BMW M340i review, first drive

Yet another variant of the BMW 3 Series has gone on sale but the BMW M340i is by far the most exciting member of the G20 family yet in India.

If I had a Rupee for every time I was asked about my current favourite car, I’d be able to afford the one you see on the page here. I bring that up because the BMW M340i might just, henceforth, be my definitive answer to that question. It basically occupies the middle ground between a regular 3, something like a 330i and the full-fat M3 and that, to me, sounds like it has all the makings of an ideal car. To get a taste of what it’s all about all you need to do is launch the car. Select Sport+, shift the gear selector to S, left foot on the brake, right foot on the throttle, wait until the head-up display read “launch control active” and release. The BMW M340i is very quick, 4.4 seconds from standstill to a 100kmph quick. And most of it is down to what's under the hood. Powering the M340i is a 3.0-litre straight-six petrol with a twin-scroll turbo strapped on. The result is 387bhp of maximum power and 500Nm of peak torque. There's BMW's xDrive all-wheel-drive setup that helps put all that power down in the most optimum way possible. The 8-speed ZF-sourced torque converter, a unit we’ve become all too familiar with now, is super smooth, super quick and gets the shifts spot on every time. The regular 3 Series is already quite good in the handling department and this M performance version is a sharper tool on the whole. There's all-wheel drive as mentioned and the M sport rear differential makes it such a sweet-handling car, one that you would genuinely enjoy pushing hard without losing the sense of control.