Country’s largest selling luxury car maker, BMW India is soon going to launch a stripped down version of the Ultimat3 3-series, in the form of 320i base petrol variant. The new 320i variant will join the 320d and 328i variants which are on-sale. The new base model will come with a sticker price of Rs. 28.5 lakh (ex-showroom, Mumbai), making the new car as much as Rs. 8.5 lakh cheaper than 328i variant.
Compared to the 328i, the 320i will lose some equipment and features as it will get a basic iDrive system, and the 8.8-inch widescreen infotainment display will be replaced with a smaller 6.5-inch screen, a single-CD player with no data storage and faux leather instead of the real deal. Also, the car won’t get a reverse camera and the Xenon headlights that are present on higher variants.
The 320i will get 16-inch alloy wheels instead of the 18 inchers on the 328i and the car also won’t get a sunroof. Powering the car will be a 1994cc, 4-cylinder, 181bhp petrol engine, which is the same motor powering the 520i. And while the 320i gets the same eight-speed gearbox, the ratios have been tweaked to better suit the lower power output compared to the 328i.
Once the BMW 320i is launched, it will directly compete with the likes of the Mercedes C 200 BlueEfficiency (Rs 32.13 lakh, ex-showroom, Mumbai) and the Audi A4 1.8 TFSI (Rs 29.26 lakh, ex-showroom, Mumbai).
Also see – New BMW 3-series launched in India at Rs. 28.90 lakh
Source – AutoCarIndia
