Owner review: Bimmer Forever - My 2017 BMW 320i LCI B48 2.0T

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Basic information of my car:

Year 2017, BMW 320I Sport Line LCI B48 2.0T

Reasons why I bought this car

The reasons why we chose this car is because my family have always been an avid fan of germen car, before we bought the F30, We used to own a BMW 520i G30 overseas and my relatives have owned multiple BMWs as well so its relatively safe to say. As a family, BMWs have been part of our lives since forever. Moreso the fact that we love BMWs not only because of the brand but the sheer driving pleasure of it. Even though, it may seem odd to move from a 5 to a 3 series. What we love about the car is the handling and power that it delivers, more so the fact that after all a 3 series is BMW’s sport sedan flagship and it truly shows that in its driving dynamics especially when compared to its bigger brother the 5 series. Although the 5 series is a fantastic car to drive its more grounded in luxury than sporty driving dynamics which the 3 series offers.

Car selection process  

• I had a budget of: 130k
• Models that I have considered include: Audi A3 sedan, Mercedes E200/250, Mazda 3 hatchback 2020
• Reasons why I chose this car: 

We chose this car because of the driving dynamics and the fact it is also a facelift LCI BMW meaning that the issues of the pre facelift are long gone. Especially since the fact the pre facelift F30 320i above, were known to be equipped with the N20 engines which has a tendency to be unreliable in high mileage models and also the fact the interior plastics were not known to last such as the legend symbols that tend to wear out over time and the older idrive unit in the F30 were known to be a bit glitchy and lastly, the refinement of older facelift is left to be desired.

So bearing these in mind, we believed that by getting an LCI which is of course much more expensive than the pre face lift was worth the money in terms of peace of mind, reliability and refinement.

User experience

• I have already done 110,000 km.
• My average fuel consumption is 8.5 L/100km.

Pros of my car:

• The sound system is awesome since the 320i LCI facelift is equipped with BMW’s HiFI sound system so listening to music such as Hip Hop, R&B, Rock and so forth is amazing.
• Great acceleration, takes 7.2 seconds to accelerate from 0-100kmh and the car has smooth power delivery so in terms of high speed cruising the car has more than enough power to cruise at 200kmh or so and very planted at such speeds as the car does not shake, sway and its interior does not rattle at such high speeds and being a BMW the interior quality especially the LCI version is excellent and the fit and finish speaks of that since there is almost no rattle at all in the interior and although its not as fancy as a C class in terms of interior presentation, The layout of it is excellent and very easy to navigate from the idrive headunit to the buttons surrounding the car

Cons 

• In terms of city driving, the car is not as efficient it is on the highway as I tend to average 8.5 to 10.5l/km in KL start stop traffic so it can be quite pricey to fill up as the cars fuel tank is 60 liters so on average I would fill up about 106-120 ringgit per fill up a week.
• Bumper cover near above the fog light, its easily stolen?? In fact one of my bumper cover got stolen and it was a huge hassle to find that exact part had to go to a half cut shop since all the workshops charged me above 300 ringgit for a bumper cover? And found the exact one single piece for 150, not to mention it was the last part so that’s a fatal design flaw in terms of practicality because you can just pull out that piece and sell it for a few hundred ringgit.

Ratings: 

Total Score: 4.5

Performance: 4

Quality & Features: 4

Space: 4

Ride Comfort: 4

Fuel Economy:3

Price & Cost: 3.5

Summary :

The F30 is such a joy to own and drive, and especially with the B48. In my view its always worth it to get an LCI BMW since all the kinks and issues have been refined making the car the best version it is with the face lift and generally I still feel the F30 is so much nicer to look at than the G30 in terms of exterior styling since the proportions and lines are so well defined compare to the G30 where the proportion and lines can be out of place in some places and the F30 I feel captures the evolution of 3 series design language all the way back to the E36. Regardless, the feel and drive of the F30 is worth every penny

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