Every year, Motor Trend holds its annual Car of The Year program in which they test a variety of the best brand-new cars on the road and deem one the car of the year. Fairly simple. Well, this year, the BMW 340i is a contender in the that test.
This is obviously a pretty great honor for the 340i, to be considered one of the best cars on the market. However, Motor Trend has lukewarm things to say about it. “the new six is smoother than the one it replaces, especially at high revs, and it continues BMW’s tradition of a pleasing soundtrack and excellent boost control. Although the new suspension tuning in our M Sport package 340i buttons down the car’s previously heaving rear end, the car still felt numb and disconnected.”
That seems sort of bad, especially considering that it’s nominated for COTY. The interesting thing is that I’m not sure I agree with the last bit. You’d think that this is just bias, as we’re BMWBLOG, but it truthfully isn’t. We try and be as objective as possible and would never say that a BMW was great if it wasn’t. After sampling the new 340i, we can tell you that numb and disconnected aren’t good adjectives to describe the it. Is it as “connected” as an E30 M3? Of course not, no modern car is and all modern cars are becoming more numb than in previous generations, but that’s just the way of the times and people really need to stop complaining about it. But the 340i is far from disconnected. It doesn’t have the same steering feel of an E46 but it’s still very accurate and the chassis is very connected. We’d be lying in a ditch in Mexico being eaten by stray dogs if it weren’t.
Admittedly, it’s been a long time since driving a Cadillac ATS, and we’ve still yet to sample the new Mercedes-Benz C Class or Jaguar XE, but we’d go as far as to say that the new 340i is up at the top of the class, in terms of driving connectivity and dynamics.
It’s no secret that the BMW 340i won’t win MT’s COTY, as it’s just not new or innovative enough and I would probably agree with it not being the best new car in the world. But it’s an incredible sports sedan, combining excellent performance with fantastic dynamics and superb comfort and practicality into one good-looking package. To be honest, it’s hard to want more from a car than what the BMW 340i can provide. So while it probably won’t win the MT COTY, it definitely deserves its spot as a true contender.
[Source: Motor Trend]
