BMW 320i, Last Drive

By the time this article is published, my very first beloved car, the BMW 320i, will have already been sold. However, recently I had the chance to drive on the highway, so I decided to take one last drive in the BMW 320i.

Regarding the sale of the 320i, I decided to have multiple dealers come to my home at the same time for a simultaneous appraisal. That said, since I have almost no experience negotiating car sales and tend to just go along with what the other party says, I asked my husband to handle it this time while I watched from the side.

So, my husband quickly applied for a bulk appraisal service online, and the moment he pressed the submit button—literally within 5 seconds (not exaggerating, it really was 5 seconds)—multiple dealers started calling his cell phone one after another.

When I exclaimed, “Wow!! Is it really going to be this intense!?“, my husband said,

Yeah. When I sold the SLK before, it was just as crazy. The calls just kept coming like they were waiting for it.

In the end, eight dealers agreed to come for the appraisal (I thought maybe two would be a good outcome), so I felt somewhat relieved that my beloved car was attracting interest from the dealers.

I plan to share more details and results about the sale in future blog posts.

Owning the BMW 320i

Lately, every time I drove the 320i, I found myself thinking, “It’s gotten better than before.” The driving felt much smoother, and the power at low speeds seemed to have improved. When my husband drove the 320i after a while, he said,

Since deciding to sell it, the 320i suddenly feels like it’s running better. Was it always such a smooth and nice car?

That day was the last drive on the highway in the 320i, and once again I was reminded that BMW’s high-speed stability is truly impressive. German cars, designed to handle the Autobahn at very high speeds, really are something special.

At typical Japanese highway speeds, the car runs effortlessly, comfortably, and with great peace of mind.

The car feels more stable on the highway than in city traffic at low speeds, and because the sensation of speed is less intense, you can enjoy a very pleasant ride and driving experience.

Driving on the highway means less sense of speed and road noise, so it’s genuinely less tiring. I once drove 1000 km round trip in the 320i, and I wasn’t very tired afterward—this stable performance is definitely why.

That said, at road joints there was still a slight jolt, and if you try to drive sportily, it honestly feels a bit lacking, and the acceleration isn’t quite enough (since it’s a completely stock model), but for normal driving there’s absolutely no problem.

It’s a very good car for smooth, relaxed driving.

On the other hand, shifting in city traffic was also very easy with the 320i, though that might be partly due to getting used to it. The clutch has a nice, moderate travel, making it easy to modulate without requiring overly precise or delicate clutch control.

However, the low-speed torque is a bit weak, so if you’re not careful when starting in first gear, the car makes a strained, rattling noise. But once you get used to it and get a feel for it, it’s manageable.

Even in the final month of pregnancy, I could operate the manual transmission normally lol

Also, the car never broke down once, and I only had maintenance done at the one-year inspection, so it was a very reliable car.

Final Thoughts on the 320i

The only regret I have about the 320i is that I never managed to master blipping on downshifts (lol). While driving on the highway, I practiced every time I downshifted, but I was too scared to blip the throttle properly and never succeeded (not even once). In the end, I just eased the clutch gently and downshifted normally.

My husband also said,

This car is a bit tough for blipping. You really have to press the accelerator hard to get it to work. If you did that in a Porsche, it’d be a disaster lol.

So, when it comes to blipping, I’ll just keep relying on the auto-blip function going forward…

In total, I owned the BMW 320i for 1 year and 2 months, covering about 6,000 km. I drove it almost every day, but mostly just around the neighborhood with hardly any long trips, so the mileage didn’t grow much.

I hope it finds a new owner who loves manuals and will cherish it as much as I did. Thank you so much, 320i.