The BMW 3-Series saloon has just received its mid-life facelift, called the Life Cycle Impulse (LCI). The Bavarians have now released official images of this 3-Series and by the looks of things, it wouldn’t wrong if you can’t catch the ‘newness’ of it at first go. As we said in one of our earlier writes, BMW’s idea of a facelift is so subtle, that the devil’s really in the details and you’ve to be quite pedantic if you are to find them. But worry not, because we are here to help.
BMW clearly wasn’t aiming for a “Woah! That’s different” look with this one.
The changes include a revised front bumper that houses redesigned air intakes at the bottom, full LED treatment for the headlights and taillights (new for the 3-Series), the rear bumper is now wider than before and the design of the alloy wheels has changed, too. This pretty much encapsulates the ‘changes’ to the exterior of the BMW 3-Series facelift.
The headlights are now all LED, but the design remains more or less unchanged.
The pictures reveal the BMW 340i model, which was earlier called the 335i. This hints at the possibility of a new straight-six turbocharged engine for this top-end 6-cyl model of the 3-Series. We expect to find an all-new 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder and 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engines on offer.
Changes to the interior design echoes the exterior – Very mild tweaks, if any.
The following are the changes that we could spot compared to the older car. There’s some chrome thrown in, like on the climate control surrounds, some on the side AC vents and some chrome is to be found on the doors too. The climate control’s display now uses white fonts, instead of the amber shade found in the older car.
The taillight is full of LED elements and the bumper is wider. Note the “340i” badge, too.
Apart from the aforementioned changes, we have to wait till BMW officially unveils the car in some time. We reckon there to be a little bit more in-depth changes made by the Bavarians, but we don’t think they will be groundbreaking. We will update you with more once we get hold of the press release, which should happen soon. In the meanwhile, click here for more on BMW.
