BMW still builds the sport sedan everyone else chases, the steering feel, the balance, the way it shrinks around you on a back road, but the company is actively dismantling what made people pay the premium. The 2023-and-later models strip out physical climate buttons, delete cargo nets and glove boxes, cheapen the materials, and slap an oversized touchscreen onto a dashboard that used to feel like a cockpit, all while raising prices. If you want the 3 Series people actually love, hunt a 2019-2022 G20 before they're gone; if you're shopping new, understand you're paying luxury money for an increasingly unluxurious experience wrapped around an admittedly brilliant chassis.
This Scandinavian sedan chooses comfort over corner-carving, think of it as the anti-BMW, built for people who'd rather arrive relaxed than exhilarated. The current T8 plug-in hybrid is genuinely quick (455hp, sub-5-second 0-60) and can run 35-50 miles on electricity alone, making it a fuel-sipping commuter that occasionally shocks M340is at stoplights. The older 5-cylinder models are legendary for durability, with owners routinely crossing 200k+ miles on wear items alone. The catch: the infotainment crashes more often than it should in a $50k car, and if you want a car that begs for backroads, this isn't it. Buy it if you value seats that feel like first-class airline lounges and safety ratings that read like a Volvo press release, skip it if you want steering feedback and a chassis that rewards spirited driving.