I would like to welcome Mauro Corti as an official contributor for our blog. Since Mauro lives in Europe, he will share his passion for BMWs from an european perspective and teach us more about the european bimmers as well.

Hello good fellows of bmwblog.com, my name is Mauro and I’m here to tell you more about the new BMW 330d.
Some days ago a friend of mine called me saying he had been invited to a private test drive of the new BMW 320xd on the 21st of September and asking me to share the experience; how could i refuse it ?

When we arrived at the dealer we had a beautiful surprise, the 320xd was out for another test drive, so we had to drive a 330d… that was unfair right?

Well first of all let me tell you this: the car looks great, it is really nicer than in the photos, especially the hood and the taillights with the new LEDs; the front bumper, combined with the new frontlights with LED turn signals. All these little improvements have given the car a really aggressive look. The M-pack is simply amazing, I’ve had the pleasure to see a black sedan 3 Series equipped with it and trust me, it is really worth the money you pay for it.

So, let me share with you my opionion on the car I tested. It was a BMW 330d Titanium Silver metallic, equipped with 18″ rims, black Dakota leather, steptronic transmission, 10.3″ widescreen navigation system with the new iDrive, sport leather steering wheel, electric and sport seats.

The driver’s seat is a bit narrow, or at least it is narrow for me, but I’m 6″3 tall, so I’m definitely not the average height guy. After the initial adjustments trying to look for the perfect driving position, we’ve started to drive off slowly; the 3 liter diesel engine is amazing, every time you accelerate you feel a really consistent force pushing the car from the minimum to the red line without any turbo lag.

The torque is really amazing (520Nm /384lb-ft from 1750 to 3200 rpm and 245bhp at 4000rpm), it doesn’t matter what gear you’re in, you can just accelerate and in a moment you will feel a really good force pushing back in your seat.


I must say I’m not a fan of the automatic transmission, but BMW’s automatic gearbox is just THE automatic gearbox; you can start the car and accelerate to 80mph without feeling any gear change or lack of power, and this is really good because you truly ask yourself “Am I still in first gear?”.

Another really good thing about this transmission is the Sport mode; to enter in the Sport mode, you just have to push the gear lever to the left and before you can blink your eyes, the game starts, you have to reach 4100 rpm before the gear is automatically shifted and this, combined with that stunning engine, gives you a good feeling.

The car moves fast on the road, direction changes are not a problem for the 3 series, like for every other BMW as you might know by now; the grip on the road is impressive, the sport suspensions and the 18″ rims give you a good feeling of controlling the car. You can put the 330d to every turn as you like and the car will simply follow it.

Of course this will result in a bit of rigidity of the car, and you will feel it on the road bumps, but remember, the 300d was running on run flat 18″ tires, which are not the quietest or most comfortable ones, but in the end, the compromise between sport and comfort is really good.

I will not talk about the iDrive because it had already been reviewed on BMWBlog, but let me just tell you this, I think it has really been improved, it is faster and more user-friendly than the old one, which in my opinion was already old when it was introduced some years ago.

Well, that’s it dear fellows of bmwblog.com, the BMW 330d is truly a great car, so great that I’m gonna buy one soon :)

Photos source: NextAutos

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