Design Car BMW 435i

Design BMW 435i

The sixth generation of the venerable BMW 3-series debuted for the 2012 model year to widespread acclaim from mommy bloggers, hypermilers, and the tech press alike, each group enthralled with the Ultimate Driving Machine’s new features. Or at least we imagine they were. Truthfully, we have no idea what these people thought and we don’t much care. But who else is going to get excited by a car that parks itself, helps you drive like Wayne Gerdes, and allows posting to Facebook while carving corners?

The car formerly known as the 3-series coupe has been broken off into its own model line, a consequence of taxonomy being as important to Germans as punctuality and pretzels, but also because the 4-series is meant to diverge from its sedan sibling more than in the past.

Outward suggestions are subtle: Bulging rear fender arches make the taper of the roof seem more extreme than it really is, and functional vents aft of the front wheels add brightwork as they channel air more efficiently through the wheel wells. The 4’s LED headlights are exclusive–or at least until the mid-cycle refresh of its sibling sedan.

Engine BMW 435i

Nobody would tell us how much starch this adds to the recipe, but the 435i we drove felt more stable than an F30 sedan, with less fore-and-aft pitching and no deterioration in ride quality. Our car was a European Sport model with the Dynamic Handling package ($1000), which includes adaptive dampers and variable-ratio steering, and 19-inch wheels wrapped in performance rubber ($900). It also had the latest iDrive 4.2, which sees the infamous control knob return to its larger size, providing a suitable surface on the top of the knob for touch writing, a feature cribbed from Audi.