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Written by Rowan Horncastle
Last year, Bee-Em"s well-established 3-Series went under the knife for some minor tweaks to bring it inline with Jaguar"s XE. Today, the longer, taller, hatchbacked version of BMW"s compact the Gran Turismo has had the same treatment.As you can tell, revisions to the exterior are minimal. There are new adaptive LED headlights, a slightly tauter grille, different air intakes and new twinkly LED rear lights. New colours and different alloy wheels are also available, just in case they were the two variables holding you back from buying the old one.On the inside, BMW has upped the quality with new trim options, fancy switchgear and improved smartphone integration and sat nav. It"s the small things that matter in this facelift game. It"s the engines where the main changes have been made though. In total, there are 18 different engine, gearbox and drive configurations that you can choose from. So take a deep breath and lets begin.Petrols start with the base 320i. Nothing has happened in terms of performance, but it now claims 46.3mpg and emits 139g/km of CO2 in two-wheel-drive form, compared with 42.2mpg and 155g/km in the old car.Joining the 320i at the green pump is a new 330i (replacing the 328i), with power up seven bhp to 249bhp and fuel-sipping now set at 47.9mpg. Sitting at the top of the tree is a 340i that replaces the 335i. Power is up 20bhp (now 326bhp) yet CO2 emissions are down by 30g/km to 159g/km. All petrol cars are available with xDrive, and when fitted in the 340i, will help see 0-62mph off in five seconds.Diesels come with a new entrant to the party, the 325d. It"s a twin turbocharged version of BMW"s turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder with 220bhp. It joins four other diesel models in the line-up, including the four-cylinder 148bhp 318d, 187bhp 320d as well as the six-cylinder 254bhp 330d and 309bhp 335d Gran Turismo. The 335d is the only car on offer with xDrive as standard.Sat on the longer wheelbase of the Chinese-market 3 saloon, plus having a fastback hatch to not scare off people who think estates are a bit common, dimensionally the GT has always sat in a funny territory. Against a ruler, the new one is 4825mm long, so still 195mm longer than the 3 Series saloon and Touring. 110mm of that is within its unique 2920mm wheelbase. But for those of you with loads of things to haul, there"s good news as the 520 litre boot is 40-litres better than the 3 Series saloon and 25 litres more than that offered by the 3 Series Touring.So, being bigger, longer and more bootier than before, surely the GT makes more sense than ever, right?Share this page: FacebookTwitterGoogle+WhatsAppMailtoCopy link
Date written: 1 Jun 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3673
Last year, Bee-Em"s well-established 3-Series went under the knife for some minor tweaks to bring it inline with Jaguar"s XE. Today, the longer, taller, hatchbacked version of BMW"s compact the Gran Turismo has had the same treatment.As you can tell, revisions to the exterior are minimal. There are new adaptive LED headlights, a slightly tauter grille, different air intakes and new twinkly LED rear lights. New colours and different alloy wheels are also available, just in case they were the two variables holding you back from buying the old one.On the inside, BMW has upped the quality with new trim options, fancy switchgear and improved smartphone integration and sat nav. It"s the small things that matter in this facelift game. It"s the engines where the main changes have been made though. In total, there are 18 different engine, gearbox and drive configurations that you can choose from. So take a deep breath and lets begin.Petrols start with the base 320i. Nothing has happened in terms of performance, but it now claims 46.3mpg and emits 139g/km of CO2 in two-wheel-drive form, compared with 42.2mpg and 155g/km in the old car.Joining the 320i at the green pump is a new 330i (replacing the 328i), with power up seven bhp to 249bhp and fuel-sipping now set at 47.9mpg. Sitting at the top of the tree is a 340i that replaces the 335i. Power is up 20bhp (now 326bhp) yet CO2 emissions are down by 30g/km to 159g/km. All petrol cars are available with xDrive, and when fitted in the 340i, will help see 0-62mph off in five seconds.Diesels come with a new entrant to the party, the 325d. It"s a twin turbocharged version of BMW"s turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder with 220bhp. It joins four other diesel models in the line-up, including the four-cylinder 148bhp 318d, 187bhp 320d as well as the six-cylinder 254bhp 330d and 309bhp 335d Gran Turismo. The 335d is the only car on offer with xDrive as standard.Sat on the longer wheelbase of the Chinese-market 3 saloon, plus having a fastback hatch to not scare off people who think estates are a bit common, dimensionally the GT has always sat in a funny territory. Against a ruler, the new one is 4825mm long, so still 195mm longer than the 3 Series saloon and Touring. 110mm of that is within its unique 2920mm wheelbase. But for those of you with loads of things to haul, there"s good news as the 520 litre boot is 40-litres better than the 3 Series saloon and 25 litres more than that offered by the 3 Series Touring.So, being bigger, longer and more bootier than before, surely the GT makes more sense than ever, right?Share this page: FacebookTwitterGoogle+WhatsAppMailtoCopy link
Date written: 1 Jun 2016
More of this article on the Top gear website
ID: 3673