Our Fleet Test Drive: BMW 330d Touring Luxury auto - 1st Report

Date: 27 August 2013   |   Author:

Mileage 2917 miles Claimed combined consumption 55.4mpg Our average consumption 43.7mpg Forecast CPM 77.1p Actual CPM 78.0p Why we're running it: To see if the new 330d Touring really is the perfect all-rounder

I've spent the past eight months in a 320d Efficient Dynamics saloon, enjoying the official 109g/km and 68.9mpg figures from the 163hp 2.0-litre engine. But when given the chance to sample the Touring estate, added to the range at the back end of 2012, we plumped for the other end of the line-up by taking the 330d model, complete with 3.0-litre 258hp engine.

It sounds like that's going to send emissions through the roof, but despite being quicker to accelerate to 60mph than a standard Porsche Boxster at 5.6 seconds, emissions are just 135g/km, while the official fuel economy for the 330d, which comes only as an eight-speed automatic [1], is 55.4mpg. The first couple of tanks are putting the car well over 40mpg across mixed driving conditions without yet sampling the economy setting.

Other reasons we wanted to try the Touring include BMW now claiming the car has the largest boot in its sector, which is a level of practicality the 3-series Touring hasn't been known for previously. That practicality continues with elements such as a powered tailgate and separately opening tailgate window [2] as standard across the entire range.

We've got a Luxury trim level car, one of the three new specification levels introduced with the arrival of the latest 3-series. Along with Sport and Modern, Luxury sits above ES and SE but below M-sport in the line-up, and is designed, BMW says, to offer a "more elegant, discreet appeal", with, among other features, chrome trimming inside and out, as well as high-gloss wood strips on the inside.

As our car was from BMW's launch stock, it is rather over-specified, with in excess of £11,000 of options to add to the £37,355 P11D. No sensible business driver would dabble that heavily in the options list, but it gives us a chance to sample many of the alternatives to see which represent the best value for money. Scanning the list, I'm most pleased to be benefitting from BMW's Connected Drive system [3] and the clever head-up display that, while prohibitively expensive at £800, is a neat toy that keeps the speed and satnav information in the driver's eyeline. 

Verdict
	Performance/emissions combination.		Quality comes at a price.

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