiors were a big let down. Decided to go for a current generation car and checked out a G30 530D, a 630D, as well as a new generation X3. All of these available in the 45-55 lakh price bracket, however, compared to my 530i, none of these were in a “like new” condition. I was very particular on a “nearly new” car owned by a car lover and enthusiast and very well maintained. Some of the cars were obviously display cars which were later sold to the first owner. Most had the front driver’s seat in very poor condition, as the cars (especially 5 and 6 series) had all obviously been used as a chauffeur-driven vehicle, with the chauffeur using the seat to drive, sit & wait or even sleep, for most parts of the day waiting for the owner to finish whatever business they had to attend to. I also considered a slightly used 630 D The price quoted was quite high, but the car felt very luxurious and spacious. It felt very huge while driving, almost like a full-size SUV such as the Mercedes GLS. I am sure the higher seating position and higher ground clearance, plus the air suspension at the rear, will help make for a better ride when tackling bad roads, but for a solo driver who doesn’t use a chauffeur, it seemed like an overkill in terms of size.

I decided that it was better to go with a new car and avail lease tax benefits rather than go with a used car. The lease scheme my employer has through ORIX, that would save me a bunch of tax as the lease payments would come off the topline pre-tax versus paying for the car after tax. This opened up the budget a bit, as it would save nearly 20% post tax on a 3 year lease as compared to bank financing with no upfront locking of capital. I had a keen eye on all the launches taking place in the second half of 2022 - the ones which interested me were the Scorpio N and the Innova Hycross. Both of them offered the prospect of comfortable, fast highway drives, and the Innova brought the prospect of becoming an early adopter of strong hybrid technology. I was sure this technology is going to dominate our Auto scene in the coming years. It offered a great combination of instant power delivery, and very high fuel efficiency. However, the negative reports about the interiors of the Hycross dissuaded me somewhat. The Scorpio that I booked showed no signs of being allocated, at least till the middle or later part of 2023. I also felt it would be almost very similar to the Thar in terms of driving feel and experience, as both were based on the same platform, and the 2.2 MHawk Diesel engine, as well as the six speed Aisin AT were common to both.

I also considered very seriously the 530D LCI - I had enjoyed my 530i immensely 530D is indeed legendary. Little did I know in late 2022 that the six cylinder diesel will be discontinued less than six months later, thanks to the tightening CAFE norms across the industry. Had a look at the LCI - the interiors where a notch better than my 530i pre-LCI, given the higher quality of leather and the larger iDrive infotainment system, and a few other features such as the Heads-up Display and even smarter looks upfront in the LCI. The drive was amazing with the car being able to pick up speeds with a sense of urgency that I had missed in the 530i. However, the fact that I would still be driving essentially the same car with a different engine put me off, as I might get bored sooner down the line. Even though I was used to the G30, the issues around parking and maneuvering the car remained, given its length.

I had been keenly following the launch of the current generation G20 3-series in 2019, and the subsequent experiences of many BHP-ians who bought 330is and the subsequent launch of the pre-LCI M340i in 2022. The 3-series, is of course, the ultimate driver’s car that BMW makes – for nearly 50 years and 7 generations. The G30 is better to drive, but also more comfortable than the F30, being 25% stiffer and yet, lighter than the previous generation. Having grown by 76 mm in length of which 41 mm is added to the wheelbase, it seemed like the perfect length for driving in the city as well as the highways, with rear passengers having decent amount of legroom on those occasions when they share a ride.

When the M340i, I was launched in 2022, I developed a strong interest in the car. The price-to-performance seemed to offer a very good value proposition. The car looked mean and had really nice, sporty interiors. I think what turned me off was the reported dismal fuel efficiency and the fact that I would have to do frequent fuel ups on long-distance drives. However, the car quite never went out of my mind, and I continued to track the BMW India website and drool over the specs and looks of the car.

[84.monsoon]

Booking & Delivery Experience

Fast forward to December 2022, I was on a work trip to Mexico and was casually browsing Team-BHP. BHPian KrishnaDev had posted about the fact that he had booked an M340i and refused delivery from the current lot, as he was waiting for the facelifted car to be launched, he also posted about the impending launch of the LCI M340i in a matter of weeks. At first, I could not believe this as the 3-series LCI was not not yet launched in India and there are no press reports about its imminent launch. I immediately called my BMW Chennai dealer on WhatsApp and asked if he knew about the M340i launch to my surprise, he replied on the affirmative and said the car would be launched in a month, i.e., January 2023. He asked me to transfer a deposit if I was interested in getting the car in the first lot!

What followed was 24 hours of restlessness I couldn’t sleep that night not entirely because of the jetlag. I researched the M340 LCI, as it had just been launched in some global markets such as the UK. The car had a 48V mild hybrid system, which is said to have significantly improved smoothness and even help improve the fuel economy considerably. The car had the latest iDrive 8 eight end-to-end curved screen and the drive-by wire console. There were significant differences from the pre-LCI and the front appeared neater, without the kink at the bottom of the headlight.

Launch report from the BMW event at Delhi appeared overnight on December 10th and I immediately swung into researching every feature and comparing with the pre-LCI car and the regular 3-series. Some observations based on the information available at launch and the updated spec sheets on the BMW site that I noted:

• Quoted fuel efficiency increased from 11.86 to 13.02 KPL - thanks to the mild-hybrid tech. This is significant as it increases the range by another 70 km.
• Mild Hybrid tech is a game changer. CO2 emissions reduced from 200 g/km to 182 g/km - that is a significant near 10% reduction! The car makes 374 hp at 5500 rpm versus pre-LCI, which made 387 hp at a higher 5800 rpm before. The difference may again be because the additional instantaneous 10 hp provided by the mild hybrid tech, that may not be showing up at high rpms. The car is just as fast as before achieving 0-100 in a quoted 4.4 seconds.
• Peak torque is the same (500 NM) but comes in at slightly higher 1900 rpm versus 1850 before.
• Laser light is gone, we just get adaptive LED headlamps. Apparently, this is because of adaptive LEDs achieving near equal performance with far less cost and complexity. M seat belts were also gone (at least in the spec sheet). Gesture control is gone too, although it was very gimmicky in the first place.
• Biggest change is, of course, the massive dual display with 12.3 inch instrument display and the humongous nearly-15 inch infotainment display! BMW OS 8.0 seemed very advanced.
• M rear spoiler is new. This and all the other black trim in the front and back, that cover a larger area, will look better on the Dravit Grey on a sunny day than the Tanzanite blue, as the blue is very dark.
• One of the most irritating missing features in earlier M340i (and all G20 pre-LCIs) - the absence of comfort access - is fixed!! Now you don’t have to fish for your key in your backpack every time you need to unlock the car and the M340i is now on par with the Maruti Ignis in this regard!
• The intelligent parking with reverse assist feature seemed useful. If one enters a narrow gully and want to reverse out (has happened to me one too many times!), at the touch of a button, it will remember your last 50 m steering input and exactly reverse that to the cm!
• Gets carbon fiber interior trim instead of the aluminum finishes, which looks classy.
• The new 791M style alloys (first pic below) look better but BMW is pushing it as far as suitability for Indian roads, as the tire profile has shrunk to 40 in the front and 35 in the rear (Approx 90 mm sidewall height – I could not help but compare that mentally to 166 mm sidewall on my other car, the Thar)
• BMW kept the price increase to a minimum (just 30K) as compared to the M-Jahre edition - not too bad for all the additional kit provided including the mild hybrid system, iDrive 8, comfort access and a lot of additional electronics.

Overall, I liked the car but was unsure of the price at which it was going to be launched. The existing M340i in itself, was a bit of a stretch for me, and if the LCI was going to be priced at a significant premium, I probably would have to pass. I paid the token booking amount in any case with an assurance that it would be refunded if I changed my mind at the time of launch.

There was a brief waiting game and the car actually did get launched in mid-December, while I was still in Mexico. The launch price was very attractive with only a slight premium to the pre-LCI car. Given the addition of iDrive eight, the fantastic touchscreen and the mild hybrid system, I thought the car was even more value-for-money than before. Decided to take the plunge and started working through my company to organize a lease, before the car would be ready for delivery. The dealer promised the car would be ready for delivery by mid-January.

The car actually arrived more than two weeks before the expected delivery date. The dealer expected the car to be delivered by January 24. However, it was already delivered by January 10. The date of production of the car read 4 January 2023 from the VIN number. The car was lying in the dealer yard while my company was practically working on organizing the lease through the Pongal holidays in Tamil Nadu. Once the lease was done and the payment was sent to the dealer, then he realized that the LCI model was not available in the state government’s Road Transport database. This happens to me every time. I typically buy cars right after they’re launched and they always get stuck during the registration process at the dealer end.

I did warn the dealer that this might happen again, but he dismissed this concern, until they actually went to do the registration and were told to first get the new model updated in the RTO database. This took another week or so, and I finally got the car delivered on the 1st of February. It was the first M340i to be delivered from Kun Chennai, and my SA was so excited and they organized and elaborate Pooja and a photo session as well as a social media post from their handle to celebrate the event.

[84.monsoon]

Key Observations: Exterior

The car reeks aggressiveness from the front. Those all-black kidney grill without the Chrome frame that the pre LCIs, with the large honeycomb pattern on the upper grill screams sportiness. It can split opinions widely, with some folks in the family considering it a bit ugly. The lower part of the grill is quite a bit wider and swollen as compared to the pre-LCI cars. The use of high gloss black plastic all over the front air dam gives the car a distinctive and aggressive look.



I am glad BMW included the adaptive LED headlamps on the LCI M340i. You can make out quite difference from the regular LED headlamps (which I had on my previous BMW, the G30 530i Sportline) on highway drives. Of course, we do not get the laser lights on this generation of cars. BMW is moving away from laser lights on almost all of their cars – the newly launched X5 facelift does not get Laser lights while the pre-LCI one did. This seems to be primarily because the Adaptive LED technology has advanced sufficiently so that it now matches the output of laser lights at a lower cost and manufacturing complexity point. There are also regulations in many countries that restrict its use, because of the effect on on-coming drivers. The headlamp has blueish elements embedded inside that resemble those found in the laser light.





The “inverted-L” pattern on the LED daytime running lights is awesome. Very distinctive and stylish and identifiable as a new generation or recent LCI BMW from a long way off. I am sure Hyundai Kia will copy this soon enough! I am also very happy that the LCI version has gotten rid of the little kink in the bottom part of the headlamps on the pre-LCI models. I could never quite digest the kink, as it seemed to be over-designed and artificial (Something like what Mahindra would do as a design element). The headlamp cluster looks slimmer, more compact and streamlined as compared to the pre-LCI.

I am also very glad that BMW gave the true M-style wing mirrors with the cut out on the upper part. These look very distinctive as compared to other non-M BMW 3 and 5 series cars.



The humongous 19-inch alloy wheels (791M bi-color) call your attention to them. The styling is simple and elegant, yet with subtle aggressiveness and makes a clear statement about the sporty nature of the car that rides on them. However, you get worried seeing how low the tire profile is, because of the 19-inch wheels taking up so much of the wheel wells. The front tires are 40 profile and the rear ones are even thinner with a 35 profile, due to the wide 255 diameter offset rear tires. The M340i’s tires need to be baby-sat and can burst even on moderate sized potholes with sharp edges, when the car is going fast over them. This happened to me once after exactly 6 months of ownership on my second long distance trip - more to come on this later.





I wish the M340i came with red brake calipers. The car comes with blue brake calipers, which tend to look jaded when dusty. They are not very visible when the car is moving. The shade of blue is also not very bright and there is not enough contrast due to its darker shade, it merges into the general dark color of the overall wheel area.

A striking feature of the LCI is the large gloss black bumper on the rear side of the car - it looks quite unique. My neighbor who had a quick look at the car as I was driving past, ask me later if there was something wrong with the back side the car, there seemed to be a big gaping black hole!

I had a lot of debate in my mind while choosing the color of my car. At the point of launch, Tanzanite Blue and Dravit Grey were the two available options. Nowadays, one gets the choice of Melbourne red (which is truly stunning), black and white (I would not have chosen these three anyway, as I usually do not by white or black cars and the Melbourne red looks too flashy for my taste – and age!) The Tanzanite blue is a great color, but it seemed too close to the Imperial Blue that I had on my previous 5 series. Also, I felt like the Tanzanite blue did not highlights the large piano black areas and sharp black elements on both the front and rear fascia of the M340i. The Dravit Grey on the other hand is like a Chameleon. In low light conditions, it looks almost black. When there is a lot of sunshine striking the car, it seems to be a much lighter shade of Grey, close to the delicious steel grey color that was in the previous generation Octavia VRS. In this kind of light, the piano black elements stand out so well from the main body of the car. The Dravit Grey also has light golden specs in the paint, which become visible under bright light, and give the car a very posh and luxurious touch. It is over all a complex, variable, and lively color that is only available at the top end of the BMW range (7 series, X7) and not even available on the 5 series, X3, X3M40i or the pre-LCI X5. This is an individual paint shade that costs extra in overseas market over the other general colors. I decided to go for this one for my car. Take a look at the below photos - the first few are i darker lighting conditions (late evening) and the last few are in bright sunlight. Anyone would say these are two different cars of two different colors painted in two extreme ends of the grey color spectrum, one very dark and the other fairly light. It is hard to believe it is the same car and color.













Now, take a look at the pictures of the car in bright sunlight.









One thing that I did not notice for a long time in the car, there is a hole on the right side in the front lower grille area. The same section is covered with a transparent plastic piece on the left side. It is not noticeable due to everything being black, but once you see it you cannot un-see it any more! At first I thought I must have dislodged the piece on one side, but then I checked another M340i LCI and it had the same missing piece. I think this must have been one of the quirky design ideas of BMW M team!



The bonnet has good insulation underneath, the big six definitely has more of a life than the 4 cyclinder engines, even when it is not screaming at high rpms. The insulation isolates all of this living breathing sounds inside the cabin. The engine bay is neatly packed and fully utilized thanks tot he big B-58 engine and the hybrid system including its battery.



After being used to the Display Key that came with my 530i, the key of the M340i looks very ordinary. The pastic has big grains and looks like it would fit in a $20K VW Polo not a $60K top end BMW 3-series! The only saving grace is the side of the key has the M-color stripes to remind you that yo are driving no ordinary BMW.





The boot floor is raised compared to the 3-sries sold internationally to accommodate the spare tire. It is a small donut tire with 16 inch steel wheel, yet it takes up a good amount of space due to the thorough job BMW has done to safely package it and provide a flat floor above for the main boot. The wheel is set as far to the front as possible, so that any shocks due to impact on accidents from rear end collisions are not transmitted into the cabin. The packaging of the tire leaves a good bit of hidden space below the flat floor to stow odd and ends. The spare wheel positioning and packaging compromises on the boot space as it reduces usable height of the storage space. However, the boot is fairly deep and can store enough luggage for a family of 4 going on a 4-5 day road trip.- anything more will be a challenge. There are deep crevasses to the back area of the sides which make for ideal spaces to stow your vaccum cleaner, tire inflator or Jopasu brush!





The M340i logo is prominently displayed at the back.



The car is E25 Petrol compatible! This is a big relief with India going all out to increase Ethanol content in petrol. BMW recommends RON 95 fuel, and minimum is RON 91. I have been filling IndianOil XP95 from Day1 and it has served me well, as the engine is smooth and peppy. One or twice, I have had to fill 91 Octane fuel form countryside petrol pumps - other than a small drop in acceleration performance, I did not notice any major difference.

[84.monsoon]

Key Observations: Interiors:

• The curved single touch-screen is breathtaking and the first thing you will notice when you enter the car. A 12.3-inch information display behind the steering wheel and a control display with a screen diagonal of 14.9 inches merge into a single fully digital and high-resolution unit. It has a frameless glass surface angled slightly towards the driver.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• There is simply no place in the middle of the upper dash area for the mandatory idol. The surface of the upper dash slants backwards and right in the middle is a massive speaker grille. The massive iDrive 8 screen towers over the back end of the dash area. There is barely an inch at the front end, before the speaker grille starts and the massive screen will hide any idol placed towards back/lower end of the sloping dash. Even if there was space, the sloping dash would mean gods would be looking down into the dash rather than towards the people in the car. I had to place my small Ganesha to the left side of the dash facing the passenger seat, because I could not find any sport in the center of the car for the idol. Now I understand why the VW/Skoda group places so much emphasis on studying Indian buyer behavior and quirks cultural nuances such as the placement of the idol on the car being such an important thing for most buyers and tries to incorporate this, at least in cars such as the Kushaq and Virtus.
  
  
  
  
• A very common complaint with iDrive 8 is that the physical buttons to control the air-conditioning, including temperature, blower speed, and direction of air flow are gone. One needs to access the touch screen to control any of these. Temperature controls are not particularly a problem, because these controls appear permanently at the bottom of the infotainment screen - one for the driver and one for the passenger on the respective sides of the wide 14 inch infotainment system. These controls are highly legible and easy to operate and not very distracting at all. However, the only minor irritant is that to control the air conditioning in terms of blower speed or the direction of air flow, one has to go to the “climate menu”. The shortcut to this menu is always available at the bottom of the infotainment screen, so it’s not so hard. However, it’s still quite distracting while one is driving. When driving on a hot day, especially in Eco-Pro mode, the air blower speed gets set to a lower level to conserve fuel, and is just not sufficient to cool the cabin sufficiently. One needs to then go to the climate menu, to increase blower speed. Again, when switching back to Comfort mode or Sport mode , effectiveness of the AC increases and one might have to go back to the climate menu to adjust a blower speed again. Similarly, there is a control to toggle the air flow between balanced and dynamic mode in the climate menu, and once again the climate menu needs to be accessed to do this. I wish the buttons for changing AC blower speed and direction of air flow were provided as physical buttons.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The one major gripe I have is with the driver side armrest - this is downright uncomfortable. First off, there is no foam pending or leather pending on it and it is just Soft touch plastic (not even very soft at that). However, the edges are hard and the armrest is narrow. Also a tall driver will find the armrest placed too far to the front of the car. In my default driving position, I am resting my knee at the back end of the armrest where it is narrower, and the edges are very hard. Only a third of my arm rests on this area as it is very narrow and the rest of hanging outside with the hard edge cutting into the arm in between. Even if I were to move the seat forward, the armrest is still not wide enough, and the edge is hard and uncomfortable. The other major problem is that the height of the armrest is badly mis-judged and is too high. For a car that is meant to be driven sitting in a lower seating position, even for a tall person like me, the armrest is way too high. If I put my driver seat in the tallest possible position, then the armrest is at a decent height. This is not the ideal position for longer drives where one wants to have a relaxed posture, nor is it good on the twisties when you want to experience the full G-Forces sitting lower down. It could be that the M340i, has a lower seating position as compared to the regular three series as it is known to have a lowered suspension and the armrest may be OK for regular 3 series users. Even then, I would expect BMW to have adjusted the armrest height for the M340i. This aspect alone is one of the most irritating on long drives and I need to see if any retrofit solutions are available to increase the width of the armrest, add some padding and somehow avoid the hard edge. It is the same problem in the back door as in the second picture below.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The M sport steering wheel is nice to hold, it smaller than the steering wheels of most other cars I have driven. The contours are great, and the wheel, is in itself, chunky to hold on to. The paddle shifters and large and prominent and easy to operate. The level of adjustment of the steering wheel possible is quite good and I could find a comfortable driving position very quickly. However, I would have expected electronic steering wheel rake and reach adjustment, one must adjust both manually, as you would in a 15 lakh Virtus.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The display console for the driver is quite feature rich and provides a lot of information. It is fully configurable using pre-defined layouts and content choices. If set appropriately, in one glance, you get to see which of the five people in the car have their seatbelt on, the ambient temperature, the range, the time, instantaneous as well as trip fuel efficiency, the distance travelled in the current trip, the engine rpm and speed (with the speed being displayed both digital and in a digitally simulated analogue meter), a map of where you are currently and how to navigate to your destination, and may more items of info – all in one large 12.5 inch vibrant and high-res display. There are three modes available for the display and can be entirely controlled using the Content button on the steering wheel and then toggling left and right with the buttons on either side.
  
  - First layout features a tachometer and a speedometer in angular formats.
  - Second layout widens space available on the display, pushing the angular speedometer further to the left and replacing the tachometer with a power meter which shows the percentage of power currently being put out. this layout allows for a lot of space in the middle that can be used for navigation and maps.
  - A third layout provides only a straight line speed scale on the left and leave the entire right side of the screen is made available for other information including infotainment, maps etc.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• In each of the layouts, content can be customized extensively, separately. Again, all of this can be done from the steering wheel itself which is very convenient as one does not have to take eyes off the road to look at or fiddle with the central infotainment screen. There are a few major content options available for each layout:
  
  - Journey data such as fuel economy
  - Map
  - Navigation with direction of travel displayed prominently.
  - G force meter
  - Media – music track/album being played.
  - Simple M – Just shows the speed with an M logo
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The layout that I found ideal is the one which is somewhat wider with the two angular meters for speed and power on both ends, with the media content that is currently playing being displayed in the middle of the screen. The one problem however, is that once you click the switch at the end of the left stalk behind the setting (as you traditionally do with any European car to check the fuel efficiency), you are switched immediately to the “trip information” content view no longer see the music content in the middle of the screen. You have to toggle back to the content selection options in the steering wheel to do so.
  
• The seats are sporty and this front driver side seat height adjustment has a very good range. One can go from really low (which gives a feeling of almost sitting on the floor of the car) to really high (which feels like the seating position when one is driving a normal sedan). All of this is very useful when doing long-distance drives, as one can adjust the seating position quite a bit, so as not to continually strain a particular part of the bank or hip on a long journey. The fore and aft seat adjustment is also very good. The seats are comfortable for someone with a medium build. But the side bolsters of the M-Sport seats would need to be adjusted to a wider setting, for those with healthier builds. Though I do not have a broad body frame, I felt uncomfortable in the inner or even mid settings of the bolsters and had to set the bolsters closer to the outside position. There is no lumbar support which is a big miss.
  
• As they might not be comfortable with a default setting of the bolsters. The Alcantara-Sensatec combination is quite comfortable for short to medium distances and for colder climates. However, on long drives on hot days I found the seat surface actually felt rather sweaty and less comfortable than real leather. The seat comfort of real leather is something that I missed when compared to the G30 530i that I had, with its Dakota leather seats.
  
• The Centre armrest is wide and set to a comfortable position. The storage compartment under the arm rest is not very deep but wide and quite usable. It has a ripped bottom lining to make sure that things don’t slide around and also there is an LED light illuminating the centre compartment when opened, that’s also a USB see charging port inside the compartment making it very usable
  
• The Carbon Fiber finishing on the center console and running towards the sides of the dash looks very sporty and elegant. It is nice to the touch and reasonably scratch resistant compared to Piano black surfaces that I was used to on my 530i. The iDrive controller dial and the knob for volume control have nice, knurled finishes in brushed aluminum. However, the switch gear on the center console around the iDrive controller dial feel a bit flimsy and are made of plastic that’s not of the greatest quality. Sometimes, when you are trying to press the Comfort/Sport/Ecopro switches while in motion, it takes a second try to actually made the switch. There is no feedback from the switch if your selection was successful or not! This is not expected of a BMW at this price point.
  
  
  
  
  
• The elimination of the gear shift lever and the introduction of a small slider in its place has upset many enthusiasts. BMWs always had a distinctive style ger ever and the fun of nudging it to the left to enter manual sport mode is so part of the ultimate driving machine experience. I was also disappointed about the removal of the lever and the more I studied the reasons for it, it started to make sense. BMW wants to standardize the driver interface between their ICE cars and their EVs. A BMW owner may shift from an ICE BMW to an EV BMW or back any given day (imagine there are two BMWs in the house and the person is taking out the spouse’s BMW EV out today, instead of his/her regular ICE car, or if they are traveling and renting a BMW elsewhere). When switching cars the BMW owner should feel immediately at ease as the controls look, feel and work exactly the same way. Since EVs as completely drive by wire, with no mechanical connections between the driver input of transmission controls and their actual execution, large levers no longer make sense in EVs and look laughable. Everything has to be a switch or a slider, as the car becomes a smartphone on wheels. Can you ever imagine an on-off switch you would flick, or a rotary volume control on your smartphone? As EVS are going to dominate the portfolio in 10 years, ICE cars have to learn to be controlled more like EVs.
  
  
  
  
• Though initially it felt strange to start driving off the car by nudging the slider slightly to the D position, or when switching to the S position from the D position while driving, I soon got used to the slider after driving for a few weeks. Now it feels more intuitive and effortless. The only thing that is not obvious is the move from Sport to Sport Plus using the slider as both are shown against the same bottom-most position of the slider. BMW could have added an S+ at the very bottom after the S to make it more obvious. The slider has an illuminated thin orange line in the middle and this makes it easy to find it in the dark.
  
• There is a thin ambient light bar running through the dashboard and a part of the doors. I do not believe the color is customizable. The AC vents feel cheap for car of this at this price point, these are standard BMW fare AC vents. I would have expected a slightly better quality and finish on these, given the luxurious carbon Fiber and brushed aluminum material that surrounds the vents.
  
• The black roof liner is very high-quality and feels beautifully appointed. Everything about the 3-series feels built to last. The LED reading lamps up front are yellow in color, I’m not sure why - white LEDs would look and much better and be more useful, in my opinion. These lamps are actually two stage ones. There is a whitish center lamp, and a smaller yellow reading lamp built into the same console and these can be individually controlled. This is a good option and adds flexibility.
  
• The brushed aluminum door handles and door inserts, as well as similar aluminum inserts in the central console, look very elegant and remind you that you are sitting in a BMW M. The huge iDrive console stretches all the way from the drivers’ right-hand position to the passengers’ left hand position. It’s angled slightly towards the driver and split into two big displays - one for the infotainment and one for the driver information console. One doesn’t really notice where it splits and it looks like a single display. Overall, from the driver seat, it seems very well integrated but from the passenger seat, it is clear that it is a bolt-on to the original G20 design from 2019, where BMW had not anticipated such massive screens will need to be accommodated in their cars in just a few years. I’m not complaining, as from where I sit, which is the driver seat, it looks very nice and well-integrated.
  
• The seats on this car are hard – period. To fit the sports car image, and to position it closer to an M3 than a regular 3, BMW has gone a bit too far in terms of how hard the seats are. If you are young and fit, it might not be a problem. However, for those with back pain, hip pain etc., these seats are not the best. Where I could drive my 530i for hours non-stop, in this car, I have to take a stretch break every 2 hours as my back and legs would be sore from sitting on such hard seats for long. However, shape contour, level of adjustability, thigh support etc. are excellent. The back seats are also very well designed, with good amount of legroom and kneeroom, even for a 6-foot passenger sitting behind a 6 foot tall driver. Foot room is a little less, as taller rear passengers have to insert their feet under the seat in front, there is not enough room in the footwell considering such a long car. Once again, the one issue is that the rear seats are equally hard, and not very comfortable for longer journeys. BMW could have gone with a little bit more cushioning on the seats. The good thing is that these seats are going to last a long time without sagging. Need to check if longer term, it is possible to replace these seats with the MSport seats ones on the 330i, which should be a bit plusher.
  
• The back seat is not an uncomfortable place to be. There is tri-zone climate control with independent control of rear climate. There is a center armrest set at a comfortable height. The boot can also be accessed from the back seat. There is sufficient thigh support and two sit footers can sit one behind the other when taking the front and back row together. There are nets behind the slightly scooped front seats to carry files and papers.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• BMW has provided a very nice Heads up Display with large fonts and bright illumination. The level of the display can be adjusted up and down depending on your preferred seating position. The display is configurable and can mimic a lot of things you generally use the central console for, including the list of tracks in the album you are playing! One can almost use the HUD completely and almost forget that the Central Console info displays exist.
  
  
  

[84.monsoon]

Driving Impressions:

• I feel like I have to write a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story when it comes to the Driving impressions of the M340i. On smooth, well-built highways. The car is a dream to drive. On bad and rutted roads, it’s a nightmare to drive.
  
• Let me speak about Dr. Jekyll first - this is the personality of a car when you’re driving it on a smooth nicely built Highway such as the national highway between Chennai and Madurai. On such roads, the car feels simply wonderful to drive. The instant acceleration means that even in comfort mode you are doing silly speeds within seconds. It is great fun to allow the Fortuners and XUV700s (many of whose drivers think they have fast cars and also that SUVs are superior to sedans), to overtake you, and then catch them by complete surprise as you pass them like a rocket on the next open stretch. The car masks speed like nothing I have seen before. Once you are into 3-digit speeds, you cannot tell where in the continuum between 100 and 180 you are, without actually looking down at the speedometer. Mind you, I would never encourage anyone in any car, to exceed legal speed limits and I only do this occasionally to test the car’s performance on long empty stretches.
  
• The engine can be a beauty or a beast and changes character in milliseconds! When driving sedately in Ecopro or Comfort mode, the engine is butter smooth and one can hardly hear it. When altering speeds within a band of 30-70 KPH during city driving, it does feel like the engine is a little heavy as compared to the B48 on my 530i. One needs a slight bit more of a prod on the accelerator pedal to let the car know you really mean to speed, up. The B48 on the 530i feels lighter and more eager in this speed range, almost as if it has less work to do to fire itself up.
  
  
  
  
• The car is heavy – 1735 KG, thanks to the larger 6-cylinder engine, the X-Drive equipment and the mild hybrid battery and associated equipment. For comparison, the 530i is actually lighter, with an 1540 KG kerb weight. The Indian version is heavier than the ones in the West due to the additional donut sized spare wheel BMW India have added.
  
• However, once you do give a clear signal that you want to accelerate to the M340i, it is manic! The moment you spot a good 200 meters of empty smooth road and push the accelerator firmly (even in Comfort mode), the car lunges forward forcefully, pushing your behind firmly into the seat! Before you know it, you have covered that gap and slowed down again to a crawl.
  
• The Sport mode is insane. The first time I tried it, was in the middle of an otherwise tame city drive for about 5 KMs in the Comfort mode. The gearbox took a split second to get alert (probably because I had been driving so sedately for the last 20 minutes) and then Wham! The car bolted forward like a bullet, totally catching me by surprise. The g-forces pin you to the back of the seat and whoosh, the car is flying! I would not recommend this mode in the city, till one gets fully used to how the car behaves in this mode.
  
• The Ecopro mode is very livable in the city, if one wants a calm and peaceful drive. While in the 530i, the EcoPro makes you feel impatient, in the M340i, it drives like a normal luxury car. You do not feel much of that elastic nature of power delivery common in BMW EcoPro tuning, and when you do need to speed up, the gear does allow fairly rapid acceleration compared to the rest of the traffic on the streets. The EcoPro in the M340i feels like the Comfort mode in the 530i. The Comfort mode in the M340i almost feels like the Sport mode in the 530i (except for the part about the higher engine RPM range that the 530i immediately got into in Sport). The car is ready to lunge forward at any time and the acceleration behavior is similar to the 530i's sport mode, however the engine RPM is lower and so it feels calmer.
  
• The steering is spot on and slightly on the heavier side even in Comfort mode. In Sports mode, it weighs up even more. Comfort mode is perfect for normal Highway travel. When you’re in the mood for a little bit of fun like for example, playing with that Fortuner wearing on a big party flag on the bonnet, you could switch into Sports mode to enjoy some tricks that the B58 can play.
  
• A friend of mine who has a 330i drove both cars and felt did not “feel” the M340i was much faster although he admitted it seemed to reach insane speeds much more quickly. My guess is, as the M340i drives all four wheels and therefore does not give the same feeling of being pushed forward as the 330i, where 100% of the power goes to the rear wheels alone. While the X-Drive helps to put down the power much better during hard acceleration and cornering, it does mask how fast the car is accelerating. Do read the comparison posted by fellow BHP-ian Reesnat recently comparing the M2 Competiton (RWD) with the M340i. He tested both cars extensively and the M340i is actually almost 8% faster than what BMW says on paper and is faster to the ton than even the M2C, reaching 0-100 in 4.1 seconds.
  
• The ZF8 gearbox is configured to very quickly learn your driving style. If you have been driving sedately for a while and suddenly need a burst of acceleration, the gearbox will need a fraction of a second to understand your newly changed intent and behavior before it snaps to attention and gives you that burst of acceleration. On the other hand, if you have already driving aggressively, even the smallest accelerator inputs create quite a bit of forward momentum. I did not find this level of sensitivity in terms of the learning algorithm in the previous ZF8 Gearbox that I had on my G30 530i.
  
• One interesting observation I had is that the cruise control behaves very differently depending on the Drive Mode you are in. If you are cruising in Comfort mode, and have to suddenly decelerate for a speed breaker, and hit resume button on the cruise control, the engine spins up quite sharply to get you back into cruising speed very quickly. If you are in EcoPro mode though, the engine revs much slower and the car takes much longer to get back cruising speed. If on the other hand you try the same in the Sport mode, resumption of cruising speed is made to happen very rapidly with sudden kick-in-the-pant acceleration as the car launches towards the target speed, almost instantaneously.
  
• The brakes in the M340i are very strong. You can bring the fast-moving car instantly down to low speeds with moderate force on the brake pedal. This gives one a sense of control while driving fast, which is unmatched. The brake discs are massive with 370mm rotors, as the car is equipped with MSport brakes, as compared to the 313mm rotors in the 330i.
  
• The sound insulation inside the M340i is exceptional. Even a triple digit speeds, there is no engine noise, and very little air noise filtering into the cabin. External sounds are kept out very effectively in city driving. The acoustic glazing is possibly responsible for this. Also, the fact that the engine is running at amazingly lazy1400 rpm when you’re travelling 100 KPH and barely over 1600 rpm at 120 KPH helps too.
  
• Although most owners of the M340i won’t ever use it, I found the Eco-Pro mode to be actually quite useful, especially on return journeys coming back home from ravel destinations - when your mind is really not on keen driving, you are trying to relax, probably on calls a lot trying to get back in touch with work and people. In these occasions, where you are trying to use cruise control a lot, EcoPro mode is quite effective. Unlike in the 530i, where, it would feel lethargic to pick up speeds, in the M340i, EcoPro allows one to make fairly quick changes in speed without getting bogged down. This mode also feels very relaxing to cruise as the engine is running whisper soft and the car tries to coast as much as possible. Probably because it is always trying to recharge the mild hybrid battery, when you do need to pick up speed, quickly, it is not all that slow due to the mild hybrid assisting the petrol engine. Mild hybrid tech therefore seems to perfectly complement the Eco-Pro mode.
  
• The M340i is absolutely exhilarating when driving uphill on the ghat road to my cottage on the hills. Sharp twists and hairpin bends are taken with ease. The car holds the road and is absolutely flat, with zero body roll even on sharp curves. The sport mode is the best one to use on the twisties, steering weighing up nicely and allowing you to pull through those corners effortlessly. The car also drinks fuel when going uphill, especially in the sport mode. My average fuel economy for a 500 km trip down dropped from 11 to 9.8 KPL, just in the last 50 km of driving uphill to Kodai. I could not get the rear to push out even once, probably because of the AWD and the fact that I was not turning aggressively enough.
  
• In Sport mode and Sport-Plus mode, there is the “piped-in” sound option (Officially called “iconic sounds” by BMW) to create some funky sound effects in the cabin. Although purists may be opposed to this, it’s still pretty interesting to try this once in a while. As you revv the engine, you hear the amplified whine. When you let go the accelerator or hit the brakes, there is a lot of pops and cracks coming through. If you switch off Iconic Sounds, you hear much less of the engine even in the Sports mode. This is again down to the strong noise isolation of the car. With the windows down, you can hear the sweet engine whine much better as you accelerate - it’s indeed a delight! In the 4-cyliner B-48, you could not hear much of an engine whine unless going past 5000 rpm or so.
  
• The car is surprisingly fuel efficient. When driving in Comfort mode over a 500 km journey, I managed 11 KPL to the foothills of Kodaikanal from Chennai, with average speeds of about 120 KPH. The last 50 km is going uphill using a generous amount of the Sport mode, and the FE dropped drastically to 9.8 KPL for the entire trip. On the return journey, I used to Eco-pro mode extensively as I was tired and not in the mood for spirited driving. The speeds actually ranged even higher between 120-30 KPH and the car returned 11.6 KPL on the way back. These figures are very comparable to the four-cylinder B48 engine on my previous car, the 530i. Such feel efficiency on a six-cylinder motor is unbelievable - I think this is mainly down to how well the mild hybrid technology employed in the M340i works with the torque characteristics of the B58. Most of the time, even when cruising at 120 KPH, it shows barely 25% of engine power being used, reminding you constantly of the massive potential of the B58 engine.

Attachment 2502682

[84.monsoon]

48V Mild Hybrid System

• The M340i LCI is the first car in the 3-series or even 5 series range to gain a 48V mild hybrid system. So far in India, this tech is available with the B58 and B57 3 liter engines only and not the 4 cylinder engines, although this is sure to come soon, given how rapidly emission norms are being tightened and every fraction of an ounce of fuel economy is being extracted by automakers. The system is based on a separate battery and motor that assists or boosts the engine. This is called eBoost and promises additional 11 horsepower and 200 NM with zero lag, facilitated by the 48-volt power distributor and the starter motor, which is integrated into the belt drive of the engine.
  
• When charge is available, the starter motor generator briefly supplies additional power, in times where peak torque is not yet available as the turbocharger may still be in the process of “spooling up”. During launch control, will the eBoost system work in tandem with a fully-spooled turbocharger and BMW calls this “eOverboost”. The generator can also provide power to the normal 12V electrical system to help with in cabin power requirements. When the engine is sufficiently warmed up the 48V system can also handle the starting of the car during auto start/stop, which makes this very seamless. I could hardly detect when the engine goes off and comes back on while waiting at intersections etc. It seems the car is able to stand in the hot sun and maintain the 23-degree cabin AC for eve 3-4 minutes without starting the engine.

Mr. Hyde

• Now I will talk a bit about Mr Hyde. On the way uphill, to Kodai from the plains, there are several sections where the road surface gets quite rutted, with a lot of loose stones, coming off the tarmac, and many sharp bumps and other undulations. Also, there are many sections where highway repair team work on relaying the road or fixing it after rains. The M340i really struggles on the sections. Every rut, every loose stone, every bumpy section on the road is transmitted after due amplification into the cabin. The whole car shakes, there is tremendous amount of up and down and lateral movement as a car passes through these rough stretches. One has to be extremely careful not to do higher speeds on these areas, as the low profile run-flat tires will easily get damaged. While there are equally bad roads in the city, due to lower speeds, one does not suffer the full impact but it a different story on long distance trips when one is trying to complete a fast journey. When driving such rough roadsections, one wishes for any car other than the M340i, even my Thar is more comfortable on such a rough patch of road!
  
• The reason for this behavior is triple effect of 19-inch wheels with low profile tires, run flat tires, and lack of adaptive suspension. BMW recommends a very high tire pressure of 39 PSI on all four tires even when having only 1-2 people in the car - this further compounds the poor ride. One dare not go lower on tire pressure for fear of damaging the run flats due to lack of support. The car transmits everything with no attenuation, to the driver and passengers. The only thing to do on such roads is to slow down and take it easy. Fortunately, the roads I drive most often in Chennai are in decent shape and the Mr. Hyde behavior of the car is not much of a bother. On the smooth National highways in TN, I am sure this car will shine. Fortunately, the car does not scrape the bottom on normal size speed breaks, the GC is adequate, and the suspension is firm enough to avoid any sagging even with 3-4 passengers on board.
  
• If you look at the National Highway from Chennai to Dindigul, the section from Chennai upto Trichy is built to a very good standard and the overall Road surface is very flat, besides being quite smooth. The section from Trichy to Dindigul is also equally wide with four lines, however, the surface finish of this section of the highway has quite a bit of undulations. These are not sharp, but wavy formations of the road surface due to improper laying and finishing of the road. The quality specifications for the surfacing were either lower, or the contractor pulled a fast one on NHAI. These undulations are not apparent when travelling at slower speed. With my 530, I even at speeds, I never felt much of an up and down movement on this section of the highway until 2021, when I last traveled on my the route in my previous car. But with the M340i, I could feel the up-and-down movement of the car on most parts of this road section. It is not a rapid up down movement, but rather a bobbing type of movement, as a car traverses the gentle undulations on the road. It could also be that the adaptive suspension on my 530i was able to take care of this type of undulation and not transmit it to the cabin. The ride was not exactly uncomfortable, but it was irritating and dissuaded me from spirited driving. This is normally the section I look forward to the most during my drives as it is a clean 90 km stretch with very little traffic, nice sweeping curves, broad four-lane highway out and out. This time the up-and-down movement in the cabin were quite distracting, not allowing me to enjoy the drive on the stretch.

[84.monsoon]

Add-ons and Accessories:

The one thing that I really learnt from my previous ownership experience (and also from most Mods on Team-BHP in general), is to get the maximum Extended Warranty possible. Thanks to having extended warranty, I was able to get a replacement for the Display key in my previous BMW, even after 4+ years – a part that would have cost me Rs.80,000 to buy. I got the five-year BRI package for the M340i right out of the gate. BMW have slightly better pricing for the warranty if taken within the first 30 days of purchase. BRI prices have been going up and I expected the 5 it to cost a fortune, however, was pleasantly surprised that it did not cost a whole lot more than what I had paid for an equivalent package on my 530i in 2017. Since the car was on a corporate lease via Orix, and they take care of preventive maintenance, including oil change etc., I skipped the BSI options from BMW.

The one wise investment I made on the car was to get a full body PPF from Obsessive-Compulsive Detailing located in Adyar, Chennai. This has saved me from a few situations, where I would have got small nicks and scratches affecting the paint work of the car. OCD use an imported PPF film that is warrantied for 10 years. The car really shone after the application the film and a thorough wash and wax job. The pricing was reasonable and the whole job was completed in just two days. I see many M340i at OCD off and on, and Mr. Niranjan, the owner himself, has a pre-LCI M-Jhare edition M340i. It is a great place that I would recommend for anyone in Chennai wanting to get a PPF or Ceramic coating done as these guys love cars and understand the impulses of customers who are car lovers.

The car has a very large and long single touchscreen that I felt needed some protection. Because of the huge area of the screen, it’s quite possible that accidental knocks or scratches could take place in some part of the screen. I checked the web and found the Armour Guards Screen protector which covers the entire screen for the 330 Li and M340i LCI models. Ordered directly on the their website and received delivery in a matter of days. The screen protector is a bit hard to apply because of the massive area of the screen but I got it done after some minutes. Would recommend you have another person with you when you try to apply it just due to the enormous size of this thing! The visibility is superb after application with the transparency is just as good as original screen, very less reflection and also it is easy to clean. I would highly recommend getting the screen protector just to be on the safe side, to keep that beautiful big screen intact.

I have not had a lot of time to shop for more accessories as it has been a busy year. I plan to get the carbon fiber rear spoiler, BMW original dashcam, and a few other odds and ends. IMO, the car is so sporty already with standard M style wing mirrors etc. and requires very few additional accessories.

What to watch out for:

As has been documented by other owners, the biggest risk with M340i is the fact that it has very thin profile tires. If you go over very sharp-edged and deep potholes, your tires are RIP. It happened to me once, when coming back from Kodai to Chennai. It was early morning, and I was following a fast moving Volvo bus rather closely, planning an overtake soon. We were nearly at the end of a bridge near Chengalpet and I must have been too close to the bus to see the massive and ugly pothole which appeared out of nowhere into my sight. It seemed like a huge block had just been removed from the road surface and the gap had a near-90 degree sharp edge. My front left wheel and went in and out at 90 KPH and I heard a massive thud. I was sure the tire had bust but the car kept driving well. I checked the TPM tire pressures and everything showed normal. Then after about 40 km, the dreaded thing happened – I hard a sudden sharp hiss and the TPMS earning chime instantly came on indicating a critically low tire pressure and asking me to slow down, drive safely and stop. Luckily, I was in the Chennai outskirts – stopped the car at a fuel station, called ORIX and went home in an OLA. Orix promptly took care of the car – in a few hours, they had confirmed no alloy wheel damage and ordered a brand-new tire of the same make. As I had only done 200 km till then, it made sense to just change the one tire. However, the tire was not in stock at any dealer in Chennai, nor with BMW and had to be acquired from BMW Bangalore. The odd size (225X40R19) must make it hard to find a replacement quickly. Throughout the process, I was able to locate where exactly in the city the car was, and check whether it was open or closed (all five doors and trunk) thanks to the BMW Connected Car Technology that the LCI 3-series comes with.

I think at some point when it comes to the tire replacement, I might switch to a new set of alloys of 18 inch size, and get similar tire sizes to the pre-LCI model, which should slightly improve the tire profile and ride quality.

6-month Detailing


After the most recent trip to the hills, I realized I had the car for 6 months and wanted to celebrate the half birthday with a visit to OCD and getting a full detailing done. The PPF film which had covered the parking sensors was also becoming a little bit of a problem, as, if they are not fully clean, they start emitting warnings, mistaking the dust and dirt on them for objects close the car. OCD had predicted this right upfront. At the time of installing the film, they preferred not to cut out the sensor areas as it would weaken film adherence around them. They preferred to wait to see if the parking sensors started complaining before cutting out the film around them. The first few months, this was not a bother but it was starting to become one so I had OCD cut the film on the sensors this time around.




Some pictures of the car post the detailing job below.














Parting Thoughts

During the two trips I made so far to the hills, the car made each ride to and for, very enjoyable. It is fun to experiment with the drive modes. The launch on Sport + mode is insane! The one problem with this car is once you have driven it, you won't want to drive anything else, as the power is so addictive.

Here are some more pictures from my various trips.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[ex-innova-guy]

I L-O-V-E the Dravit Grey Colour and post detailing the M340i looks even more stunning. Congratulations for getting one of the most VFM car in the market.

Wishing you tens of thousands of miles and smiles.

[extreme_torque]

This is one of my favourite BMW colour and this is my favourite BMW 3 Series spec. 340i is relatively affordable for a fast saloon, good looking, has that stonking B58 engine which is one of the best inline 6 in existence and is actually faster than the Audi S4. It is also fairly reliable and there is no dearth of tuning jobs which can make this M3 fast without much effort. I was looking at the same exact car before I went for Model Y Performance.

[XDriver]

Congrats on the M340i. It’s a masterpiece of a sedan and one of the very best offered in India. I have tested the same LCI model in same colour and I just loved it. Since I have the 530d M sport I let go of it. Did you consider the X3 M40i as an option?

[Toni]

Sexy color and a fabulous machine. Very comprehensive review with great photos.

Wish you many a miles on this great machine.

Thanks.

[Omkar]

Congratulations 84.monsoon on this amazing piece of machinery!

Changes to the M340i LCI make it look so good! Not that the pre-LCI looked bad, but this one IMO is more appealing to the enthusiasts aesthetically.

Loved reading your report, especially your explanation on choosing the Dravit Grey paint shade (looks great in pictures, and I'm sure it looks even better in person), your driving experience, Mr. Hyde part, etc. Thanks for sharing such a detailed thread about your experience.

Wishing you plenty of happy miles with the M340i!

[Bhodrolok]

Awesome detailed review and that's a lovely colour.

[dmaheshkumar]

Hi,
Congratulations on your new BMW M340LCI. Wishes to clock many more miles without issues.
It was fantastic review of this wonderful beast.

The color of this car was simply superb.In Sunlight the car color was bit different and the shade was really awesome.