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Road & Track publishes a review of the 2014 BMW 328d xDrive Sports Wagon after a 10,000 miles tester. Here is what they got to say on their final review:
This car is more than a freeway cruiser, though. On back roads, Sport mode stiffened the suspension, added steering effort, and sped up the powertrain response. That didn’t improve steering feel or the lines of communication between chassis and driver, but the BMW still proved plenty capable of spirited driving on 18-inch Bridgestone Potenza S001 summer tires. With a rear-biased torque split, the xDrive all-wheel-drive system allowed the 3790-pound wagon to slide gracefully through corners without stability control stepping in to ruin the fun.
Unfortunately, things weren’t nearly as smooth under the hood. The 328d is the first 3-series sold in the United States with BMW’s N47 2.0-liter, a turbocharged four-cylinder diesel that delivers 181 hp and 280 lb-ft of torque. We’re accustomed to modern diesel engines—especially those from Germany—that are remarkably quiet, but this particular one exhibits noticeable clatter, especially during start/stop.
That auditory harshness was taxing, but the 2.0-liter paid dividends by averaging a spectacular 38 mpg during our test, and we wasted not a single mile driving to the dealership, thanks to BMW’s famously long oil-change intervals. Instead, we just kept road-tripping.
