Coming from a Fortuner, a few observations about my new BMW 3 Series

We still miss the ruggedness of our old Toyota SUV but my first sedan is doing a good job taking our minds off it.

BHPian sharathv6793 recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Got her back from 3M PPF

They have done an immaculate job, must say. And they provided some nice free extras as well - the car looks amazing and am glad I stuck with the decision of the gloss black wrap on the rear bumper. They did say it will not have any sort of scratch protection but I can live with that for now.

We did the mandatory puja rituals at a nearby temple the same night and then went on a 500+ km ride to & back from Yercaud the very next day.

Coming from the Fortuner, here are my personal observations:

Smoothness and refinement

My god, it is heaven and earth from what I was used to. The wife joined me on this ride and there was a time when I drove off from a complete stop and she said she never realized the vehicle was on. The quietness in the cabin was unusual for me - there was a fair bit of road noise though it wasn’t too bothersome.

Performance and handling

This one was obvious to me but still, that kickback on a small push to the throttle surprised me a bunch of times. And the steering response, the manoeuvrability, the driver-oriented features like BMW assistance - chef’s kiss! Not sure if that is because this is my first sedan but these were my observations.

Ground clearance

I encountered quite a few bad patches on the road (accidentally took the Danishpet route for some distance, for those who know) and the car did not bottom out even once. No scraping. This was a major concern for me and now it is a relief. Of course, you do have to be careful and take an angled approach to the particularly large bumps - the carefreeness of the Fortuner in this is something I missed sometimes - but well done, BMW!

Comfort

560kms where we encountered heat, torrential rains (with almost zero visibility), good roads, hairpin bends, twisties, terrible roads, potholes, bad traffic - literally everything you can possibly encounter in India - and at the end of the day, I still felt I could go on for another 100-200kms. The wife was not exhausted at all. This was completely different from my Fortuner days where I found myself pretty exhausted after 300kms.

Overall, both the missus and I are super happy with the purchase. We still miss the ruggedness of the old beast but the Beemer is doing a good job taking our minds off it.

Sharing some pics here!

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