BMW M350 xDrive review

Exterior & design of the 2027 BMW 3 Series

• Embodies 'Neue Klasse' design ethos
• Subtly different proportions to the i3
• 18- to 20-inch alloy wheels available

BMW has been bold with the Mk8 3 Series, giving it the distinctive, angular and possibly divisive exterior styling of the Neue Klasse models - all of which are electric.

There's a reason for that, of course, as the manufacturer also makes the related electric i3 and wanted to keep them looking almost identical.

However, the 3 Series sits on the 'CLAR II' chassis, adapted from the platform of the preceding Mk7 model, while the i3 is on the 'NAx' underpinnings - and that gives the BMW subtly different proportions, in all dimensions, depending on which propulsion system you've gone for.

In the case of the 3 Series powered by petrol engines, this means a longer bonnet to accommodate those engines, which in turn shortens the wheelbase (the space between the axles).

Even so, we reckon it's a smart-looking thing - especially in its beefier M Sport and full-on M Performance guises, with their fuller lower-body styling, and doubly so because of their attractive 'headlight-kidney-grille' front-light signature.

For the regular Threes, the wheel choices are 18- to 20-inch alloys. The M350 flagship drops the smallest of these and comes on 19s as standard, with 20s the option.

Dimensions of the 2027 BMW 3 Series

Length:

4,765mm

Width:

1,850mm (excluding mirrors)

Height:

1,455mm

Wheelbase:

2,860mm

Paint colours for the 2027 BMW 3 Series

BMW 3 Series buyers can choose from a range of ten paints: Alpine White, Black Sapphire, M Le Castellet Blue, Mineral White, Brooklyn Grey, Space Silver, Fire Red, Polarised Grey, Ocean Wave Blue and Eucalyptus Green.

The first of these is the only no-cost solid, while the rest are metallics at €1,309 on the 320, or €1,486 on the M350.

Interior, practicality, tech & comfort of the 2027 BMW 3 Series

• Dazzling array of screens
• Ergonomics and quality very good
• Could do with more rear-seat space

The blend of the futuristic outlook of BMW as a company, along with its heritage as the maker of fine sports saloons, is nowhere more evident than in the cabin of the 3 Series, where a cutting-edge, high-tech interface is the star of the show.

No qualms with the exemplary standard of material finishing in the Three, either, although packaging everything in that stubby shape means rear-passenger space isn't incredible.

Getting comfortable in the driver's seat

From base grade to halo model, the BMW 3 Series range has electric front seats with a memory function, as well as a reach-and-rake adjustable steering column.

This makes for a driving position that should cater to a wide range of physiques, while we'd also add that the seat in the petrol cars feels like it goes ever so slightly lower to the floor than in the BMW i3.

Infotainment and technology

The whopping great three-screen array inside the BMW 3 Series is called Panoramic iDrive by the company.

It's centred on a giant 17.9-inch infotainment touchscreen, a 3D-enhanced head-up display (HUD) for the driver and then probably the biggest, most-dominant instrument cluster you've ever seen - unless you happen to be an ex-owner of an Aston Martin Lagonda, that is.

The full-width strip of digital real estate that runs the bottom of the windscreen in the 3 Series is called the Panoramic Vision - and we adore it.

We suspect most users will too, even if the holistic set-up requires a little too much tapping at the main dash unit instead of operating physical buttons on the fascia, but thankfully BMW has been refining iDrive for decades now, so the menu layouts are intuitive, easy to navigate and presented with sumptuous graphical clarity.

One major highlight is the 'reduced warnings' configurable advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) overseer function.

You can choose how many of the ADAS features you would like on, or whether you'd prefer to mute them instead, then save your preferred 'recipe' to this switch.

After that, every time you get in the car, two taps of the screen and the electronic safety gadgets are just how you'd like them to be. Brilliant.

Practicality around the cabin

The inclusion of a transmission tunnel for the car's drivetrain means the BMW 3 Series doesn't have an under-dash storage area available to it, but in all other respects it remains practical up front - as there are still two cupholders, a large central and lidded cubby, a decent glovebox and acceptable door bins.

Rear-seat passenger space

There's enough leg- and headroom in the back of the BMW 3 Series to deem the accommodation there acceptable, but for a car that's quite long overall in the grander scheme of things, no one will be amazed with the space on offer in the vehicle's second row.

At least there are some nice appointments to play with, like a fold-down centre armrest incorporating two cupholders, an arrangement of climate-related functions and two USB-C ports on the rear of the front-centre armrest construction, and door pockets scalloped out to accept drinks bottles.

We should mention, though, that the transmission tunnel in the car impinges on the centre-rear footwell area, so the 3 Series is going to be better for carrying four passengers in comfort than it is five.

Fitting child seats to the BMW 3 Series

All BMW 3 Series models, whether petrol or electric, have two ISOFIX positions on the second-row bench. Access to this area is OK, thanks to the rear doors being of a reasonable size, while there's plentiful space for a bulky child-seat to be fitted without too much drama.

Boot space in the BMW 3 Series

The petrol BMW 3 Series models have a slightly larger boot than their i3 counterparts, with 450 litres on offer. However, due to the inclusion of an engine up front, there is of course no 'frunk', although you can drop the rear bench down in a 40:20:40 configuration to make room for the carrying of larger items if so required.

Safety in the BMW 3 Series

Every BMW 3 Series comes with an ADAS roster that includes the likes of lane keeping assistant, side collision warning with steering intervention, cross traffic warning with emergency braking function and emergency brake assistant with evasion assistant, among more.

That should help the car to a full five-star rating when Euro NCAP tests it - and it would echo the related BMW iX3 SUV, which has already garnered such an accolade.

Performance of the 2027 BMW 3 Series

• Two petrol models offered from launch
• M350 is a proper thrill ride
• It's relatively weighty, though

The turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder BMW 320 is the entry point to 3 Series ownership. This outputs up to 211hp and 330Nm, sent through the rear wheels via an eight-speed Steptronic automatic transmission, and the BMW 320 is capable of 0-100km/h in 7.4 seconds. It weighs 1,755kg.

Above that sits the M350 xDrive, the fastest of all Threes so far - no matter if petrol or electric. It's fitted with a turbocharged 3.0-litre straight-six engine, allied to the same eight-speed Steptronic (albeit with different gearing), but it also comes with BMW's xDrive all-wheel-drive system.

With up to 443hp and 580Nm of torque, plus the traction of four-wheel drive, it can overcome a somewhat portly kerb weight of 1,935kg and post a seriously swift 4.1-second 0-100km/h time.

Driving the BMW M350 xDrive on French roads

Words by Matt Robinson on 29 October 2026

Clamber into the driver's seat of the M350 xDrive and gawp at its awe-inspiring technological layout, and you'll be expecting a driving experience that's as far-flung from BMWs of old as it would be possible to get.

Fire up the Beemer's mellifluous straight-six, though, and if you're a diehard fan of this marque then you'll know you're in for an old-school treat in this Neue Klasse-flavoured saloon.

As well as its xDrive system and limited-slip M Sport differential, the M350 benefits from Adaptive M suspension to help it corral its massive outputs.

This simply means switchable dampers, with five settings in its iDrive system to let you tune things up or down in the chassis as you wish.

You can leave the car in its default mode, though, and be treated to one of the all-time-great sports saloons. Our abiding memory of the M350, driven on a mildly damp day in the south of France, is how incredibly playful it is from an oversteer perspective.

A 'Drift Moments' software update is said to be coming to allow for this sort of tomfoolery to be easy to perform, but we really don't think you'll need some algorithm to get the BMW to dance. It'll happily do that already.

It's so beautifully, fluidly mobile for an all-wheel-drive car, permitting you to push up to and just beyond its (admittedly high) levels of grip as and when you want. And that graceful sense of dynamism translates away from acting like a hooligan on a wet roundabout, and into the exceptional way the M350 handles a series of challenging corners.

The steering, for example, controlled through a wheel which doesn't have a comically fat rim due to excessive padding, is sublime.

It's weighty and granular, and thoroughly informative about the attitude of the M350's front tyres at any given moment. And via the base of the driver's seat, the platform gives you plenty of hints about when it is trying to break away at the rear, so you can work with it and get the BMW into a fabulous, flowing groove on the right roads. It is, in every inch, a 'classic' 3 Series in the way it drives.

This includes the angry, snarling sound of it, although there does appear to be some synthetic augmentation of its voice going on through the speakers - kind of like an autotune for the quad exhaust pipes.

But that massaging of the M350's six-cylinder symphony is just about enacted discreetly enough to not set your teeth on edge, so instead you simply revel in the glorious noises the BMW makes.

And the speed of it. We live in an age where 580Nm might seem somehow lacking, but don't be in any doubt that the M350 is properly, insistently and even rabidly rapid if you stick the throttle in and keep it there.

It has no issues with traction when putting its power down in a straight line, there's no appreciable turbo lag from the 3.0-litre powertrain and the Steptronic is an absolute peach of a transmission - it's so good to drive a traditional gearbox that feels almost as slick as an EV's single-speed reduction gear.

We've not had this much fun driving a BMW 3 Series for a while now, unless you count previous M3s - and bear in mind the M350 is faster than most of those exalted cars from history.

And while a full-on M version is on the way for the Mk8 3 Series, we'd argue you don't need much more performance, or driver involvement, than this model already serves up on the road.

Thankfully, the Adaptive M dampers do an excellent job of keeping the M350 comfortable and refined when you're just driving somewhere.

True, the low-speed ride is firm and tautly controlled, so you're always aware it's a sports-oriented model on big wheels, but it's never actively uncomfortable or stiff-legged in the way it gets about town, and once speeds rise and you're up to 80km/h and more, the damping in this BMW comes into its own. This is a car which is strong in all dynamic disciplines going, and notably weak in none.

Fuel economy and running costs of the 2027 BMW 3 Series

• Pricey to run despite hybrid assistance
• M350 incurs €600 annual tax
• Warranty is OK, albeit not outstanding

Petrol cars, especially enhanced with mild-hybrid tech, are more efficient these days than ever, but despite this the BMW 3 Series line is going to be dearer to run (and buy) than its i3 equivalent. This counts doubly for the M350 xDrive, with its profligate six-cylinder engine.

Official CO₂ and fuel economy figures

The BMW 320 is going to make the most sense for Irish buyers, as it can officially do 6.5 litres/100km at best and 7.5 litres/100km on bigger wheels in more-opulent specifications. CO₂ is 148-169g/km.

The M350 is a different proposition altogether, although its official fuel consumption figures (7.5-8.2 litres/100km) dovetail with the much-less-powerful 320, with CO₂ at 171-187g/km, but those latter numbers will result in €600 of annual motor tax.

Real-world efficiency of the BMW 3 Series

Good luck matching those official stats in real life. We had a go in the M350 xDrive on some hilly and twisty roads of Provence, with plenty of high-speed motorway cruising and some efficiency-bashing town work thrown in for good measure.

Hence, our recorded figure across a 175km circuit was 13.7 litres/100km, or 20.6mpg.

Servicing the BMW 3 Series

BMWs have a condition-based servicing monitor on board, so there is no fixed schedule for cars like the firm's 3 Series - instead, the vehicle simply tells you when it requires maintenance.

The company also has service-inclusive packages for its petrol cars, which run to five years or 100,000km, for a set-price fee.

BMW 3 Series warranty

The warranty offered on all BMW's new cars in Ireland is for three years from the date of registration. There is no mileage limit on that cover.

Irish pricing & rivals to the 2027 BMW 3 Series

• Dearer than the BMW i3
• M350 well into six figures
• Rivals aren't as high-tech as the BMW

The BMW 3 Series is available in base, M Sport and M Sport Pro trim levels, with the M350 xDrive standing apart as a specification of its own.

This means it comes with a generous amount of standard equipment, but due to its potency, emissions levels and desirable hardware, you pay a chunky price for the M350 - more than €112,000 before options.

The 320 is much more attainable at €67,646, although that makes it dearer than the zero-emission BMW i3 sitting in the same showroom.

Rivals include the Mercedes C-Class, Audi A5, Alfa Romeo Giulia and even the ageing Volvo V60 from the more traditional competitor manufacturers, and as yet there isn't a Chinese petrol-powered car over here in Europe that could hope to match the all-round package of the BMW.

Verdict - should you buy the 2027 BMW 3 Series?

The best just got that tiny bit better still. Traditionalists might lament the BMW 3 Series' influences from the Neue Klasse electrics, in terms of its daring exterior aesthetic and digital-overload interior, but we don't mind either of those aspects of the latest version of Munich's four-door masterpiece.

And aside from slightly cramped rear passenger space and an unattractive steering-wheel design, there's nothing significant we dislike about the car.

It's brilliant to drive, refined to travel in and no doubt massively rewarding to own; the BMW 3 Series continues to lead the way in the junior executive class.