The North American market gets robbed of a lot of great BMWs. I would go blue in the face before I could name all of the killer Bimmers we don’t get if I tried to name them all in one breath. However, the best of them is probably one of the simplest—the BMW M340i Touring.
Yes, this is yet another post about wagons that we don’t get here in the ‘States. If you’re tired of reading them, write to BMW and tell them to send us more wagons. Until then, I’m gonna keep complaining. Squeaky wheel gets the grease, right? In this new video from Joe Achilles, we get to check out the newly refreshed BMW M340i Touring LCI and it’s not only the best car that North American can’t have but it could be the best overall BMW of them all.
We’ve already driven the BMW 3 Series LCI and, between the BMWBLOG staff, have sampled them all. I’ve only driven the BMW 330i LCI (though I drove all non-LCI 3ers) and I was happy to report that the 3 Series is still the best overall car BMW makes. Furthermore, I felt that the BMW 330i was the sweet spot of the range, making it among the best BMWs you can buy on this side of the Atlantic. However, if the M340i Touring—the car Achilles speaks so highly of in this new video—was sold here, it would easily be the best of the bunch.
What makes the BMW M340i Touring LCI so good? Obviously, you should watch Achilles’ video to find out, as he goes into great detail about its attributes. However, it’s no surprise that what made the pre-LCI car so great remains great in the LCI car. There are some new things to this updated car, some good and some bad, but it’s still an outstanding package and one that I’m very jealous of.
Under the hood is the same 3.0-liter turbocharged ‘B58’ inline-six as before, with 382 horsepower and 369 lb-ft of torque. That means it’s still a rocket ship in a straight-line, especially when paired with xDrive all-wheel drive. While the M340i isn’t quite a sharp as a proper M car, it’s more comfortable, more practical, and cheaper overall. When it comes to overall packages in its price range, it seems impossible to beat and that would be true regardless of its market. Damn you, Achilles, why do you get to drive all the good stuff?!
