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Moving from X1 18d to 320i xDrive within the next 2-3 weeks.. It's already been manufactured in Munich, now all about transport.
Started researching 330i v 320i online after my order had already been made and started having cold feet about my engine choice. I drove both, decided that I don't need additional power at a cost of around 1000-1500 EUR a year (+80-100 EUR on a monthly payment, around 400-500 EUR additional insurance) - it's not that I couldn't afford it as it's not huge difference, it's just that I didn't feel I needed it. I preferred to pack it with basically everything that was available inside (HUD, cockpit professional, Harman Kardon etc...).
Admittedly 330i is a better performing car but for my needs I thought 320i would be adequate. Also my perception of speed is probably different to many 3 users... my previous cars were two Minis, Qashqai and now X1 18d - all accelerate to 100 in 9 seconds or more, so moving to 7-7.5 seconds will actually be a huge leap for me and will feel like a rocket. Also 90% of my driving is in city and I imagine difference in power would not be noticable there, and on highways I tend to not go above 170-180, and 320i is perfectly adequate for that kind of driving... I feel it's also 'safer' for me to go from sub-10 to 7-7.5 range rather than jump into a 5.5s monster having driven much, much slower cars for 10 years. I was picking between A5 40 TFSI, C200 and 320i and are in the same range in terms of power, it's just that for Mercedes and Audi those versions are in the middle of the pack while for BMW 320i is the weakest they have. Testing both 330i and 320i I actually felt I had more fun with 320i too, as I was able to push it to the limits - was too scared of doing the same with 330i and felt like I wasn't using its power which made it less fun... But that might be just me trying to justify my choice which may have been wrong.
Still, don't like the fact that I started having doubts less than 3 weeks from the delivery of my brand new 3!
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