Category: Compact Executive 
Price Range: £21,525 to £38,060
Best in class to drive, exceptional build quality, excellent engines.
Rear cabin space is tight.
With engines ranging from great to brilliant, and a chassis that suits them all, this is the one to go for if the driving experience is a priority. Short on visual drama, but well built and easy to live with.
As ever with the 3-Series, it could do with a bit more leg- and headroom for rear-seat passengers, as it's a squeeze for six-footers. The Touring version is more of a 'lifestyle' station wagon than an all-out load-lugger, but it's bigger than before and is less of a compromise than most of its type, with a useful luggage capacity of 460 litres (rear seats in place) or 1385 litres (seats folded flat).
But in truth, it's all about the driver. In the way of all 3-Series, the centre console is angled toward the driver, with all major controls ideally situated - ergonomically, the 3-Series has few equals. The dashboard layout is very much in the family style originated by the 7-Series and carried through to the 5. Higher specification models - with sat-nav and iDrive - gain the large dash-top screen while cheaper models do without.
Oddment storage in the cabin is excellent, and the rear seats fold 60:40, which gives the 3-Series practical flexibility. The saloon's boot has 20 litres more capacity than before, which BMW claims is big enough to accept two large and one small Samsonite cases, or three golf bags. There is also an optional boot-mounted sliding tray, which can hold up to 5kg of loose items. With this in place, the boot aperture is on the small and awkward side, though. Touring models equipped with runflat tyres add an underfloor storage compartment in the load bay (no spare wheel, you see).
The entry-level 318 and 320 models in ES spec have manual rather than automatic air conditioning. Move up to SE spec and you get a package of neat little non-essential toys, such as footwell lighting, as well as blush-saving reversing sensors. Move up to the 325 engines and you get 17" alloys, while 18" wheels are standard on all but the smallest engined M Sport versions, which come with stiffer suspension, sports seats and a dazzling selection of cosmetic modifications.
