One Last Drive in the BMW 320i

By the time this article goes live, my first car, a BMW 320i, will already have been sold. But recently, I had a chance to drive on the highway, so I decided to take the 320i out for one last drive.

I decided to sell the 320i through a group appraisal, with several dealers visiting my home at the same time to make offers. I’ve had very little experience negotiating car sales, and I was worried I might simply go along with whatever the dealers said. So this time, I asked my husband to handle the negotiations while I watched from the sidelines.

My husband went ahead and submitted a request through an online car appraisal service. Just five seconds after he tapped the submit button (I’m not exaggerating—it really was five seconds), calls started pouring into his phone from multiple dealers.

“Whoa! Is it always this intense?” I asked in amazement. My husband replied:

Yep. It was the same when I sold the SLK. The calls just keep coming, as if they’ve all been waiting for you to sign up.

In the end, eight dealers agreed to come and appraise the car (I’d thought we’d be lucky to get two). It was reassuring to see that the car had attracted so much interest.

I’ll share more about the sale and how it turned out in a future post.

What It’s Like to Own a BMW 320i

Lately, every time I drove the 320i, I found myself thinking, “This feels better than it used to.” The ride had become noticeably smoother, and it seemed to have more low-speed punch, too. My husband had a similar reaction when he drove it for the first time in a while:

Funny how the 320i seems to have started running better the moment we decided to sell it. Was it always this smooth and nice to drive?

This was my last highway drive in the 320i, and once again, I was struck by just how impressive BMW’s high-speed stability is. German cars are designed with high-speed Autobahn driving in mind, and it really shows.

At the speeds you encounter on Japanese highways, the 320i feels relaxed, composed, and reassuring.

It feels more settled on the highway than it does at low speeds around town. With little sense of speed, you can enjoy a comfortable ride and a smooth, easygoing drive.

On the highway, there’s little wind rush or road noise, so the drive is genuinely relaxing. I once drove the 320i for about 1,000 km round-trip, and I remember arriving without feeling especially tired. Its stable performance was a big part of that.

That said, it could feel a little unsettled over road joints, and when I wanted to drive more sportily, there were times it felt a bit lacking. Acceleration wasn’t exactly brisk, either (though this was a completely stock model). For everyday driving, though, it was more than capable.

It’s a lovely car for smooth, relaxed driving.

As for shifting around town, the 320i was easy to drive, though getting used to it probably helped. The clutch had a comfortably deep engagement point, making it easy to modulate, and it didn’t demand especially precise or delicate clutch work.

The only catch was that low-speed torque felt a little weak. If I wasn’t paying attention when pulling away in first gear, the car would make a strained “grrrr” noise. Once I got used to it and learned to read the car, though, it wasn’t a problem.

I could still work the manual transmission just fine at nine months pregnant lol

The car never gave us any trouble, either. All it needed was routine maintenance during its annual inspection, so I’d say it was a very dependable car.

A Few Final Words About the 320i

My one lingering regret about the 320i is that I never learned to blip the throttle on downshifts—haha. I practiced every time I downshifted on the highway, but I was always nervous about revving the engine and never got it right (not even once). In the end, I just let the clutch out smoothly and slowed down the usual way as I shifted down.

My husband said:

This car’s a little tricky to blip the throttle on. You have to really press the accelerator to rev it enough. In a Porsche, if you pressed the accelerator that hard, things could get pretty wild, though lol.

So I guess I’ll keep relying on automatic rev-matching for my blipping needs from here on out…

We owned the BMW 320i for one year and two months, and covered about 6,000 km. I drove it nearly every day, but mostly around the neighborhood, with very few longer trips, so the mileage didn’t add up as much as I expected.

I hope it finds its way to a new owner who loves manual cars and will take good care of it. Thank you for everything, 320i.