“The sedan is dead!” they chant, “the CUV has taken over wholly and completely!” That might be reflected in sales figures, but there’s still plenty cars (real cars!) out there worth our attention. Even while BMW is seemingly striving to fill every possible niche in the CUV/SUV field, a week with the 2023 M340i showed me that the company still has it where it counts.
(While I did subject this vehicle to my regular routine, I didn’t drive it enough to do a full deep dive. As such, what follows is a quick-hit, bullet point rundown of the car’s Quick Positives, Quick Negatives, and Quick Bottom Line.)
Quick Info, Stats, and Price
Model Year: 2023
Make: BMW
Model: M340i
Engine: 3.0-liter turbocharged inline six-cylinder — 382 horsepower / 369 lb-ft. of torque
Drivetrain: 8-speed automatic; rear-wheel-drive
Base MSRP: $54,850
Options on test vehicle: Skyscraper Grey Metallic paint ($650), Tacora Red Vernasca Leather ($1,500), Driver Assistance Package, Shadowline Package ($850), Parking Assistance Package ($700), Premium Package ($1,350), Cooling & High Performance Tire Package ($2,400 and irrelevant as the test vehicle was on winter tires), Remote Engine Start ($300), Adaptive M Suspension ($550), BMW M 50 Years Emblem ($200), Wireless Device Charging ($200), Harman Kardon surround sound ($875),
Total MSRP of test vehicle: $66,120 (Plus $995 Destination Charge)
Quick Pros
Exceptionally fast in daily use (though nowhere near the pace of the glorious M5 Competition)
Fun to drive even when not driving it hard
Inline six-cylinder engine is super smooth, super responsive
Rowdy enough to be a good time and not cause you to crave an M3
Seamless hybrid integration
Steering is decent (for a modern BMW that isn’t a full-M car)
Actual usable space in the second row
Easy to spend time in, and you actually want to
The right size for a daily driver
Quick Negatives
iDrive 8 is worse than the system it replaced (See: There’s no actual buttons so everything is done via touchscreen)
Overkill on the exhaust burbles on downshifts when in more aggressive modes
Does a non-M3 need to be this fast? At nearly 3,900 pounds, less weight would be better than big power
8-speed automatic transmission can be a little clunky
The price is astronomical for a 3-Series platform car, and can be optioned higher (I was able to build a $70k M340i xDrive on BMW’s configurator)
Quick Bottom Line
The 2023 BMW M340i is a fast, fun, comfortable, usable car that would serve as a near-perfect daily driver if you can deal with iDrive 8’s lack of buttons and palate the price.