---
title: 'New 3 Series revealed! Did BMW just fix EVERYTHING?'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=NJJxakiMqgQ'
video_id: 'NJJxakiMqgQ'
date: 2026-09-30
duration_sec: 836
channel: 'carwow'
---

# New 3 Series revealed! Did BMW just fix EVERYTHING?

> Source: [New 3 Series revealed! Did BMW just fix EVERYTHING?](https://youtube.com/watch?v=NJJxakiMqgQ)

## Summary

This video provides a comprehensive first look at the new BMW 3 Series, focusing on the sporty M350 variant. The presenter shares his honest opinions, details the engine options, highlights new features like the 'routines' system and excited lights, and compares the petrol model to the electric i3.

### Key Points

- **Introduction to the New BMW 3 Series** [00:00] — The presenter introduces the new BMW 3 Series, focusing on the M350 model, and promises an honest opinion, key facts, and two cool features.
- **Engine Options** [00:30] — The 318 has a 2.0 turbo petrol with 156 hp and 250 Nm (not for UK). The 320 has 211 hp and 330 Nm. A plug-in hybrid will be available, but no diesel.
- **M350 Engine Specs** [00:58] — The M350 uses a B58 3.0 turbo straight-six with 443 hp and 580 Nm, up from 392 hp and 540 Nm in the old car. It's four-wheel drive with a rear limited-slip differential.
- **Rear-Wheel Drive Mode Delay** [01:46] — The rear-wheel drive mode isn't available at launch but will be added via an over-the-air update for early buyers.
- **Chassis Upgrades** [02:13] — The chassis is based on the current 3 Series but reworked with extra strengthening, wider tyres, a rear chassis brace, and a front structural brace for better handling.
- **Excited Lights Feature** [02:59] — The M350 has yellow accents called 'excited lights' (similar to corona lights). The presenter struggles to demonstrate the changeable headlight design.
- **Routines Feature** [04:31] — BMW's new 'routines' feature allows you to automatically turn off annoying safety warnings (like lane departure and speed limit alerts) every time you get in the car.
- **Petrol vs Electric Platform** [05:30] — The petrol 3 Series and i3 look similar but are on different platforms. The i3 has a longer wheelbase, is taller and wider, and offers more rear knee room.
- **Rear Seat Comfort Comparison** [06:26] — The i3's flat floor means less under-thigh support, while the 3 Series has footwells for better comfort. A test with cameraman Lewis confirms the 3 Series is slightly better.
- **Heads-Up Display Issue** [07:47] — The heads-up display is prominent on the dash because BMW couldn't integrate it as well as in the i3. The presenter suggests skipping it and using the panoramic vision instead.
- **Interior and Tech** [08:31] — The interior is identical to the i3 with a trapezoidal screen, photo upload capability, and a 7-for-10 system. Apple CarPlay/Android Auto don't show mapping on the panoramic vision.
- **Panoramic Vision and N-Drag Meter** [09:04] — The panoramic vision shows tyre pressures, temperatures, revs, and a G-meter. There's also an N-drag meter for timing 0-60 and quarter-mile runs.
- **Steering Wheel and Paddles** [09:42] — The M350 has an M sportier steering wheel with touch-sensitive buttons (which the presenter dislikes) and tri-colour stitching. The paddles are pre-production and feel cheap.
- **Boost Function** [09:56] — The boost function provides maximum attack for 10-20 seconds, giving more aggressive throttle response and gear shifts when cruising in efficient mode.
- **Interior Extras** [10:20] — The M350 features sportier seats, entry clock on seatbelts, and crystal buttons (optional extra).
- **Exterior Visual Upgrades** [10:32] — The M350 has a bootlid spoiler, fake diffuser, and quad-tail pipes. The presenter plays the exhaust sound and asks viewers to compare it to the old M340i.
- **Brakes and Wheels** [11:08] — Upgraded sports brakes with red calipers, adaptive dampers as standard, 19-inch alloys (upgradeable to 20), and optional Bridgestone track tires with wider rears.
- **Pricing and Boot Capacity** [11:48] — Prices have gone up, but boot capacity has dropped to 420 liters. The presenter shows the 3-way split folding rear seats.
- **Design and Final Thoughts** [12:28] — The presenter likes the design, especially the door mirror tripler, but notes the 3 Series lacks the i3's cool window cut-out look. He recommends subscribing for the upcoming M3 video.

### Conclusion

The new BMW 3 Series, especially the M350, offers impressive power and innovative features like the routines system, but has some compromises like reduced boot space and a delayed rear-wheel drive mode. Overall, it's a compelling option for those wanting a petrol-powered sports sedan.

## Transcript

This is the new BMW 3 Series complete with its brand new look and you're joining me for my very first look around the car. I'm going to be giving you my honest opinion on it. I'm going to give you all the facts you need to know and tell you about two cool things that BMW has done with it
which you'll be so pleased about. Obviously I picked the sportiest car to show you. It is the new M350. Let's do this. Things like the 350, let's do the classic BMW bonnet open, the double pull.
So, engines. You can get a 318, which will have a 2.0 turbocharged petrol engine. This has 156 horsepower and 250 newton metres of torque. But it isn't going to the UK. Instead, we get a 320 with 211 horsepower and 330 newton metres of torque.
You'll also be able to get a 330 model in the US, but BMW hasn't confirmed any stats on that car yet. Then there will be a plug-in hybrid. Once again, it will be a 2.0 turbocharged petrol. They haven't revealed the figures on that one either. There is going to be no diesel, though.
However, this engine more than makes it great. It's a B58 3.0 turbocharged straight-six that, as it's called the 350, now has way more power than ever before. It has 443 horsepower and 580 Newton-meters of torque. By comparison, the old car has 392 horsepower and 540 Newton-meters of torque.
That is insane for an M-like car. It means that the next M3 will have a bucket more horsepower than the current car, so well over 600 horsepower probably. Anyhow, that is not the only good thing about this car. The 350 will be four-wheel drive.
However, as with the current end products, BMW will let you put it into two-wheel drive mode. Oh yeah, and they've fitted it with a rear limited-slip differential, so you should be able to see some Bernie drift in Donuts. There is a slight problem though. You see that specific rear-wheel drive mode,
it's not available from launch. They haven't been able to develop it for the car's initial production, so the first few buyers won't have that feature on their cars. They might be not willing and they're Now I'm just going to wait for the latest R-BEN. It's amazing because it's just a software thing.
It will be able to do an over-the-air update for all buyers of the early models. So I'll get it at the same time that everyone else does. The 3 Series chassis has nothing to do with the i3 at all. It's actually based on the current 3 Series, but they've totally reworked it.
Now they've added a lot of extra strengthening. The reason being the cars now have more power and they've fitted them with bigger, wider tyres for added grip. The M350 also has some other chassis upgrades. at the back you have an extra chassis brace to support the rear suspension so there's
less of a wiggle when on the power then there's something else at the front down beneath there there's an extra structural brace which you can't see and then there's these here which you can see and they mount to the suspension mount there to keep things nicely in place when you're cornering
under high loads and you might be thinking wait a minute that's what's this all looking here that's connected to an external battery so the car doesn't go flat when we've got all the lights on here for filming in the studio but it does mean that I can show you one of the cool features on this car so as you can see we have the new BMW front end here which is the same as on the i3
oh this being the m350 you get these yellow accents they're called excited lights yeah they used to get that kind of design on the what was it called what was it called the corona lights these things from all the BMWs you don't get those unfortunately on the normal models but you can
change the look of the headlights slightly and I'll try and do that now if you bear with me Lewis I gonna do it here we go into the car Is there anything changing Lewis or was I just pressing buttons and nothing happening
Corporate needs you to find the differences between this picture and this picture. Lets get a DM from the official to do this. Whats the hello and goodbye picture?
being too excited I turn the excited off that's why okay then I have to turn it on again sorry there's excited mode I'm very excited that's without the excited mode I thought it changed
these bits I don't know no they're off I saw it before someone showed me I don't really know what's happening I thought before they could change this design or not no that's lighting up
up if the car starts but it's only like lit up or not lit up. You know what I was thinking of an ID probably. That's what it was. Silly me, sorry. One idiot. Um, thank you for your help.
Um, let's talk about the rest of the car because there's something BMW have done to this which you're gonna love. I love it. Check this out. BMW solved the problem of annoying safety warning sounds. So you know how you have to turn off lane departure warnings and speed limit recognition
every time you get into a car and start it. not here because look you can do this thing called routines so go in here hit routines set up a new routine customize it and then make the condition whenever i get into the car and go to drive it
will automatically come on and then the action will be assistance turn off acoustic speed limit warning and then you can also do the one to turn off lane departure warning and oh look at that stop stop as well so every time you get in the car you don't have to press anything it just knows
it's you and it will just set up the car so you don't have those things happening doing your head in i think this is all we're going to do a round of applause thank you very much we appreciate it i'm now definitely getting myself a new 3 series well should i really be getting the i3 the petrol
3 series and the i3 look identical don't they apart from obviously that being the m350 has a sporty aluminum bumper and those excited lights don't know why i keep on doing that but anyway Even though the body panels look exactly the same, the cars are built on different platforms.
That is a full electric platform. That is an evolution of the G20 platform. In fact, that car, the electric one, is slightly longer wheelbase, slightly taller and slightly wider. However, the petrol version is quite clearly the petrol version when you look at it from a certain angle.
If you look carefully, you can see that the bonnet of this petrol car is longer than the bonnet of the i3. Obviously because you've got a long petrol engine underneath. That doesn't have anything underneath. Well, it does. It has some storage. but that isn't the only difference, there's some more differences on the inside as well
because the electric i3 has longer wheelbase than the petrol 3 series you have more rear knee room look at that, that's really really good obviously a completely flat floor because there's no like exhaust or prop shafts having to go to the centre of the car
so that's really good as well, look however what's not so good is the fact that you've got leather badges underneath there which means that you don't actually have any footwells so under thigh support, isn't that great so while there's plenty of room, if the person in front of you
has their seat quite low like I would have, this is in my ideal driving position I'm not as comfortable as I'd like to be. Is it going to be better in the three-seaters? Well in some ways it actually not so good to turn the tree because look big transmission tunnel less knee room headroom is the same but the big benefit of not having a in the meter floor is that you do have some footwells so your feet are lower down which means more under fire support so you can actually
squeeze your feet in the meter chair in front even if it's in its lowest position and ultimately I feel more comfortable back here but don't take my word for it we're just going to do a quick test with cameraman Lewis so come on in cameraman Lewis you are up come in next to me my dear alright here we go here he is
Oh, perfect, I'm having to do your job. This is harder than I thought. Right, so how tall are you Lewis? Six foot. Yeah, that'll do. Now go and try the ice free. Yeah, you need the definitely higher.
Yeah. Not as much foot space. That's enough. That's enough. Get your camera back. I think we've just confirmed that probably that is actually slightly better than the back seats. But there is an area where it is not as good. It's this lump on the dash here.
Now that's actually for the heads up display. I've been thinking, why isn't it so prominent? Well it's because BMW fitted the interior of the i3 here inside the 3-series but because it's got an internal combustion engine and all the ventilation system that's associated with that
they haven't been able to integrate the heads-up display as well as they have done in the i3. So I say do not get the heads-up display because you don't need it anyway because you've got this panoramic vision thing here which is effectively a heads-up display.
Your speedo's there. There's no point having the speedo there as well really. Save yourself some cash as well. Overall the interior is exactly the same as the i3, nice materials, quality is good, it's an interesting design. You've got this quirky looking trapezoidal screen, it's a weird thing to say isn't it but that's what it is.
And you can upload photos too and that looks almost like the latest and most famous photo of an BMW M1 there as well. And you've got a 7 for 10 system, generally really nice and easy to use. So you have the mapping up there which is absolutely fabulous. The only thing is that if you're running Apple CarPlay and Android Auto you don't get the mapping direction up there, it's only there on the screen.
Now what I can do is just change the look of it to go for personal and this being the end cockpit up here and we've got all key things like your tyre pressures, tyre temperatures, revs and all that kind of stuff, g-metre. We also get the rev counter up there on the
panoramic vision. I wish it was an actual dial rather than a straight line but I don't think you'll fit a dial in that space there but still it looks pretty cool. Also luckily we've got an N-drag meter so you can time it up to 60 and quarter mile and everything like that. Now once
Obviously I mean the M350 you have the M sportier steering wheel otherwise you get the wheel that's in the i3. I'd much prefer the design of this wheel than that one but as with that wheel I don't like the touch sensitive buttons here on the steering wheel
which do have haptic feedback which seem a little bit odd to use and use those to control the stuff on the paneling vision. I like the N tri-colour stitching on the steering wheel and the fact that the red on the paddles matches the deadhead marker here on the steering wheel.
Obviously we've got some gear shifter paddles these are actually pre-production thank goodness because they sell quite cheap. the real ones that you'll get on the production car will feel nicer. You have the M mode there to shortcut to a different driving mode, and the boost function, which will give you maximum attack
for a burst of like 10 seconds or 20 seconds if you're just cruising along in an efficient mode, but you want it to just step up really quickly. You press that, and it'll give you a more aggressive throttle response and gear shifts immediately for a short period of time.
Another feature of this M light car is, of course, the sportier seats, and they feel very nice. And look, we've got the entry clock on the seatbelts. This car also features the crystal buttons down here
so normally they'd just be plastic but look at the glass effect there but of course you have to pay extra for those don you And there something else you might want to pay extra for if you thinking about buying this N350
The N350 has some visual upgrades over the standard 3-series. So it has this little bootlid spoiler there with a central cutout. There's also a fake diffuser. And something that's not fake, the quad-tail pipes.
Look, BMW keeping it real where it matters. And here's what it sounds like. It's not bad BMWs, but is it as good as the old N340i?
Well, have a listen to this and let me know in the comments. The 350 also gets upgraded sports brakes with red calipers which look very nice
and it comes with adaptive dampers as standard with a sporty setting. You will be able to fit adaptive dampers on the lesser models but obviously you'll have to pay extra for those. You can get it with 19-inch alloy wheels as standard but upgraded to some 20 inches.
on the old cars is 340 you can only get up to 19 inches another thing that we do is often is a more sporty wheel with the cars where you're going to fit your graded track performance tires from Bridgestone and if you go for that you actually
have an offset between the front and rear tires and the rear tires are much much wider for added traction so how much does all this cost the new 3 series will start from this much however the M350 will start from this much so prices have
gone up however there is something that has gone down bizarrely it's boot capacity the old cars was fortunately leases this new one is 420 liters actually we don't have space maybe it's this time you can't lift it up anymore as with the old three series though you can still hold down the real
seats on the box and you do have three ways split folding rear seats in fact i'll show you that first right there ta-da and then just hold rear seats down while pulling these levers
I was hoping they would just spring down and I wouldn't have to go back round again That was pointless There you go Obviously if you need to carry large items you're going to want to get the Touring aren't
you I think I want the Touring You know what I really like the look of this design It's cool isn't it it's great that BMW are offering an internal combustion engine version not just the electric car and it's super exciting that this N359 not only has more power but a rear wheel drive
drift mode I've just noticed this as well, look, the tripler on the door mirror, it's cool but there is one thing that's not so cool, come over to the i3 first now to tell you the truth I didn't like the new design on the i3 from the side
like the foot-to-heart at the rear but not from the side whereas it looks better on this i3 because it's lower the way this part is cut out and one of the reasons that really accentuates that cut out look is this here when you don't really have a traditional like window rubber it's just the way the metal just
it seems to go straight into the glass. They sort of copied that a little bit from Range Rover. However, if you come over here and look at the 3 Series, it doesn't have that cool feature, sort of a traditional window seal there.
And when you step back, it doesn't quite have such a cool cut-out look as the i3 as a result. Hmm. Still, that wouldn't put me off buying the new 3 Series, and it shouldn't put you off either. But what about the forthcoming N3?
Well, make sure you subscribe to this channel, because I'll be filming a video on that car very soon. But in the meantime, click on the video window appearing right now to see what happened when I raced the current M3 against the brand new Audi RS5 Hybrid,
because I think you'll be surprised by the result. Anyway, as always, thanks for watching, and I'll see you next time.