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BMW M3 (E36) long-term test review







By the CAR road test team

05 January 2009 11:00

Long-term test hello - 1 January 2009

We get a lot of nice cars to drive here at CAR, yet still I hold onto to my ageing, slightly battle-scarred E36 BMW M3. Seems there’s no substitute for being able to thrash your own car absolutely senseless. And this car does love to be thrashed.

I bought it back in 2001 with a healthy 157,000 miles on the clock and a full BMW service history. It’s now done 213,000 on the same engine and ’box, neither of which have been opened. That’s even more surprising given that, at just under 190k, I transformed it into a trackday warrior. More on that later.

My car is the early 3.0-litre model. A few years back I bought the later 3.2-litre version and ran the pair back-to-back for six months, the idea being that I’d sell the 3.0-litre when I ran out of cash. I never did (sell the 3.0-litre, that is).

Why? The 3.0-litre engine is smoother, only marginally less powerful (286bhp plays a claimed 321bhp, though dyno tests apparently rarely back up the later car’s claimed bhp), and much stronger – thanks partly to the early car’s single VANOS (variable valve timing system on the inlet cam only) as opposed to the later car’s troublesome double VANOS. The five-speed gearbox is also smoother than the later six, while the early cars are obviously cheaper too.

So I kept the 3.0-litre. But it wasn’t perfect. The suspension was quite soft – good for ride quality, bad for ultimate poise. In fact, I found the car very tricky on the limit, offering masses of grip before letting go a bit too suddenly. What’s more, the brakes were mushy, and the steering was awful.

I set out to gradually improve these flaws, then, with predictable inevitability, got carried away. My first visit was to Birds UK, based in Uxbridge. They swapped the standard suspension for KW Variant 3 coilovers, and also fitted Hartge anti-roll bars and a Hartge strut brace. Naturally, the ride is a lot firmer now, but it’s not quite the compromise you’d expect: it’s still got an acceptable amount of compliance, while body roll is largely eliminated and – when tweaked to my spec – the threshold of grip is lowered to make breakaway more progressive, controllable and, well, enjoyable. The adjustable bump and rebound settings mean I could dial in more compliance if I used the car on road more.

The next step was to ditch the brakes. I went for – again via Birds – a six-piston AP set-up that is nothing short of phenomenal – my favourite mod on the entire car. Pedal feel is reassuringly solid and these brakes withstand lap after lap of huge stops from the fastest straights. Brilliant. Unfortunately, they also necessitated a switch to the rather tasty 18in BBS RX alloys, which I wrapped in 225/45 ZR18 Uniroyal Rainsport rubber – a very durable tyre that really does cut through standing water while also offering good traction in the dry.

And that’s when I started to get carried away. The black leather interior was all very well, but it was too slippery for track work, and it was heavy too. I stripped it out and sold it for £600 on eBay back in 2006. I also stripped all the boot and all the trim from the rear seat area. Then in went a pair of lightweight fixed Recaro buckets, followed by a bolt-in rollcage from Rollcentre Racing. Rollcentre hadn’t done an E36 before, but they took my car in, measured it up and bent the tubing to suit. From there I went to Julian Smith – a good friend and an extremely resourceful mechanic who runs Garage D in Watford. I got a call at 5am one Saturday morning saying the cage was in – he’d worked through the night to get it ready for a trackday that I thought I’d missed. My wife was delighted.

Since then I’ve been slowly trying to perfect the package. Birds junked the standard limited slip diff (25 percent lock-up), and upgraded it with a 45 percent job instead – purely because I enjoy doing smoky skids. When the clutch gave up I replaced it with an uprated item from AP, while Garage D had an ingenious solution to the steering. During my time with the 3.2-litre car I’d noticed its steering felt more positive. This was largely thanks to its altered – as standard – front suspension geometry. Garage D somehow knew that swapping the 3.0-litre strut tops for 3.2-litre items (but installed so the right one went where the left one should be, and vice versa) would give much the same effect. It does, though the steering is still a weak link.

And that’s how things stand for now. Seven years on and I still love climbing in this car. It’s been to trackdays in Britain (Snetterton, Silverstone, Rockingham), Ireland (Mondello), Germany (the Nurburgring) and Holland (Zandvoort). Yes, it’s slightly ratty, but my M3’s got character and it’s full of memories too – in the rare moments I clear it out I find A-Z maps of Amsterdam, passes for the Nordschleife, parking fines from Bruges.

I have another trip planned to Zandvoort soon, so I’ll give you a full update when I’m back.

By Ben Barry

Logbook

Total Mileage

Since Last Report

Overall MPG

Since Last report

Fuel Costs

Other Costs

Highs

Lows

213,000 miles

n/a

I don't want to know

n/a


n/a

I dread to think what the upgrades have cost

Having an unbreakable M3

The steering still isn't great


Previous reports

1 January 2009 First report

BMW 750iL (2009) CAR review







By Greg Fountain

05 January 2009 09:00

This is the BMW 7-series for people who think a 740i is a bit slack. And also for people who think the 740i is a bit too short. If you happen to be a chauffeur or a chauffeur’s employer the prospect of 140 extra millimetres of legroom in the back is no doubt deal-breakingly exciting, but for the rest of us there isn’t very much wrong with the standard 5072mm version. We’ll wager you wouldn’t get out of the latter after a long journey whinging about cramp.

And those extra millimetres don’t come cheap, either. The 750i already retails at a gulp-inducing £65,045, but if you play the long game you’ll be scratching around for an extra £2885 – that’s £20.61 per millimetre.







What about this twin-turbo engine in the BMW 750iL – as good as they say?

Oh yes, it’s a corker, and the packaging is simply amazing. They’ve shoehorned both the turbos and the catalyst into the gap between the two banks of cylinders, making the whole lump much more compact. Obviously this is of limited value in an engine bay the size of Aberystwyth, but it will have a big impact on future models. And there’s a second purpose – the shape of the engine makes for more efficient breathing, leading to better performance.








So, is it quick?

The 62mph mark comes up in 5.2secs, so in that respect it’s got the Mercedes S500 and Audi A8 4.2FSI licked, and your chauffeur will top out at a limited 155mph on your autobahn commute. But the real meat of the engine is in its creamy mid-range, where the 442lb ft of torque keeps pumping all the way through the real-world driving zone, from 1750rpm on towards the 4500rpm mark. It never feels short of urge, despite the 2055kg it’s hauling (which is 35kg more than the short-arse version, incidentally).








It does sound a bit like there’s a ‘but’ coming…

Indeed. It all rather falls apart at the hands of the awful throttle and odd gearing. The fast pedal is so unforgiving you simply can’t modulate it, which gives rise to shockingly lumpy take-offs that will set the VIPs’ jewellery rattling. The first squeeze isn’t enough to get you off the line, so you press harder, and then break through suddenly to the floor like a skater arriving unexpectedly on a patch of thin ice.


The six-speed auto box has been hailed by its makers as allowing for ‘quicker, more precise changes’, but I’m afraid it doesn’t feel like it. You spend far too long in what is surely too low a gear, and then seemingly morph into sixth once the revs have stacked up. Flick the lever into sequential and swap the cogs yourself and things are much improved, but surely, for a limousine, that’s not the show in town.







So, it’s not a sporty car, but does it handle?

Yes it does. The rear-wheels hook up with grand assurance, even when your skater’s right boot is flailing, and get within half a mile of an apex and you’re reminded what it is BMW can do – the barge feels balletic.







So, you like it, basically?

I do, despite the absurd over-egging of the electronics pudding, which continues to heap gadget upon gadget without any discernible improvement in your life. The reversing camera is always misted up, the windscreen takes an age to clear, iDrive is as maddening as ever and the electric handbrake is nowhere near as intuitive as Audi’s version of the same. But the steering is really tidy, the ride more svelte than any Beemer since runflats barged in, and the cabin is magically comfy.

And those looks?

It’s a little conservative perhaps, and lacks presence on the road, but after the screwed-up paper look of its predecessor this has to be a compliment. The 7-series has never needed to shout. This one whispers discreetly. Rather like a good chauffeur.

Verdict

BMW's new Seven drives brilliantly, but potential customers are much more likely to be put off by the car's idiosyncrasies than be inspired to throw this 750iL into a bend. Best enjoyed from the back then.

Statistics

How much? £67,930
On sale in the UK: Now
Engine: 4395cc 32v twin-turbo V8, 407bhp @ 5500-6400rpm, 442lb ft @ 1750-4500rpm
Transmission: six-speed auto, rear-wheel drive
Performance: 5.2sec 0-62mph, 155mph (ltd), 24.8mpg, 266g/km CO2
How heavy / made of? 2055kg/steel
How big (length/width/height in mm)? 5212/1902/1488


CAR's rating

Rated 4 out of 5

Handling

Rated 4 out of 5

Performance

Rated 4 out of 5

Usability

Rated 4 out of 5

Feelgood factor

Rated 4 out of 5

Readers' rating

Rated 4 out of 5


BMW M6 (2008) CAR review







By Ben Barry

31 December 2008 14:11

It might be hard to imagine, but back when the BMW M6 was launched in 2005, CAR Online wasn’t actually around. Hence the BMW M6 not being previously reviewed on this site. But in the name of being comprehensive – and for the sake of driving what’s sure to be an epic car – we thought we’d right that wrong.







The BMW M6 is just a two-door M5, isn’t it?

Yes and no. ‘Yes’ because the M6 employs the same brilliant 5.0-litre V10 engine and still delivers 500bhp and 383lb ft to the rear wheels via a sequential manual seven-speeder. ‘No’ because there are some important changes. The M6, for instance, boasts a costly carbonfibre roof, all-new dash architecture and is 80kg lighter than its saloon-based stablemate, 1785kg playing the M5’s 1855kg. There’s also a sizeable price hike – at £82,685, it’s over £18k more expensive than the M5. It'd better be good...







Does it feel faster than the M5, then?

No. The on-paper stats tell you it is (M6 beats M5 to 62mph by just 0.1sec at 4.6sec), but in reality you’ll be hard pushed to feel the benefit of lugging 80 fewer kilos around.

What do you notice? Well, the steering wheel offers the same three-spoke chunkiness as the M5, but it feels lighter, twirling with less of the M5’s manly resistance. The suspension – still three-way driver adjustable – is slightly firmer too, while the seven-speed semi-auto’s shift programme has been noticeably recalibrated.

As ever you can pick from five shift settings, ranging from ultra-docile to massive attack – the majority being unnecessary. The M6’s fifth mode is far more aggressive than the equivalent M5 setting, sending a whacking great, Lambo-esque thump through the transmission.







How does it handle?

Remarkably well. The grip generated by the M6 is hugely impressive – it takes real effort to unstick it on dry roads – and it’s fun too. Disappointingly, however, we did feel the front end become disconcertingly light under heavy acceleration at high speed. This was definitely not something that afflicted the M5.







Is it really a four-seater?

Only just. As a six-footer sitting behind another, legroom isn’t terrible, but headroom is cramped and the transmission tunnel noticeably eats into the space available. Best stick to the comfortable, supportive front seats, or buy an M5 if you regularly need the space.







Verdict

It’s a great car, the M6, but hard to justify. It’s more expensive than the M5, less practical, has no more power and is no better to drive (we marginally preferred the M5’s steering, its ride and its high-speed, full throttle stability).

Maybe you prefer the looks, but that’s a large premium for a sleeker bodyshell. As a car in its own right, then, the M6 still scores a very respectable four stars. But judged back-to-back with the M5, four-door saloon beats coupe hands down.







Statistics

How much? £82,685
On sale in the UK: Now
Engine: 4999cc V10, 500bhp @ 7750rpm, 383lb ft @ 6100rpm
Transmission: Seven-speed auto gearbox, rear-wheel drive
Performance: 4.6sec 0-60mph, 155mph (limited), 19.8mpg, 342g/km
How heavy / made of? 1785kg/steel
How big (length/width/height in mm)? 4871/1855/1372







CAR's rating

Rated 4 out of 5

Handling

Rated 4 out of 5

Performance

Rated 5 out of 5

Usability

Rated 3 out of 5

Feelgood factor

Rated 5 out of 5

Readers' rating

Rated 4 out of 5


BMW 730d SE (2009) CAR review







By Glen Waddington

18 December 2008 15:01

Barely 25 years ago, Mercedes and Jaguar had this market – then the sub-Rolls market – sewn up. BMW was knocking on the door but only got its foot in with the second-gen 7-series of 1986. Audi came along with the A8 a few years later and today there are still only those four key players, with some upstart rivals in the shape of the Lexus LS and others. So a new 7-series is a big deal, especially when it follows a car as controversially styled as the outgoing Seven, the car which kickstarted the Bangle design revolution.

And, as a further reminder of how the limo market has evolved, today it’s dominated by diesels. So say hello to the 730d, the biggest-selling version of BMW’s biggest car, now in its fifth generation.







BMW’s new range-topper. I bet there’s a lot of tech in this 730d…

You’d be right. There’s a new, improved iDrive (with internet access for the European market, coming to the UK once negotiations with wireless firms are sewn up), four-wheel steering, a speed limit display, a head-up display, lane departure warning, night vision and side-view cameras. And yes, if you want all that lot, you’re looking at a hefty bill on top of the asking price.

Our 730d test car was specced with the optional head-up display and speed limit display, but was otherwise mainly standard. The former projects your speedo reading onto the windscreen, as well as the speed limit of the road you’re travelling on. It’s meant to be failsafe, because a forward-facing camera reads the roadsigns to cross-check with info on the sat-nav system. Fine in theory, but it assured me that the limit was 60mph in my village, despite a huge, illuminated sign warning me to slow down to 30mph… Honestly, officer.

And while we’re moaning, the front parking sensors failed to warn of an imminent (then suddenly inevitable) numberplate/brick wall interface scenario, and the windscreen washers didn’t work. That’s irksome in December on a long trip up a salty motorway, and the smeary windscreen meant I had to turn off the head-up display too. And before you ask, I had checked the washer reservoir…







What about the new BMW 7-series' iDrive?

There’s no doubt that it’s easier to use than before, thanks mainly to a handful of buttons strewn around the rotary controller that grant you direct access to the sat-nav, radio, CD and so on. You also get a proper separate air-con panel and – at last! – a little button that cancels traffic bulletins without you having to go through a whole set of sub-menus, which then only results in the option to de-select them altogether or put up with hearing them over and over.

The new sat-nav screen is fabulous, with a 3D display that tells you something of the topography you’re driving through, and the flexibility on offer is certainly of huge benefit to owners who are going to be able to personalise their driving environment to suit them. But it’s still quite daunting on first acquaintance, and fails the patented Glen Waddington Intuitiveness Test™ by irritating me within a couple of minutes so that I didn’t want to be bothered with it any more.

But I’m a CAR Online road tester, so obviously I did bother with it a bit more. I even read the digital handbook (there isn’t a paper one) to find out whether there was an Off switch for the blasted windscreen washers (there isn’t. And why would there be?) and how to unplug your iPod when the screen tells you it’s ‘Not safe to disconnect’. It couldn’t tell me. I unplugged it. I survived. So did the iPod.







Okay, enough tech. How does the new 7-series drive?

Like a very big BMW saloon, is the short answer.

There are four settings for the suspension (Comfort, Normal, Sport, Sport+) and you can play with the throttle response, steering assistance and the aggressiveness of the gearchange using the Drive Dynamic Control. Normal provides a decently BMW-ish compromise, with a firm, level ride, a quickish helm and the surprising ability to hustle on twisting B-roads. It also quells the Seven’s tendency to get a bit mobile over motorway undulations in Comfort mode.

Sport tightens things up further (and is the mode you need to personalise settings using Drive Dynamic Control) and allows the 7-series to attack bends with an alacrity that’s normally denied cars this long and wide. The steering is quick and accurate, if not exactly over-burdened with feel, and is key to the instant confidence with which the big BMW endows you.







Sounds great. Any downsides to the new 730d?

It may not have escaped your attention that the new Seven is a big, fat luxury saloon. And you may have certain expectations of big, fat luxury saloons. I know I do. Silence and comfort, in particular.

Let’s talk about silence first. This is an exceptionally refined car, no doubt. The engine, a diesel straight six, is audible at town speeds and makes such an agreeable sound that you probably won’t mind. But it’s only silent once you’re cruising. Wind noise is low but there’s a fair degree of rumbling from the tyres over typical motorway surfaces. So, again, silence is denied the 7-series driver. That may or may not be a problem, depending on whether you’re after a bigger BMW or an absolute luxury car regardless of origin.

Same goes for comfort. Even in Comfort mode, there’s always an underlying knobbliness to the ride, probably because this thing rides on run-flats. If you’re used to the way a Jag XJ wafts you around, or how an S-class blunderbusses bumps into submission, you might wonder what all this surface intrusion is.







Surely the 7-series is luxurious in other ways?

Of course it is. There’s leather for the seats, dashtop and doors, slabs of wood, loads of electric trickery (seats, steering column, you name it) and limo-like space in the back. You’ll only need a long-wheelbase version if you habitually carry the world’s tallest man as a rear-seat passenger.

Gone is the awkward double-bubble dash of the previous 7, replaced by something more traditionally BMW-shaped, with a driver-orientated centre console, proper, big, clear instruments, and something of the architecture of the original 1970s 7-series in the shape of the instrument binnacle and central air vents.

But though all the ingredients are there for a truly atmospheric cabin, something’s happened in the cooking process that denies the latest 7-series any real character. Perhaps it’s all just too efficient; perhaps big sat-nav screens don’t look right in a luxury interior; maybe it’s because the leather grain is matched to the plastic surfaces and doesn’t feel as supple as it might. Whatever, BMW’s stylists have missed a trick inside.

While we’re on about styling, there’s been a cautious step away from the overtly challenging looks of the old Seven. Some will prefer it, but there’s something anti-climactic about the latest iteration's meekness.







Verdict

Check the ratings. It’s a four-star car, this 7-series. But can I be the only person who’s mildly disappointed by that?

In so many respects this is a great car: spacious, luxuriously finished, and with a certain gravitas, all of which make it enormously admirable, if rather less admirably enormous. But there’s a problem and it’s that there’s just no tingle factor here. Anybody who drives the 730d will like it an awful lot. I do. But I don’t love it. And because it costs nearly 60 grand, I think I should.







Statistics

How much? £54,160
On sale in the UK: Now
Engine: 2993cc 6cyl turbodiesel, 245bhp @ 4000rpm, 398lb ft @ 1750-3000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic, rear-wheel drive
Performance: 7.2sec 0-62mph, 153mph, 39.2mpg, 192g/km
How heavy / made of? 1865kg/steel
How big (length/width/height in mm)? 5072/2134/1479











CAR's rating

Rated 4 out of 5

Handling

Rated 4 out of 5

Performance

Rated 4 out of 5

Usability

Rated 4 out of 5

Feelgood factor

Rated 3 out of 5

Readers' rating

Rated 4 out of 5


BMW X6 XDrive 35i (2008) CAR review







By Greg Fountain

24 September 2008 12:00

Announcing the launch of the world’s first sports activity coupe is rather like announcing the world’s first six-decker sponge cake – probably quite tasty, but hardly a Jaffa cake moment, and way too tall to enjoy without getting yourself in a right mess.







So you don't think much of the BMW X6?

I wouldn’t say expectations of the X6 are low – it’s a BMW after all – but it’s genuinely hard to know how to approach a car that offers so little excuse for its existence. Usually you’re looking for a performance against expectation – will it handle as we hope, can it go off road, will the engine amaze, is the cabin the hoped-for revelation? But here the expectations boxes stand empty. So an open mind will have to do.

All very well, but you can’t ignore the X6’s looks, even if you’re being charitable. If you barrel-rolled an X5, or maybe jacked up a 6-series, you might expect a similarly resolved outcome – a kind of confident front end tailing off into an inexplicably flattened-off rear, the trajectory of which serves no purpose other than to look swoopy. It’s a very uncomfortable look, like something on a catwalk that you know was designed by a genius, but which you secretly think looks rubbish. On the road it looks over-sized and disproportionate, and its body squats on its high haunches like the sort of nasty bugs that ran riot in The Mummy Returns. Oh dear.







How does it drive?

Those ancient bugs were effective, and so’s the X6. This thing really handles. BMW’s smugly named Dynamic Performance Control – which dishes torque from wheel to wheel, maximising grip and stabilising the car, even when you’re off the power – is no gimmick here. There’s a terrific amount of body control for such a leviathan, giving an absurd sense of fleet-footedness in and out of dicey corners. The car’s biggest drawback is that it’s too good to be true – you can’t help backing off rather than approach a corner at this kind of speed this high off the ground.

BMW’s awfully good XDrive four-wheel-drive system gives the X6 its grippy urge, and the use of ‘Efficient Dynamics’ (a clever alternator and active aero) add further to the magic-trick that makes you believe you’re light as a feather.

You’ll believe you can fly but, with this engine, you can’t. The twin-turbo 3.0-litre six-pot petrol unit familiar to some 1- and 3-series drivers feels flat and uninspiring here, lacking both the character and the sheer grunt to gather up the momentum this chassis (and a kerb weight of 2145kg) demand. The engine’s 295lb ft of torque, although readily available from only just above 1000rpm, never quite feels enough. If you must get an X6, get the twin-turbo diesel six (you don’t need me to tell you this – it’s the one you’ll all buy).

Pressing on is further befuddled by the really quite awful gearchange buttons, made of silver plastic and mounted thickly on the steering wheel. You have to remember it’s ‘pull up, push down’ on both paddles, an anti-intuitive arrangement which made a mess of too many key changes while I was driving. I guess you get used to it. A shame, as the six-speed box is lively, and you really need it to be on its game to avoid falling into a lull in the power band.







Verdict

Ultimately, it’s a baffling experience, the X6. Let’s put it this way: I dislike BMW’s active steering, but behind this particular steering wheel I found myself yearning for its flighty assistance, and wondering why it wasn’t fitted. Which, like the idea of the X6, just feels somehow wrong.







Statistics

How much? £43,160
On sale in the UK: Now
Engine: 2979cc twin-turbo 6cyl, 306bhp @ 5800rpm, 295lb ft @ 1300-5000rpm
Transmission: Six-speed auto, four-wheel drive
Performance: 6.7sec 0-62mph, 149mph, 25.9mpg, 262g/km CO2
How heavy / made of? 2145kg/steel
How big (length/width/height in mm)? 4877/1983/1690












CAR's rating

Rated 4 out of 5

Handling

Rated 4 out of 5

Performance

Rated 4 out of 5

Usability

Rated 4 out of 5

Feelgood factor

Rated 3 out of 5

Readers' rating

Rated 2 out of 5