The New BMW 3 Series! AMG GT Prototype Fire! Fuel Economy Rollback?

Doug DeMuro (0:00)

So good, so good, so good.

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Doug DeMuro (0:50)

Hello and welcome to THIS CAR POD!

Nick (0:54)

I'm Nick.

Ryan Lopez (0:55)

I'm Ryan.

Doug DeMuro (0:56)

And there's a lot to talk about, starting with the news, and specifically the new BMW 3-Series. BMW has revealed the next-generation 27 3-Series, based on the Neue Klasse, which was that concept car that they had showed us a couple of years ago.

Ryan Lopez (1:11)

Say it again.

Doug DeMuro (1:12)

Neue Klasse.

Now they're here. They're real. The new 3-Series is coming out. There's a turbo four-cylinder, 255 horsepower. There's a 430-horse turbo straight six. It's like a 3-Series that we all know and love. There's a drift mode. It's actually not, on paper, it's not tremendously different than the existing car, but it does look a lot different than the existing car. Nick, your thoughts?

Nick (1:38)

I like it. We talked about the styling a few weeks ago and how it has maybe a little bit of a Trans Am vibe in the beginning, but the 3-Series has always taken some bolder takes, you know? Like each redesign, everyone reacts really strongly. Oh my gosh, I can't believe it looks like that. And then we normalize it and then by the end of the cycle, we're like, man, that looks good. I'll say the only part of it that I'm struggling with a little bit is the rear end.

Doug DeMuro (2:01)

You're so weird.

Nick (2:02)

But I think that'll also be like the bangle butts. Like we kind of get used to that. I think sedans are kind of a boring space. So you got to do something to make it interesting.

Doug DeMuro (2:11)

Yeah. I think that's true. And I think the 3-Series especially, like they've refined the car so much over the years.

There's not a lot of ways to go. I mean, they're making a 440 horsepower straight six rear wheel drive with a drift mode. You're not going to make a 600 horsepower. You have an electric version to do that kind of stuff. You got to do something that flashes a little bit, like the new X3.

Nick (2:31)

And Lord knows they couldn't have made the grills any bigger. So they had to shrink them down and start all over. It's like, all right, the next gen, I bet those grills get a little bigger and a little bigger than all of a sudden they're the whole front end and then they restart.

Doug DeMuro (2:42)

They also announced more details about the new electric version, which is called the i3, which to me seems very appealing. I actually like the look of the i3 a little bit more than I like the look of the regular car. The i3 is a little bit more futuristic, it's a little bit different. To me, it actually looks a little bit more athletic.

Nick (2:58)

I'm surprised you can tell them apart.

Doug DeMuro (3:00)

The side you can really tell. You can see that there's sort of a, there's like a lower component here that like, the i3 just seems a little smaller, a little snugger, a little bit more spry. This car, in order to fit an engine and a driveline and all that, they weren't able to do it quite.

I think the i3 looks really cool.

Ryan Lopez (3:17)

I think the i3 looks better.

Doug DeMuro (3:19)

I think it looks better.

Nick (3:20)

And so many brands now have had a separate sedan that's like a totally different styling and name. I like that this is, like you really, most people will not be able to tell them apart, versus like, oh, I have to have a Model 3 or something that's distinctly EV. You can kind of have your cake or eat it too, regardless of whether you want gas or EV.

Doug DeMuro (3:38)

And bad naming, we're gonna get to Volkswagen in a minute, but bad naming continues to fall all over the EV space. But I agree, not here. There's a 3-Series, there's an i3, they're relatively similar, you pick your poison. The i3 that's gonna debut initially is gonna have an all-wheel drive, 465 horsepower, give or take. So there's a 3-Series, there's an i3, you can pick. BMW is saying 470 miles on a single charge. That would be in the European driving cycle, which is different from the US. The US is gonna be a lot less, but it's still gonna be probably pretty significant.