Idrive review 2019
Also really noticeable is how much better noise, vibration and harshness from the four-cylinder engine are controlled. Wind and road noise are muted - perhaps, though it's hard to say without a back-to-back drive, as quietly as the Mercedes-Benz C-Class. Still impresses as an everyday luxury carīack in Comfort mode, the 330i comports itself with all the peace and quiet expected of a car in this segment. While the BMW is very quick on a back road and very involving, there are other cars with better steering feel and more fluid cornering manners. And sometimes, on quick direction changes, there's the sensation that the rear axle takes a bit to react and then overcompensates the 330i can feel a tad twitchy. There's vagueness off-center that saps confidence, and the car doesn't feel very crisp on turn-in.
#IDRIVE REVIEW 2019 MANUAL#
Luckily, since this vehicle is all about fun, you can solve that problem by just going for the more exciting manual transmission.If only the same improvements were present in the steering, which remains a let-down compared to competing sedans in this class. That's so tremendously unintuitive that I'm not sure how they ever came up with it.
Instead, you leave the transmission in drive and turn the car off, which then puts it in park. So you might assume that you're supposed to leave it in neutral and set the parking brake, but if you do that the car will not allow you to lock the doors because it isn't "secured" against rolling. Look at it and you'll notice that there isn't a "park" position or button.
The engine doesn't have the aural sense of occasion that performance cars from Alfa Romeo and Mercedes provide.įinally, the shifter for the dual-clutch transmission is obnoxious. First, BMW continues its tradition of making performance cars that just don't sound that great. If you are looking for pure performance and fun, there are only a few things you need to consider. If you're planning on driving one through cities and in traffic daily, it's a tough sell. It thunks into potholes without much softening, though it relaxes considerably on the highway and is always quiet. This is especially apparent on low-speed drives through cities, where the stiffness of the BMW's ride can become tiresome. If you're sliding and you want to regain grip, a quick flick of the upshift paddle or relaxing the throttle will get it hooked back up without incident. Even with stability control off, it's incredibly easy to slide but nearly impossible to spin. No matter how many times you slide it around or how much of a fool you're being, the M2 Competition won't bite you. With an overly enthusiastic dab of throttle, you can easily get the back to slide on every turn if you desire. What makes the M2 Competition the most fun car we've ever reviewed is the brilliant chassis and suspension setup. Of course, a lot of cars have more powerful engines and amazing gearboxes. BMW's dual-clutch boxes swap gears in just a few milliseconds, so we'd be understating the speed if we said it happened in the blink of an eye. Opting for the manual slows things down a bit as you're missing out on launch control and the lightning shifts of the automatic box. Mated to the optional dual-clutch transmission, that engine will pull to 60 mph in 4.0 seconds.