No fooling around

FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2005, A BMW 318I SEDAN IS ON SALE WITH ‘ GAME CHANGER’ PRICE

If you pass a BMW dealership this morning, don’t mistake the price of a newly launched 3 Series as an April Fool’s prank.

The 318i sedan badge returns to New Zealand after a 12- year absence and is being reintroduced for $ 59,900, making it the cheapest medium sedan in the premium segment.

Audi’s A4 1.8- litre is $ 10,000 more, while Mercedes- Benz’s C- Class starts at $ 71,900 and Jaguar’s XE is 74,900. Even popular medium- sized sedans such as the Mazda6 and Toyota Camry are only a few thousand dollars cheaper than the 318i.

For BMW New Zealand, the return of the 318i sedan is a “game changer”, says the company’s head of corporate communications, Paul Sherley.

“I keep saying game changer but it genuinely is, it has an amazing level of equipment and it’s an iconic nameplate in the brand.”

In 2005, the 318i sedan was priced from $ 61,900 for a manual transmission, with Sherley saying that, if you adjust that price for inflation, it would be the equivalent of $ 78,000 in 2017.

“The five- speed automatic 318i in 2005 was $ 73,900, and that’s $ 93,000 today . . . that’s a strong value equation for the new 318i, especially when you consider the standard safety features and technology in the 2017 model,” he says.

The 2017 version of the 318i sedan has a 1.5- litre, 3- cylinder engine, producing 100kW from 4500rpm and 220Nm of torque from 1250rpm, as is matched to a ZF eight- speed automatic transmission.

While the 318i sedan in 2005 had a four- cylinder engine, the torque has increased in the three- cylinder 2017 version.

The 2017 model is also 30 per cent more fuel efficient than the 2005 version, at 5.4 litres/ 100km, though during

Driven’s exclusive test of the 318i, we hit 9.1 litres/ 100km through commuter traffic.

“The 318i will go really well for the dealer network, it will perform really well . . . while lease and fleet companies will also be interested in it,” says Sherley.

He also predicted that the “userchooser” customer ( who has a budget