BMW Launches New 3 Series (Now With Lots Of Pictures)

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

Today, at 4pm in Munich, the sixth generation 3 series was launched to the press. Usually, this happens in an exotic place. Today, BMW picked a super-exotic place: Its plant in Munich. More than 10,000 people work here, and the launch in the factory was meant to underscore how important BMW’s volume model is in keeping the 10,000 employed.

First to see the daylight was a 320d, followed by a 328i, bunches of additional 320d, a 328i, a 330i, and finally a 335i. You’ll see lots of pictures after the jump …

The sports sedan features a full-color heads-up display, all engines come with the latest BMW TwinPower Turbo technology and can be combined with an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

According to BMW, “the pioneering history of the 3 Series serves as inspiration for the new sports sedan, whose powerful styling represents a fresh interpretation and conscientious development of traditional BMW design cues. The new BMW face, with flat headlights reaching along as far as the BMW kidney grille, emphasizes the elegantly dynamic design of the new BMW 3 Series.” For the rest of the 65 page press package, click here.

The car will be available in 3 equipments lines at all dealers around the world on February 11, 2012. An M sport package will follow in Summer 2012.












Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Johnny Canada Johnny Canada on Oct 15, 2011

    As an E39 owner who has hated just about everything BMW has done in the past 8 years, I'll give it a B+. Shame about those Run Flat Tires. Again. Still.

  • Carguy Carguy on Oct 15, 2011

    The exterior is design isn't a great departure from the current model with the exceptions of a Z4 snout and a 5 series rear end - but its not bad. I'm happy to see the interior is still driver focused and devoid of the proliferation of buttons that some manufacturers seem to have indulged in. I guess the big news is that entry level engine is all you'll ever need. Like the on the E36 323 -> 328, the engine upgrade just doesn't appear to be worth the money.

  • Kjhkjlhkjhkljh kljhjkhjklhkjh A prelude is a bad idea. There is already Acura with all the weird sport trims. This will not make back it's R&D money.
  • Analoggrotto I don't see a red car here, how blazing stupid are you people?
  • Redapple2 Love the wheels
  • Redapple2 Good luck to them. They used to make great cars. 510. 240Z, Sentra SE-R. Maxima. Frontier.
  • Joe65688619 Under Ghosn they went through the same short-term bottom-line thinking that GM did in the 80s/90s, and they have not recovered say, to their heyday in the 50s and 60s in terms of market share and innovation. Poor design decisions (a CVT in their front-wheel drive "4-Door Sports Car", model overlap in a poorly performing segment (they never needed the Altima AND the Maxima...what they needed was one vehicle with different drivetrain, including hybrid, to compete with the Accord/Camry, and decontenting their vehicles: My 2012 QX56 (I know, not a Nissan, but the same holds for the Armada) had power rear windows in the cargo area that could vent, a glass hatch on the back door that could be opened separate from the whole liftgate (in such a tall vehicle, kinda essential if you have it in a garage and want to load the trunk without having to open the garage door to make room for the lift gate), a nice driver's side folding armrest, and a few other quality-of-life details absent from my 2018 QX80. In a competitive market this attention to detai is can be the differentiator that sell cars. Now they are caught in the middle of the market, competing more with Hyundai and Kia and selling discounted vehicles near the same price points, but losing money on them. They invested also invested a lot in niche platforms. The Leaf was one of the first full EVs, but never really evolved. They misjudged the market - luxury EVs are selling, small budget models not so much. Variable compression engines offering little in terms of real-world power or tech, let a lot of complexity that is leading to higher failure rates. Aside from the Z and GT-R (low volume models), not much forced induction (whether your a fan or not, look at what Honda did with the CR-V and Acura RDX - same chassis, slap a turbo on it, make it nicer inside, and now you can sell it as a semi-premium brand with higher markup). That said, I do believe they retain the technical and engineering capability to do far better. About time management realized they need to make smarter investments and understand their markets better.
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