1st Drive BMW M340D Touring 2021 - How does it compare to the brilliant M340i - 700NM Torque!

What a piece of kit! Hey guys, welcome to another video and welcome to my first drive of BMW's brand new M340d Touring. As most of you know, I think that the M340i Touring is the best package that BMW currently sell today. Just over £50,000, all the performance you could ever want and the practicality and looks of their glorious Touring. I've been asked lots about this car over the past six months and this is the first chance I've had to look at one and the first chance I've had to take one out for a drive. In fact, we're here at a BMW event today which enables me to take it out onto a little track, we can test the 0-62 figure and push it a little bit towards its limits, see what the handling's like etc. Fundamentally, it's identical to the M340i Touring but it has a totally different engine. Instead of BMW's brilliant B58 engine, inline-six, turbocharged, 370hp, 500Nm of torque, this one has actually got one of their diesel lumps in it. It's an inline-six, 3.0-litre, twin-turbo producing 340hp, so about 35hp down on the petrol equivalent, but 200Nm more torque and that's really important, especially in a modern car. This thing weighs well over 1500kg and that 200Nm of torque is what we feel in everyday driving. It has a claimed 0-62 figure of 4.8 seconds in the Touring variant. We're going to put that to test very soon and I'm in no doubt we'll at least match that because it's a BMW and their figures are always very conservative. It also, most importantly, has a claimed combined economy figure of around 45mpg and that is what's going to be important for someone looking at this over the M340i. This car also has BMW's brand new 48v mild hybrid system which I've recently tested in their 4 Series and actually works really well. You can feel the extra oomph, sort of mid-range, and it just seems to help with things like stop-start and stuff that's going on in the background. So, unlike other 48v mild hybrid systems that I think are a little bit of a gimmick, it actually seems to work. So, let's see what it's like in this 340d. I'm sure you agree the spec on this is absolutely gorgeous and in fact it's pretty much identical to the spec of the one that Tony Lewis had, the M340i that I did the original video on. In fact, if you haven't seen that, click on the link up here and check that video out because I go into much more depth about what this car is, the standard spec, etc. Today is really going to be about what this feels like compared to the M340i, what it feels like out on their little mini circuit out there and just having a bit of fun and enjoying it with you guys. My race box is all set up. Let's jump in and take it over to their little circuit over there and see what 0-62 figure we can achieve. Right then guys, before we get out on track, let's just talk about the interior quickly. It's beautiful in here. It's the new 3 Series. I absolutely love these things. This is a very Tony Lewis spec outside and in. He loves his red with black leather but it feels great in here. We've got the all-important pan roof which just opens the cabin up, makes this car feel really good. This has laser lights, it has a head-up display and all of the standard features and options that come with the M340i range. There's pretty much everything in here you could wish for. You've got operating system 7, all of the new digital cockpit and stuff but really, really nice place to sit. I can't complain. It's just a comfortable, nice, spacious cabin. You can get five people in here although four people in comfort and obviously, you've got a very, very big boot which makes the Touring such a great, great car. All right, let's roll out here. We'll do a couple of 0-62 runs and then we'll actually push the car a little bit harder because it's not every day we get access to something like this where we can do what we want to do. Let's go up there and have a bit of fun. This is a diesel. I just had to remind myself for that first two seconds that it's actually a diesel. We'll get a bit of heat in the tyres first. Oh, what a car. Blisteringly fast. Unbelievable. This is a diesel and it's a Touring. Diesel and Touring. It shouldn't be doing those sort of things. It just shouldn't be but it is. It's unbelievable. All right, let's go back around and do a 0-62 time. Just push it through here. Okay, let's line up here. We'll try it with everything off firstly. Let's just make sure the race box is ready. Race box is ready. Put it in sports auto. I'll let the box do the changing. Hold it on the brakes. Here we go. Unbelievable. Well, straight out of the box, 4.69 seconds. That's already a 10th quicker than BMW claim. What you do realize quickly is even though it's an amazing diesel, it has to smash through the gears because it runs out of puff anything over about 4,500 revs, whereas the petrol equivalent is singing all the way up to about six and a half before you change. Massively impressive. We'll do another one but let's just go and have a little bit more fun because this is just awesome. Wish I had one of these tracks in my backyard. It's stoned in here. What a piece of kit. This time I've put the dynamic traction control on, so kind of a halfway house, which allows a bit of slip. That way we can engage launch control properly. Left foot hard down on the brake, right foot on the floor. Race box is ready. Here we go. Another 4.69. How is that for consistency? Exactly the same time. Once again, a 10th of a second quicker than BMW claim. That's an impressive time for a diesel estate car. Really, really impressive. Yes, it's a couple of tenths slower than the petrol equivalent, but once this gets going, once it's in its stride, it's really impressive. In fact, the whole thing with the diesel is its ability to go between corners. Here, third gear, you just got that massive slug of torque. When you come out of here in third again, huge slug of torque. Change at fourth, change at 3,000 RPM. It just absolutely rockets out. Again, in here, in the petrol I'll be in second, in the diesel third, and it just pulls. Change at 3,500 RPM, change again, that's 80 miles an hour just effortlessly, absolutely effortlessly. In fact, let's do a lap in fourth gear just to demonstrate how much torque and how much ability this car's got. I'm in fourth gear now. Through the line, here we go, fourth. It's pulling hard in fourth gear. Come to this really tight section. Again, you'd be in second normally, foot down. Pulls out of here so strong. That's fourth gear. I'm leaving it in fourth, leaving it in fourth, leaving it in fourth. Just find the apex and now on the floor. Look at that, 60, 70, 80, absolutely effortless. Let's take this out on a British B road and see what the ride and stuff's like. I know that it's already brilliant because it's fundamentally the same underneath as its petrol equivalent. Now we find ourselves on a typical British B road, by which I mean pretty badly made. Lots of joins and bumps and potholes and everything you'd expect in the UK at the end of October. I'm in comfort mode, which is arguably the best mode to be in, in one of these, because it just does everything so easily. This has adaptive suspension as standard, and when you're in comfort, it just softens everything off and it feels really good. I've actually just stepped out of the M440i along this very same stretch of road, and when that was in comfort, it felt a lot stiffer than this. That's the case. I think that's what BMW are really stressing, is the new 4 Series is far more strengthened than the 3 Series, so far more hardcore, far more stable, if you like, and far more able and effective when you're really pushing it, whereas the 3 Series needs to kind of do a bit of everything, and in comfort it's definitely the most comfortable out of the 3 and the 4. It feels unreal. Start-stop is just amazing in these new 48 volt mild hybrid cars. It's just so seamless. It really is something that I would not bother turning off in this car. It just does it so well, and when the traffic lights go green again, it just seamlessly goes back into action. It's just easy, smoother silk, really, really nice. The best application of start-stop I've ever tried. What these cars are all about is waftability, really. This is a car that really does everything. The M340i does everything, and this should almost do it better in a way that BMW's six-spot diesels are just so effortless, so in comfort the ride feels amazing. This has got standard adaptive suspension, so in comfort the ride's really nice and pliant and soft, and even on this fairly rough B road it feels great, and in fact much better than the M440i that I took out earlier on did. BMW would admit that. They stress that the M440i is far more focused and stiffened compared to the 3 Series, and it's very easy to to feel that jumping from one to the other. It feels amazing, and the great thing about this combination of a very powerful twin-turbo straight-six turbo diesel and the brilliant ZF eight-speed gearbox is when you're in comfort and letting the car do everything, it just deals with everything so well. Coming here out the corner, ease the throttle in, I can feel that torque just kicking in. I've got like 10% throttle, and there you go, I'm at the national speed limit just without any effort, any strain, and that's what gives you that 45 plus miles to the gallon without any issues. We'll put it into sport plus because we're coming into some twisties, and I'll use manual, so again we're in third here, we don't need third, but third instant power is just amazing. Once again at the speed limit within not even seconds, the car feels a lot stiffer now, a lot more torqued. Coming in here, watching out for pedestrians and kids, putting foot down again, third, I'm already changing, I'm changing before I've left the exit of the corner just because I can feel that that torque's just available everywhere. We'll put it in eighth here, we're at 50 miles an hour, foot on the floor, and there's 60 in eighth. It's just, it's crazy, there's so much ability, so much waftability. A lot of that actually has to do with the new 48 volt mild hybrid system, and I didn't really talk about that out on track because, well, my time was limited, and it didn't even cross my mind, but the reason this car has such good pickup now is because of that. It really helps, especially with the, I wouldn't call it a laggy twin turbo engine, but it can have lag when it's below about 1,500-1,600 rpm, but now with that mild hybrid system, it just seems to help everything and just get it moving and get things spinning in the engine a lot faster. It really, really is impressive. Again, we're coming up to a national speed limit sign here, so we're in a 40 zone. I'm in sixth gear, just talking through the number six gear, going up a hill slightly, and foot on the floor. Here we go, 45, 50, 55, 60 in sixth gear. This is arguably quicker than its petrol equivalent in gear acceleration. It's a lot more chill to drive as well. Typically, BMW inline six diesel engine sort of drivability, it's just easy. It really is. When I drove down to this spot, which is 20 minutes stop-start traffic and whatever, it's just an easy car. I think I'm going to summarize by saying that this car is probably a better all-round package than the M340i, but it's not as exciting when you really push it because you just don't have those revs available. You don't have that glorious B58 to listen to, so pros and cons for sure. As soon as you tap that throttle, you're off. It's just real easy. It makes mincemeat of the weight of this car, all that 700 newton-metres of torque. 700, that's insane. That's almost M5 competition levels of torque in a 3 Series Touring. Fantastic bit of kit. Guys, thanks a lot for watching as always. Please give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed this video. Leave any comments and questions below. I will see you at my next video. Cheers. What an amazing, amazing car. I shouldn't be having this much fun. Oops, I'm getting in trouble. Tire squeal, please. Oh, I get a noise thing, is it? Tire squeal, yeah, for the houses. Sorry, I didn't realize. Yeah, thank you. Quite a few people have been asking about this control and shift jacket that I've worn in a few recent videos. It's actually now available for sale on our control and shift website. Please find the link to that below and head over and buy yourself one of these lovely jackets that I'm practically living in at the moment.