Road Tests: Long-Term Test

Executive editor Karl Brauer was lucky enough to spend the month of November piloting the BMW 328i. At 36,000 miles, and fast approaching the end of its two-year lifespan in the Edmunds.com fleet, this is still one of our most sought after long-term cars — and for good reason.

As Brauer noted, at this point in time the average vehicle is likely to be showing signs of wear with little, if any, of that "newness" that makes freshly purchased vehicles so pleasant to drive. Not the Bimmer. It has a very subtle rattle coming from the rear seat area, but if the radio is on, or a window is down, or the vehicle is traveling over 30 mph, you can't hear it. It also still has near perfect steering, a supple ride, confident brakes, and stunning good looks.

"Near perfect?" we just heard someone out there ask. Well, yes, our BMW is suffering a minor alignment problem. While traveling between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Karl noted that the steering wheel has to be cocked slightly to the right when going straight, and that the car has a constant, though miniscule, pull to the left. Not nearly enough to ruin the ride, but an annoyance in such an otherwise well-sorted driver's car.

Speaking of highway driving, the BMW makes for quite a capable high-speed cruiser on a number of levels. First, it easily travels more than 400 highway miles on a tank of gas. Second, it has xenon headlights, helping it to illuminate the road far ahead at night, especially when used in conjunction with the hi-beams. Finally, it's relatively quiet, with only a hint of road noise invading the cabin at 80 mph.

Downsides to 328i conveyance? Well, as capable as it is at freeway speeds or on twisting back roads, the car is a bit of a chore in vehicle-clogged West L.A. For the 12-mile roundtrip commute Brauer slogs through on a daily basis, the fussy clutch and resistant shifter can get old real quick. They get smelly, too, if traffic is particularly horrendous. As Brauer notes, "More than once I found the clutch pedal and clutch take-up getting squishy, with a definite smell surrounding the vehicle after parking it. I would consider blaming myself, but other BMWs I've driven, including a recent 2001 330i test car, also tended to have undue clutch slippage and smell despite little provocation in terms of hard driving. At the same time, the Passat I drove last month, the PT Cruiser I drove the month before, and the Insight I drove last summer were all manual shift cars, and none of them had these problems. Therefore, I wash my hands of the issue, and blame BMW's clutch design instead."

Climate and GPS navigation control is another area Brauer would like to distance himself from when driving the BMW. Last month Mr. Wardlaw touched on the lack of "auto-ness" in the "automatic" climate control system. Additional problems include the default settings the 328i picks every time you start the car. For instance, even if the climate control system is completely off when shutting the car down, it magically sets itself to the lowest fan setting when you next start it up. If you happen to have the A/C button (also known as the "snowflake button") activated, a musty smell is pumped from the vents as soon as the vehicle fires to life. Yuck!

The navigation system is similarly presumptuous. If, like Mr. Brauer, you enjoy setting the system to "vehicle position tracking" mode, which keeps the car in the center of the screen and moves the surrounding map to show where you are driving, you have to reset this mode every time you start the car. And it's not easy. It takes nine pushes of the main control knob, interspersed with turning the knob on different menus, to get back to this tracking mode. Brauer tried to make the best of the situation, using the first 20 seconds after starting the car to set this mode up, figuring at least it ensured plenty of time for oil to start circulating in the BMW's engine.

A final note about center stack controls; what is up with the volume knob? It has to be spun several times to get even a modest change in sound level. It's nice to be able to dial in a precise volume level, but as Karl opined, "This is ridiculous. When trying to crank the various '80s rock I like to listen to, I have to turn the dial...then turn the dial some more...then turn it some more! Of course, at this point I realize the sound quality coming from the weak Harmon Kardon system doesn't justify so much volume, and I have to reverse the process. Guess this really is a driver's car, because it certainly isn't an audiophile's car."

Brauer also took issue with the lack of indication when using the remote keyless entry. "Need an indicator, other than the subtle mechanical 'clunk' I can barely hear, that the doors are locked when you hit the lock button on the key. More than once I walked away from the car, hit the key, walked a few more steps and thought about how much valuable stuff was inside, then became panicked that the doors hadn't actually locked. A walk back to the car and a tug on the door (or doors) commonly followed this thought process to ensure that my belongings were secure. Of course, the doors were always locked, but there was no way I was going to go into the mall/theatre/restaurant and spend the next hour or more worrying about it. A reassuring "honk" and/or light flash would fix this. I know the dealer can easily program this into the car, but if it were my 328i, it would have already been done."

Despite these many nits to pick, Karl had to admit that he hated giving up the BMW at the end of the month. After driving the 2001 330i in the same month, he realized that our '99 long-term car actually has a few advantages over the newer model. "Sure, the 330 had slightly more power, nicer steering wheel controls, and cool M double-spoke alloy wheels, but it also had less steering feel, a shifter/clutch combo even more fussy than our LT car, and it cost $40,000! Give me a '99 328i, with a sport package, coming off lease and certified by BMW for around $30,000, over the 2001 car any day."

Now there's a ringing endorsement. A two-year old car that's better than the brand-new version!

Current Odometer: 35,902
Best Fuel Economy: 27.8 mpg
Worst Fuel Economy: 18.9 mpg
Body Repair Costs: None
Maintenance Costs: None
Problems: None