Enthusiasts rejoice! BMW India has reopened the bookings for the M340i. For those of you who don’t know, the M340i is a tamer and more practical alternative option to the whole hog M3. As you may know, the M340i was recently launched at a price of ₹62.90 lakhs and it was immediately sold out after launch. To put things into perspective, the M340i is ₹13 lakhs costlier than the 330i M Sport variant.
More details
BMW is able to achieve such a lucrative price for the M340i as it is locally produced at their Chennai plant in Tamil Nadu. This gives it the title of the fastest ‘made in India’ performance sedan one can buy today. The M340i goes up against the likes of the Mercedes Benz C43 AMG and the recently launched Audi S5 sportsback.
The performance
The M340i gets a turbocharged 3-litre straight-six engine which puts out 387Ps and 500Nm of torque. Transmission duties are taken care of by an 8 speed ZF torque converter unit. The M340i comes with BMW’s Xdrive all-wheel-drive system which the M3 doesn’t get. 0-100km/h comes up in just 4.4 seconds and the top speed is electronically limited to 250km/h. One might argue that a 4WD 3 series may not be as fun to drive as the tail-happy M3 but BMW has made a lot of changes underneath to make sure that it’s true to the tagline of the ‘Ultimate driving machine’.
The Xdrive is primarily rear-biased which means that the car pulls off some skids when the traction control is turned off. It also sits 10mm lower to the ground with the help of the M sport suspension. The sports differential and quicker steering rack ensure that the 3 series is agile and the M sport brakes ensure that the car stops as fast as it goes.
The aesthetics
The exterior changes are subtle with a different grille, M sport bumpers with large air dams and different wheels. The interiors are similar too with the 12.3-inch idrive system, fully digital instrument cluster, wireless charger, heads up display, ambient lighting and reversing assist.
Safety is taken care of with 6 airbags, ABS, EBD, ESC, TPMS and a reverse parking camera. If you want a practical sleeper on a budget then the M340i is the perfect fit for you and we advise you to book it soon before the current lot gets sold out again!