How my BMW 3 Series Gran Limousine performed on a 3000 km road trip

Apart from my car, there was also a Toyota Hilux and a Skoda Octavia 1.8 in the convoy.

BHPian niranjanrvce recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I took the 3GL for a ~3000km road trip and thought of posting a quick update here on how the car performed.

The route was Blore-Hampi-Aurangabad-Ajanta-Ellora-Mahabaleshwar/Tapola-Blore, with some local sightseeing at these places. The roads were a mix of 4/6 lane carpet smooth roads, broken highways with massive potholes, 2-lane state highways with heavy local traffic, city roads and some delectable ghat roads. The cars in the convoy were the 3GL, a Hilux and an Octavia 1.8. I initially considered taking a Kodiaq instead of the 3GL for more practicality but am super glad I took the 3GL instead.

I absolutely loved the way the car behaved over the trip length. The power on the 30i is just perfect for our roads and I did most of the trip in Sport Individual mode where I have everything configured to 'sport' but steering configured to 'comfort'. I wanted the engine braking and instant throttle response of sport mode, but wanted the lighter steering feel of comfort on big highways since there isn't much throwing the car around on them. On the ghats though, I moved the steering to 'sport' as well when I got some well-tarred empty stretches to have fun on. The Mahabaleshwar-Satara road is perfect for this kind of fun.

Typical highway cruising speeds kept the rpm at ~2000, with a small tap on the throttle enough to complete quick overtakes. On most of the highways, you'll find clusters of trucks and cars every once in a while and with the 3GL, I could pass these clusters quickly, get some pace on to put distance between them and settle down to a comfortable cruise again. Also, as always, there were a few odd cars every now and then wanting to do their version of 'racing with BMWs' - I would ignore them if there was traffic or do a quick spurt of acceleration and get away if it was empty.

The 3GL has enough power to simply disappear from traffic even at part throttle. And it is so linear that your co-passengers will continue to sleep in peace even through any acceleration bursts. But I must say, most cars throughout the journey were well driven and it felt like people were generally keeping to highway etiquette more than I expected. Two wheelers were another story though, especially the suicidal ones clogging the highways around Aurangabad.

Another highlight of the car for me was the ride quality. I had to do the 1000km dash from Blore-Aurangabad on a single day and a lot of the stretches from Hospete-Bijapur-Solapur were broken or had massive tramlines created by trucks. The supple ride on the car made a massive difference here and I could reach the destination without any fatigue at all. The car takes undulations and patches on the road really well and you don't really need to slow down for them. The catch though is to keep an eagle's eye out for any bigger potholes that can kill your tyres.

On the return journey, there are massive diversions from Satara to Belgaum where you have unmarked speed breakers, patches of tar and stones and big potholes. My wife and 2 kids slept through all of it - that is how comfortable the ride was. Just needed to drop speeds on these bad patches and the damping on the suspension took care of the rest.

Last bit on the handling - I always drive with traction set to 'Dynamic Traction' because I find the DSC way too intrusive. Full DSC robs you of throttle response exactly when you need it - and makes your turn-ins slower. With dynamic on, the car is a hoot to drive around the twisites. Yes, there is some body roll but who cares - it will stick to your intended line like a leech and allow just that tiny bit of rear slide to get the nose turned quickly into the corner and let you get on the gas in full. And the feel of the rear wheels being so connected to your throttle inputs while your front is free to steer as you wish is inexplicable. Just pure joy of driving.

All said and done, this trip really helped me explore the capabilities of the 3GL as a fast family car and I couldn't be happier with how it performed. Couldn't recommend this more for someone looking for a sedan in this segment.

A parting pic from early in the trip on Chitradurga bypass:

PS: I have the ACE3.0 dashcam and would recommend one for everyone. On one of the stretches from Aurangabad to Panchgani, the car in front brushed a two-wheeler and I had to take evasive action to avoid them. My first thought was to thank god I have a dashcam in case anything had happened and I had to prove my case. 60K well spent for the peace of mind imho.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.