2023 BMW 3 Series Gran Limousine review - Comfort and Driving Pleasure | First Drive

Luxury car owners in India are largely chauffeured around and those comfort seekers outweigh the enthusiasts who enjoy the behind-the-wheel experience, so it's natural for manufacturers to focus on that backseat, like BMW did when they brought in the long wheelbase version of what was the enthusiast car, the 3 Series. The 3 Series Grand Limousine has been around a while and because of that extra space in the backseat, it has done pretty well. Well right now, it's just got a facelift, so let's take a look at what's new. What you see here is the M Sport package, which will now come as standard. It includes a lot of black accents on the front apron and side view mirrors, as well as chrome surrounds and a honeycomb pattern on the air intake. In fact, it is the front end of this car that sees the most changes, in this facelift. Big news ironically is that it retains the smaller grille and it hasn't changed to the larger in-your-face grilles of the newer BMW cars. The grille itself gets dual slats now and it's actually just for show as a grille. It's closed with a glossy black backing. It has a chrome surround and the lamps are slimmer too with the inverted comma-like LED DRLs. The lower apron is different too, with a larger air dam and fog surrounds. Around the side, only the alloys are different and carry a double-spoke design. The rear is almost similar again, except for the diffuser at the bottom. So there's small changes on the exterior, but let's take a look on the inside. There's quite a lot that's changed on the inside now, but catching your attention front and centre is the display now. It's a single piece of glass and behind it sit two screens. One is 12.3-inch, which is for your instrument cluster and the other one is 14.9-inch, which is for your information display. The graphics are sharp, crisp, the colours are lovely and it's all very easy to read and it actually makes this look much richer and more luxurious on the inside as well. Curved display is what one sees on all the new BMW cars and it ensures that you really never have reflections and everything is always clear. Now you'll notice that because of these screens, a lot of the buttons have been done away with on the central console. The AC area is slightly different in its design and of course, there is no layer of buttons underneath, but you do still have some shortcuts. You do have a volume knob, which is nice. You have the shortcuts for your modes, which is over here, right next to the gear lever and of course, parking sensors, etc. You also have the iDrive controller. Now if you don't want to use any of these or go through layers in the menu, BMW have also given you a very nice voice command system through which you can access a host of functions. Hey BMW, can you tell me if my tyre pressures are low? The current pressure is alright for all tyres. So there you go. Everything from tyre pressure to controlling your blower speed, the AC temperature and finding out a whole host of information, even setting up your navigation system can all be done via voice command and it works really well, so you don't really miss too many of the shortcut buttons. For the rest, there is this new patterned graphic on the central console. Instead of the open-pore wood, we now have shiny piano black with the aluminium look surrounds and everything, as always, feels top-notch, great quality and you have the two-tone colouring as well. The M Sport package also continues to the interior with M Sport seats and steering as well as the graphic finish on the central console. And before we move on, let's take a minute to talk about the boot, which at 480 litres seems large enough on paper. However, because of the bulky tray built to house the spare tyre, which the international models don't get, the usable space you're left with is quite shallow and squeezing two large suitcases will be a tight fit. Now nothing has really changed mechanically in this car but let's do a quick recap and since the back seat is the place to be in this car, let's begin there. Now as you saw, ingress was really easy, it's very comfortable getting into this car thanks to that wide door opening and that extra 110mm of space between the wheels, well look for yourself, it does open up a huge amount of legroom, even extremely tall people will be comfortable over here. The window line is not too high as well, nice big area of glass and when you open up the sunroof, it does feel airy and spacious in this back seat. So yes, there's loads of legroom, the seats themselves are comfortable, there's no seat adjust but the recline angle is good so you're sat very comfortably in this back seat. Third passenger will also fit in here but there is a large central tunnel so they will have to sit with their legs astride that central tunnel. Now as for comfort features, you do get pretty much everything that you want, you do have cup holders, there's an armrest at the rear, there's storage space, you have the aircon controls as well at the back, you also have two USB-C charging ports. But the one thing that is missing is sun blinds, you do expect it in a luxury car like this but they're not even manual ones. The 3 Series Grand Limousine also has a softer setup than the regular 3 aimed at offering the passengers a more comfortable ride. While the previous car we had tested had 17-inch wheels as it was the regular version, this one is the M Sport Package as standard and comes with 18-inch. Has that changed anything? Ride quality, slightly on the firmer side compared to the other sedans in its segment even when you put it into comfort mode but you know what, I really like it because it keeps it flat and composed and even the bumps and potholes don't really filter through to this back seat. So if you intend to do long distances in this car, rest assured you'll be extremely comfortable. The ride though firm is still well damped and the back seat is undoubtedly a segment best as far as space is concerned. So it's a great place to be but there are other reasons one buys the 3 Series, after all a 3 has always been an enthusiast's favourite. Now the experience behind the wheel largely remains the same as well, nothing much has changed except for this large screen now, the single frame glass that has twin screens. I really like the way the display is now because the numbers are large and legible, everything is crisp and sharp and clear. So yeah, that makes a big difference but apart from that it feels pretty much the same to drive, you get the same engines, a 2.0-litre petrol or a 2.0-litre diesel which I'm driving right now. This 2.0-litre diesel has 190hp and 400nm of torque. It's an engine that has a nice widespread of torque with the sequential turbos and that makes acceleration effortless throughout the range. Put your foot down, you get a nice shove back into your seat and power just comes easily. The engine is extremely refined too, so even though it's a diesel, you barely, barely hear it only when you rev hard, there's a distant growl. The cabin itself entirely is also very well insulated to outside sound so in that sense you do get the feeling of luxury. In fact, that's the thing about this car, you know, everything just feels so effortless. This car will make a great long-distance cruiser. And while I'm talking about effortless cruising, you can also have quite a bit of fun, just dial it into sport, dab on the paddles, you can see the absolute joy on my face, can't you? This car has a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde character that lets you dial it back and cruise in comfort or knock it up a notch and enjoy a spirited drive. The steering gives you a great sense of confidence, in fact so much so that very often you don't realise that you're carrying speeds into corners, you look down and you see, oh, I'm going that quick. The car feels planted, it feels stable, it just feels taped to the road. The tyres offer plenty of grip and you really don't have to worry about speed breakers, it clears them quite easily even with the longer wheelbase. It may not be as sharp and pointy as the short wheelbase 3 Series but in its segment, I'd still have to say this handling is pretty much the best. So whether it's enthusiast or backseater, this car's made to soothe them all. It really is the perfect blend of luxury and driving pleasure.