BMW 320d xDrive Touring Review

The 1980s were a time of change at BMW. The company's first ever station wagon, the 3-Series Touring E30 appeared on the horizon. In that same period, the first all wheel drive option on a BMW debuted, by coincidence also on a 3-Series platform. Almost 30 years later, what was almost inconceivable for BMW purists some time ago happened to become a really great choice in the whole BMW line-up.

We are talking about a 3-Series, in Touring clothes, with a turbocharged four-cylinder oil burner under the hood and intelligent all wheel drive. If the Angel Eyes, the pork snout (OK, OK, “kidney grill”) and/or the Hofmeister kink weren't there, you'd pass this as any other car but a BMW to your neighbors.

We tested the facelift version of the E91 3-Series Touring, equipped with the latest version of the two-liter turbocharged diesel also known as the 320d and xDrive. All the 177 hp and 350 Nm (258.1 lb ft) of torque are directed towards every wheel in a 60:40 manner via a manual six-speed transmission.

Unlike the first all wheel drive BMW generations in the 1980s, this one transmits the power following a 60% rear and 40% front axle ratio, but that can change to 100:0 or even 0:100 depending on the road and driving conditions, and all this in a split second, even before the driver might even notice.

The engine found in our test car is an evolution of the first two-liter common rail diesel from BMW, and it now offers even more power than its normal aspirated gasoline counterpart. This usually happens at the expense of higher fuel consumption, but this is hardly our case.

Benefitting from the new BMW EfficientDynamics program, the diesel powerplant is now kind of like creating a hybrid between a Scottish and a Jewish fellow when it comes to economy. The Auto Start Stop switches off the engine everytime it idles too much at the stoplights, while the Brake Energy Regeneration uses the kinetic energy that would otherwise go to waste by converting it into electricity via the generator and storing it in the battery.

When talking about the looks of just about any post-Bangle BMW, most opinions differ to the point of recreating some of Michael Jackson's Black or White song. Fortunately, the 3-Series Touring has escaped most of Chris Bangle's funky “flame surfacing”. The styling brought by the 3-Series facelift suffered in 2008 gave it a sufficient amount of aggressiveness to rival or even better the design of any pre-2000 model created by the Motorsport Technik department.

The profile of the car is full of unpracticality-inducing lines, with a raked roof that goes down towards the rear, creating a very sporty silhouette. The headlights are equipped with Angel Eyes and the engine hood has received a couple of creases more, making you feel a bit uncomfortable if by chance you encounter one in your rear-view mirror on a narrow street at dusk.

The mirrors look (and probably are) very aerodynamic compared to the straight-is-better ones found on older BMWs and they now somehow compliment the Hofmeister kink featured by the last roof pillar.

The rear end design is a mixture between the traditional L-shaped BMW lights, which now feature LEDs and are arranged in a very Origami-like form. Looked upon from almost any angle, the 3-Series Touring inspires anything but practicality, but the front is especially full of aggressive creases that made us giggle with excitement about the thought of an eventual future M-version of the car.

Unlike the 5-Series for example, the rear hatch doesn't feature that magical inversion design technique. To be more accurate, we don't know how many of our readers have actually noticed that when looking at their car's front being mirrored on the rear of a current 5-Series it appears to be upside down. Well, the 3-Series doesn't have that, we tried it by almost rear-ending the test car with our Subaru.

On the whole, this is a very well put together design that is both sporty and confidence inspiring. The impracticality of the car is also announced by the exterior lines, which tell you from the first time you see it that this is not your average soccer-mom grocery getter.

When we first entered our test car's cockpit a feeling of 80s somehow invaded our senses. Taking into account both the fact that we're now in 2009 and the 320d we drove was equipped pretty much with just the basic options, the interior still received some bad remarks.

Apart from the aluminium inserts here and their, everything, and we mean EVERYTHING was engulfed in black plastic, black cloth and black leather. The leather could only be found around the gear shifter, the handbrake and the three spoke steering wheel, since everything else looked pretty much low-budget.

This of course was only at first sight, because only after a few minutes of acquaintance we realized that this is in fact a better quality interior than on the BMW X3 we had tested earlier, no matter how low-spec'ed it was (the 3-Series, not the X3). Almost every piece of black plastic was soft at finger touch and it really gave a feeling of Germanic precision, totally unlike the interior of the aforementioned BMW X3.

The interior space on the other hand is really not one of the car's attributes. Considering this is a station wagon after all, the Bavarian's obsession with 50:50 weight distribution really hurt the car's passenger's space.

Although the car has one of the biggest wheelbases in its class, it doesn't transform it in more legroom but it creates space for the engine to be pushed as far back as possible into the cabin. Plus, the transmission tunnel occupies a decent amount of space both in front and in the rear. Still, the rear headroom is somewhat bigger than on its sedan counterpart, thanks in part to the longer roofline, even though it decreases its angle is it goes towards the rear of the car.

Given the fact that it has a more than frugal diesel engine under the hood – we managed around 9 liters per 100km (26 US mpg) while driving in a very busy city – the 320d xDrive Touring isn't exactly bred for city errands.

For one thing, even though the all wheel drive transmission would really come in handy, you can't escalate any road kerb higher than 15 cm (6 inches) because the ground clearance is 1 cm (less than half an inch) lower than that in the front. In other words, you should either be really careful where and how you park because you might leave without your front bumper.

The overall visibility is somewhat better than in a BMW X3 and much better than in the 3-Series sedan thanks to the decently-sized D-pillars, even though the driving position is just about as low as you can find in this class of vehicles.

Rear visibility is not exactly great because of the rear head rests, which thankfully are reclinable at the touch of a button, and the swooping roofline, which makes the rear window look tiny compared with the front windshield. The optional rear parking sensors and the automatic tilting down of the right exterior mirror really came in handy when parking in reverse. The exterior mirrors could have been bigger, though.

The Auto Stop Start system was a bit annoying at the beginning, but we rapidly managed to get along with it just fine and we left it on for the rest of the test drive. Taking into account that the diesel engine note was more than present in the cockpit, the system's on/off function was more protruding, but we just followed along for the sake of fuel economy.

On the whole, fuel economy is great thanks in part to the EfficientDynamics features, including the Auto Stop Start system, the ground clearance wasn't exactly made for escalating objects higher than a “sleeping policeman” speed bump and the overall visibility is medium.

For years, actually even decade in a row, the BMW 3-Series has been the limit every premium manufacturer wants to surpass in the mid-size dream team segment. Every generation of the Audi A4 and the Mercedes-Benz C-Klasse, together with their Avant and T-modell counterparts have tried and tried to equal or better the Bavarian supremacy in sporty handling in this class.

The E91 Touring has raised that level even further, and the facelift version brings dynamics engulfed in a very fuel efficient package, just so its competitors try even harder. The 320d xDrive Touring's steering is as precise and comunicative as ever and the three-spoke wheel feels like the one in a real sports car.

The way it lets the driver know exactly to where the directional wheels are aiming at each moment is a small masterpiece in itself. You can count the family cars that can bring the driver so much pleasure with only one hand's fingers.

Following a series of complaints about the harshness of the ride, BMW has somehow tweaked the run flat tires into something that is now a perfect compromise between decent comfort and tremendously good handling. By keeping the car perfectly planted at all times, high speed cruising on the highway can give you real sense of confidence.

On top of that, the engine's biggest attributes can also be felt especially in long distance travel. For example, at a cruising speed of about 130-140 km/h (80-85 mph) on the highway it only uses 5-5.5 liters of fuel for every 100 kilometers (43-47 US mpg), which means that the long distance driving range can surpass 1000 kilometers (over 600 miles) with only just tank of fuel. The somewhat noisiness of the engine becomes much less evident on the open road, and at higher speeds it is kept quiet by the aerodynamic noise.

Being an all wheel drive, you'd expect at least some decent unpaved roads performance, but considering the ground clearance at its lowest point is only 14 centimeters (5.5 inches) we would advise you not to venture onto the most godforsaken roads out there. The 320d xDrive Touring's biggest paradox remains the Hill Descent Control system, which we think would be more appropriate on a car that can actually use it. But, whatever, it's better for a system to be present than missing, as redundant it may be.

Most people would have the impression that by having that intelligent xDrive system to keep the power flowing to all four wheels means the car will never skid. Well, that's partially true. After finding a non-populated area we switched off the both the traction control and the stability control (by keeping the traction control button pushed for several seconds) and started playing with the car in a deserted parking lot.

Let us give you a word of advice. Don't ever do what we did except if you're blood-related to a rally driver that ends his last name in “nnen” and have nothing to crash into. Although as a somewhat of an excuse, the driving surface was a mildly wet and our car had winter tires on, we almost felt like being in a rear wheel drive car every time we accelerated too hard.

The xDrive system is safe, much safer that the other type of traction at BMW, but you can only totally benefit from that safety if you keep the driving assist systems on. Otherwise, it's just as sporty/unsafe as any other rear wheel drive BMW. Which can be either a good or a bad point, depending on which side of the driving talent fence you are sitting.