Autocar: 2012 BMW 320d Sport is best car in the real world for 30,000 pounds

Autocar UK puts the new 2012 BMW 320d Sport to the test and the vehicle scores an impressive five-star rating. The last car to receive the same rating was the Ferrari 458 Italia, one of the best Maranello-built sport cars. The publication compares the highly-efficient 320d against Volkswagen Golf GTD, Skoda Superb 2.0 TDI Elegance estate, Range Rover Evoque and Mercedes-Benz E220 CDI BlueEfficiency SE. The comparison solely focuses on what’s more appealing to a customer looking for a vehicle at around 30,000 pounds. Here is the excerpt of the review:

The 320d may be the best and most economical diesel sports saloon going, but who’s to say the £30,000 buyer might not turn up a faster, roomier, better-equipped proposition that’s more appealing on the eye and better value for money?

…

We departed London on a crisp and sunny winter morning, heading for one of our favourite haunts on the Marlborough Downs. Here was the world’s best rear-drive, four-door sports saloon matched against a compact limo, a top-class diesel hatchback, a vast but capable estate and a star-car SUV, all of them around £30,000. From my initial vantage point in the 320d I had absolutely no idea how things were going pan out by the time we’d done 80 miles on motorways, grappled with rutted and pock-marked B-roads, forged country lanes barely a car’s width wide, attacked a selection of corners and brought it back home by dawdling through town.

Behind the wheel

One thing I quickly learned was that I’d developed a dislike for the BMW’s fascia – the bit of a car you spend most time looking at. Apart from lacking brightwork in favour of dull, foil-like accents, the BMW is hamstrung by a simplified iDrive system that, good idea that it is, doesn’t deliver ease of use. Chuck in a lack of logic to its architecture and you get a car whose most important cabin components (excellent sports seats aside) are poor.

Source: Autocar UK