BMW BLOG

In the past two months, most of the article here at BMWBlog focused on the facelift version of the popular 3 Series. We discussed many times the changes from the ‘08 model, the new iDrive system and most recently, the price increases. Today, we would like to show you on of the first test drive of the 2009 BMW 3 Series, in this case the 330d model available in Europe.

The fellows at Edmunds had the honor to drive one of the most successful facelifts done by BMW.

At the Wheel of the 2009 BMW 3 Series

Over the past 33 years there have been no fewer than five incarnations of the 3 Series — each and every one of them a roaring success. It looks like the 2009 BMW 3 Series will be no exception.

The BMW 3 Series manages to rake in sales year after year without ever appearing to try particularly hard. Since the inception of the BMW 3 Series back in 1975, it has entirely dominated the compact sport sedan market with a heady blend of performance and dynamic excellence. Other carmakers have desperately attempted yet failed to emulate this car’s perennial sales success.

Such is the popularity of the 3 Series that it accounts for 44 percent of total BMW sales worldwide. This illustrates just how important the 2009 BMW 3 Series is to the company, and this face-lifted E90 model has changed in important ways to reflect this.

The New-Look E90
BMW shocked us with the look of the current 3 Series when it was introduced in 2005, the last of the cars designed with the new styling vocabulary developed by the team of chief designer Chris Bangle. Time has served to lessen its impact somewhat, but there are still those who think it lacks the sort of visual emotion that made earlier models of the 3 Series such a worldwide hit.

Full Article