The exhaust note is now tangibly lower and overall the car feels a bit tamed and matured compared LCI1.
Bhpian absorb recently shared this with other enthusiasts:
Did a test drive of the LCI2 a few day back and of the LCI1 couple of weeks back. Fully agree with the comparison made by Santosh and others. My observations:
1. Suspension is now quite complaint in the comfort mode. I was driving and my wife spent the time in the front passenger as well as the rear seat. Both could clearly notice the impact of the different settings for the adaptive suspension.
2. We are used to comfort oriented cars like Superb and E-Class and still the ride quality of LCI2 felt acceptable despite driving it on slightly rougher surfaces whereas LCI1 wasn’t. Don’t think those used to 3 series variants would have an issue.
3. One can setup the car in Sports Individual mode with suspension in Comfort and rest like drivetrain in sports mode to enjoy the driving experience without the passengers suffering.
4. The exhaust note is now tangibly lower and overall the car feels a bit tamed and matured compared LCI1. Can be both good or bad based on one’s priorities. The dealership mentioned that M performance exhaust was only available as accessory prior to LCI1 and we can’t have it now as official accessory. That’s a bummer as it would have given us an option to spice it up while retaining the comfort of the suspension!
5. GC is pretty decent. Went over multiple speed breakers of all sizes and did not have an issue except once where I saw the unmarked breaker a bit late and scraped a tiny bit at decent speed.
6. Though I don’t like black interiors, the blue stitching makes it a bit more lively.
7. The leather seats with the side bolstering made my back sweat within 20 min despite the temperature out being just 27d. Should have been atleast perforated. Took a drive of the X5 M40I immediately after the 340I and it felt like heaven to sit on the ventilated seats!
8. The Arctic Blue on the 340i looked pretty good in person though I was more inclined towards the Tanzanite blue prior to seeing it. The X5 was in TB and didn’t appeal as much perhaps since the color has been around for a while and also the car was not very clean. The darker TB shade needs to be kept clean for it to shine through. Adding a few images for the m340i in Arctic blue and x5 in TB for reference.
My wife who is generally completely disinterested in cars and needs to be dragged out to check out any car, summed up the experience as “one wouldn’t sleep in this car” and I would put it as “feeling more alive!” It’s a different story that on the way back dropped in to the new Porsche showroom in Hyd and now the lust for a carmine red GTS has been seeded.
Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.
