Car: BMW 3 Series 330d Convertible
Prices: £39,390-£41,890 - on the road
Insurance Group: 17
Emissions: 162g/km
Performance: Max Speed 152mph / 0-60mph 6.4s
Fuel Consumption: 46.3mpg
Safety: Twin front airbags, twin front side airbags, ABS /DSC / brakeforce display
Dimensions: Length/Width/Height 4580/1985/1395mm
OPEN OIL HOURS
Our Rating: 7.4 / 10
Could BMW’s 330d Convertible be the convertible you can buy with your head and your heart? Steve Walker takes a look.
In some respects, the cars we drive today have changed surprisingly little in the last 100 years. In others, they’ve altered dramatically from the stage they were at only a few decades ago. A motorist from the turn of the 20th century relocated to the early stages of this one would recognise the four-wheeled boxes we travel in and the principals behind their internal combustion engines. A car owner time-warped here from the 1980s, on the other hand, might well smirk at the concept of a diesel convertible and gasp at the idea of a 245bhp one with a folding metal roof. BMW’s 330d Convertible is a car that’s very much of its time.
The convertible could be the ultimate expression of automotive frivolity, especially in Britain where having a roof on your car always seems that much more crucial thanks to our idiosyncratic weather patterns. The diesel engine, on the other hand, is much more of a solid citizen. Tell people you drive a diesel and they’ll narrow their eyes and nod sagely, elevating you in their estimations as they do so. Diesel drivers are perceived to have weighed up the pros and cons, maybe done a few calculations, and arrived at a level-headed buying decision. Convertible owners, it’s often suspected, woke up with a hangover one sunny morning and rushed down to the dealership on a whim. As a result, a diesel convertible might appear something of a paradox but the BMW 330d Convertible manages to balance the diesel Yin with the convertible Yang just so.
BMW’s standard 3.0-litre six-cylinder diesel is no longer the star of the 3 Series engine range that it was when it first arrived on the scene. That honour goes to the twin turbo version of the powerplant as fitted to the 335d models. The 330d Convertible makes do with a single turbocharger to generate its 245bhp power output and 520Nm of torque. It’s still seriously quick. The acceleration from zero to 62mph will take 7 seconds and the top speed of 152mph will be more than sufficient this side of the Bonneville Salt Flats. With the same quantity of torque that you’ll get from the 5.0-litre V10-engined M5, the 330d is quite an advert for grasping the black handled pump.
Rival manufacturers would kill for BMW’s reputation when it comes to instilling handling balance and driver enjoyment into its vehicles. There was talk, however, that the boys in Munich might have met their match when it came to producing a car with a hefty metal roof that could really shine through a set of corners. There have been some tin-top convertibles that feel like a tent in a typhoon if cornered quickly but the 330d Convertible remains flat and composed. The biggest complement you can pay it is that there’s very little difference between the driving experience in this car and the 3 Series Coupe. BMW has achieved this with 160kg of chassis stiffening to compensate for the rigidity lost in shedding the roof. The suspension is more compliant that the Coupe’s but that just makes the Convertible more pleasant for cruising about in on a summer’s day. The engine is remarkably quiet, even with the top down, so you shouldn’t attract attention for the wrong reasons.
This is the facelifted version of the latest 3 Series Coupe so there are a number of visual differences between this and the original folding hard-top version. Most noticeable is the single air-intake sliced in below the front bumper with matt aluminium fins mounted within it. Its effect is to visually lower and widen the car for a more planted and sporty stance. It appears to work. Other features include the revised headlights with LED corona rings and red LED rear lights.
BMW has been selling soft-top 3 Series Convertibles for many years but with this 3 Series, BMW felt the time was ripe to follow a divergent path and get with the technology that’s driving huge customer demand – folding hard top roofs. Like all the most modern versions, the BMW system is a three rather than a two-piece system. The advantage of this is that you don’t need a distended bottom on the car to accommodate the larger sections of a two-piece roof. The downside of stacking three pieces atop each other instead of two in the boot
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