As mentioned in another thread I've had one of these for a couple of days. It was a very pretty and subtle metallic grey. On a 69 plate it had 400 odd miles on it when I collected. Average fuel consumption remained steadfastly ar 29 mpg over the 100 miles or so I put on it. I drove it like a saint during my tenure. The engine is of course a 2.0 litre petrol 4 cylinder with 240ish BHP mated to the standard BMW auto box ( I think they're all autos now, they certainly are in the Netherlands). Interior was very standard BMW fare. The steering wheel felt rather "thick" compared to the 335d. Lovely electrically adjustable seat - every BMW should have these as well ! (mine hasn't). It had the premium sound system which is great...oddities were an absence of BMW's soft touch indicators, these felt clunky compared to the ones in my car - certainly not "premium" - the auto wipers have now moved from a neat little button at the end of the wiper stalk to a more conventional "1 up" clunky wiper switch. Another oddity was when I leave my car and lock it it it shuts down the car - radio, lights, and ignition. The 430 gave a cheeky little hoot when I tried it on with it and had to shut the car down manually by pressing the start button...
The engine was very quiet at normal speeds, I was disappointed with the auto box's performance with this engine, in the 335 only the occasional blip on the rev-counter is the only indication of a gear change, not so in the 430 - you felt almost every change and could hear the engine note change. Maybe it's unfair to compare it with a six cylinder diesel engine, the performance and torque from that motor is epic and seemingly more economical than its petrol relative. The engine was trashy when pushed which is a shame. A nice touch was the way an arm extended offering you the seat belt as you sat down - neat that.
What would wind me up was the lights. In common with all BMWs now it had LEDs on main beam there was an irritating horizontal black line across the pattern on main beam. This line was exactly where dipped beam cut off was, how this has escaped form the design stage goodness only knows.
The ride was strange compared to the 335..there was strange wallowing from the front end on A roads. I've owned enough BMWs to know that this wasn't right. Maybe the steering geometry was adrift. Tyre pressures were on spec....sadly it felt a little bog standard - it was Msport spec but not an X-drive. It was actually a pleasure to get back into my 30k 3 year old car, it drove so much better.
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