325i Vs 330i

[Paul Kile]

Hi, folks
My wife and I have been bitten by the BMW bug, and we are looking to buy a 3-series within the next year (probably a CPO or Brass Hat return). I knew our destiny right after our first test drive, when my wife turned to me and said "That car makes me smile". We have compared the 325i and the 330i, and I am curious about a couple of things.

First, the 330i steptronic we drove had a very touchy throttle. It appears to respond instantly and quickly with very little pressure on the pedal. This is exhilarating, but makes it a bit difficult to drive smoothly around town. The 325i's we drove (both manual and steptronic) did not exhibit this characteristic. Any idea whether the touchy throttle is an anomaly, or is it normal?

Second, the 330i had more interior engine noise than the 325i, a bit more growl comes through on acceleration. This is music to my ears, but bothers my wife. Again, is this a normal charateristic of the 330I?

Your comments will be appreciated. This is a big step for me, because after 30 years of owning (and fiddling with) British cars, buying a BMW is a big step.

Thanks in advance, Paul Kile

[330xi_Captain]

The automatic transmission learns from your driving behavior but I think it may take more than a ride to ajust to your driving style. I guess this is why you saw a difference between the two cars (depending who "trained" the transmission before you). I had the same feeling than you 2 years ago when I did some roadtests but I compared a demo unit (330) and a brand new car (325). In any case, the 330 is more powerfull so you have to be more "carefull" on the pedal otherwise the car will respond very quickly. However you will get used to that and the ride will become more and more smoothly.

I leased a 325 2 weeks before my 330 arrived last month and on the interior noise level, I would say the 330 is more quiet.

Michael

[jefft325i]

Interesting - I recently had a 330xi automatic loaner car and came away with very similar observations as yourself.

The pedal was very touchy - Part of me liked the instant throttle response but admit it was a bit jerky not being used to it. I guess I'd get used to that. I could really feel the extra torque off the line

I also noticed the 330 to be a bit noiser in the cabin - I'm attributing this to the engine and exhaust note, which IMO sounded much different than my 325i. The 325i has more of a droning, humming sound, where the 330 sounds like it has more grunt - I hate to say this but the 330 sounded like a Japenese V6

In the end I was happy to get my 325 back since it's a manual - no step for me, but I'd be happy to trade my 2.5 liter for a 3.0!