Living with the BMW M340i LCI2: 1,300 km Initial Impressions

Driving position is simply superb. You sit low and the seats and steering have good amount of travel for getting that perfect driving position.

BHPian Santoshbhat recently shared this with other enthusiasts:

I have completed about 1,300 kms on my new M340i LCI2 and here are some initial observations. It has been a mix of about 200 kms in the city and about 1,100 kms on the highway (4 lane expressway) so far. For context I own a stock 2016 F25 X3 30d , with adaptive suspension 19” staggered tubeless Michelins on aftermarket rims. Also had a Polo GTI for about 7 years, which was sold recently.

1. The car is very well built inside out. The doors close with a solid thud and everything feels solidly built. No cost cutting or thinning of metal here. The new design AC vents look and feel indestructible! The new flat bottom steering oozes quality and feels good to hold. The steering geometry has been tweaked slightly for the LCI2 update. It is a bit lighter to operate now compared to the pre update, but delivers good feedback nonetheless.

2. Driving position is simply superb. You sit low and the seats and steering have good amount of travel for getting that perfect driving position. Only issue I seem to be having is with the width of the sport seat’s backrest. The side bolsters are adjustable. You can adjust them to hug your body. I have a broad frame and find those side bolsters to be somewhat bothersome. Wish I could open them a bit more than the ‘zero’ position. My X3 too has sport seats with adjustable bolsters, but they are a bit wider.

3. The adaptive suspension has really added a whole new dimension to this car. The ride in comfort mode is now comfortable enough for you to be able to easily use this car as a normal car for regular use. You don’t have to feel guilty about punishing your family when you are taking them in this car. The ride is plush, the sound insulation is superb and the Harmon Kardon system is pretty good (much better sounding than the HK system in the 2016 X3). With the “iconic sounds” option turned off and a relaxed driver, no one will realise that they are in one of the sportiest and fastest accelerating cars in the country.

4. Adaptive suspension has not made the car a boat or a luxury limousine! It is still an M340i that is as sharp to drive as always. The handling is impeccable and there is always a tremendous sense of control and composure with the car staying flat and communicative. The change in sports mode is subtle and not drastic as far as the suspension tightening is concerned. The car leans less in sports mode and your bottom starts feeling the imperfections on the road a bit more. The ride is still not what you would call ‘uncomfortable’. For the keen driver, sports mode is very engaging at higher speeds. There is almost zero body roll and the suspension keeps the car flat.

5. The car comes with 19” low profile Pirelli P Zero run flats. The M340i has lesser suspension travel and is visibly lower than other G20 versions. With lesser suspension travel and low pro 19” RFTs , you’d imagine the ride to be quite stiff and uncomfortable. I thought I’d have to switch to tubeless very soon. On the contrary the ride is so good, that I don’t feel any need to switch to tubeless at all. I may still have to, since I do believe these RFTs will be prone to damage on our roads.

6. I am not much of tech lover and generally not a fan of the new touch screen systems. While I am not a fan of the digital instrument cluster with the weird inverted tachometer (prefer the old analog type clusters), the curved infotainment display with iDrive 8.5 seems to be really well designed with lot of information available and customizable options. I am quite enjoying the new (new to me) connected car features like Android Auto, real time traffic alerts, augmented reality navigation, smart phone integration for unlocking, remote view, car data delivered on phone app etc…

7. I love BMWs for the selectable drive modes and individually configurable options for suspension, steering, drive train, transmission, traction, exhaust note etc… In typical BMW style, you can play around with different permutations and configurations so as to precisely set up the car to suit the conditions and your mood. I really wish they gave us shortcut buttons for individually configurable drive modes, like they give in their proper M cars. There is a sport individual mode where you get to configure and save the settings. I want more individual setting shortcuts. These changes materially alter the way the car drives and feels. It can go from a comfy luxury cruiser to a raucous monster at the flick of a switch. It is like you have multiple cars at your disposal. In addition to the drive modes, the transmission has its own sport mode. In this mode the shifts not only happen at higher rpms but also the shift times are shorter, almost DCT like. I used this mode briefly while passing some two lane sections of the highway and it makes for a superb overtaking weapon. This mode should be great fun while driving up ghat roads in combination with paddle shifters! Speaking of shifting, I really wish they had not ditched their beautiful gear levers. That toggle switch like gear shifter is just sad.

8. The car comes with M sport exhaust as standard. In comfort note, the flap inside the right side exhaust outlet remains shut. There is only a faint exhaust note heard inside which is in sync with engine rpm and it is almost entirely piped in through the speakers. You can turn it off by turning off ‘iconic sounds’ option in the drive settings menu. In Sports mode the flap which remained shut in comfort mode, now opens and you get a deeper real exhaust note. It gets louder inside as well with more piped in sound. In Sport Plus you get plenty of burbles and pops in addition. I thought ‘iconic sounds’ option only switched on or off the fake sound that is played through the speakers and it does nothing to the actual exhaust outside. I was wrong! When in sport mode, the flap opens for a louder note. But if you turn off ‘iconic sounds’ at this point, the flap closes again. How do I know? I bent down on my knees and observed the flap opening and shutting when the option is turned off or on from the menu. This is another great option to have. If you want a quiet drive with family or doing a highway drive with elders, you can turn off iconic sounds and enjoy a quiet drive. Turn it back on when it is time for thrills! I have consciously stayed below 4,500 rpm for the run in period, with only occasional sprints to 5,000 rpm. It sounds great when revved. At the same time there is fantastic refinement at lower rpms.

9. I frequently drive to Belgaum on work and have been doing these drives for more than one and a half decades now. I have been doing these drives in my diesel powered X3 30d till recently. The 3 litre N57 engine is a real gem. The power and refinement of this engine is just tailormade for these long 500km expressway runs. I did a maiden run with the M340i and immediately realised that both engines have very different power and torque curves. With the X3 , you are almost always in peak torque range at anything over 100 kmph. The 8 speed ZF does a great job in presenting the right gear always. Just a slight tap on the A pedal and torque is delivered in dollops. With the petrol powered B58, you naturally need to rev it out a little more to reach that peak power band. I was able to see in the sport displays that I was nowhere near peak torque or peak BHP with the M340i, whereas in the X3, it was easy to see the peak 560nm and 240 ~ 250bhp being displayed quite often. I feel the real magic starts from 4,000 RPM with the B58. While I haven’t gone close to the red line yet to due to run in restrictions, I did a few bursts upto 5,000 RPM or so and the acceleration is indeed quite brutal.

10. I usually get around 11.00 to 12.00 kmpl on my drives to Belgaum on the X3. I always do a full tank at the start of the journey . Since the X3 has a 70L tank, range was never an issue. With the 340, I had some range anxiety since the computer was showing 9 kmpl by the midpoint of the trip. If I went at the same pace, I would need to refuel enroute, which I was not comfortable with. So I went easy on the throttle and even drove in eco pro for a while. I managed to extend the range and managed to make it to my destination with 50km of range still in the bank. Overall stats read 10 kmpl for the 500km journey. Not bad at all for the performance on offer. For reference, I used to get about 11.5 to 12 kmpl on the Polo GTI for the same trip. I hope after break in, the numbers will improve.

11. X drive AWD system on the X3 is rear biased, but in the M340i it feels even more so. Almost feels like a RWD car. The X3 is rock steady at high speeds, but the M340i is something else. It masks speeds like nobody’s business. I must keep an eye on the speedometer!

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