First Drive Review
Had you strolled into the circus-style tent in Marbella, Spain, where the press was invited to see and later test-drive this new 3-series convertible, you'd have been struck by a rather bizarre sight. There, amid cocktail tables stocked ever so nicely with Spanish olives and Jerez sherry, was a brand-new 323Ci -- perched precariously atop the windshield header of another 323Ci.
Okay, there were some guy wires holding this bit of theater securely in place -- it simply wouldn't do to crush an automotive writer at a press launch; poison is, after all, much less messy and traceable -- but the message was clear. That sleekly angled windshield also serves as an immensely strong rollover bar that is integrated into the A-pillar, and working with a pair of steel hoops located behind the rear-seat headrests that will pop up in a hairy situation, it protects like a race car's roll cage.
Other messages are less clear. This is the third-generation convertible of the 3-series, the first of which appeared on our shores in 1987. The four-cylinder 318 ragtop was discontinued some time ago, so the vehicle shown here is now BMW's ground-floor convertible. Despite the "23" tattooed in chrome on its elegant arse, the car has the "well-known" (as BMW puts it) 170-hp, 2.5-liter in-line six underhood. So why isn't it dubbed the 325Ci? Because BMW canceled the last 325i convertible in favor of the current 328i ragtop, which is still for sale, so it might appear that an old car was being reintroduced. Got that? Plus the numbers have a history -- there was once a highly prized 323 convertible sold only in Europe. (And you should know that this fall BMW will massage that 2.8-liter engine into a 3.0-liter, and what tattoo that convertible will eventually bear, we dunno.)
What's new? Seatbelts now unreel out of the seats, not out of the chassis-mounted B-pillars, which made getting into the back seat a Chevy Chase pratfall. The punk plastic window of the previous softtop, which at times could present the equivalent challenge of trying to see through a jar of lemonade, is now genuine glass, with defrosting elements.
Apparently, a great deal of pondering and eraser sucking long into the night by the engineering staff has resulted in a claim that trunk space has swelled by 15 percent to just over 10 cubic feet. We'll get back to you on that one at road-test time. When the top is up, a protective compartment for it can be folded up, or removed, and hence the newfound space. A demonstration showed it would accept five nylon bags, although none was the size of your great big bag -- the kind that, when being removed frantically from the crowded luggage carousel at an airport, results in a howling shoulder separation.
There are two tops. One is utterly manual, but easily operated by one person, even Rhea Perlman. We recommend it, principally because we labor here on your behalf at salt-mine wages, and while the fully automatic, I-doan-gotta-do-nuttin' electric top does the deed in 25 seconds, it's gonna cost you $1400 more than the base price of $35,560, although that Premium package includes wood trim, a garage-door opener, and an auto-dimming mirror. However, if in 1982 you invested 10 large in Bill Gates's cute little company, you'll now want to purchase the detachable aluminum hardtop, which goes for about $35 a pound (or $2295 at the options checkout counter). It takes two humans to expedite. Interestingly, BMW says you can store it at your local dealer, although that came as news to our store in Ann Arbor a month before its April arrival date.
Standard equipment includes a manual five-speed, all-disc brakes, ABS hooked up to a pair of traction- and stability-control systems that operate together off a single switch, 205/55R-16 tires and alloy wheels, air conditioning, a sound system with a $200 in-dash CD option, power seats with memory settings, a thicker leather-wrapped steering wheel that tilts and telescopes, side airbags, and a remote key fob. The cool extra stuff is leather ($1450), a Harman/Kardon sound upgrade ($675), a sport suspension with 17-inch wheels and trick seats ($1200), and xenon headlights ($500). For the leisure set, a five-speed automatic is $1275.
