The ultimate drive

To refer to BMWs simply as cars is like dismissing Catherine Zeta-Jones as merely beautiful. It’s a gross unders-tatement. BMWs are not just cars. BMWs are the ultimate driving machines.

And last week, we got to drive five of them.

Last May 22 and 23, BMW Group Philippines invited selected members of the motoring press to its first new model press launch in the country. The affair showcased the company’s latest offerings, packed in one exhilarating, high-speed ride-and-drive event from Manila to Baguio and back.

Early this year, the company announced its plans of expanding not only its dealership network in the country, but also of beefing up its model range. Presently, the country is deprived of the latest and the best models BMW has on its showroom floors abroad, a situation BMW Philippines seeks to address.

Apparently, BMW is quite bullish about its prospects locally. Citing CAMPI figures, BMW Philippines president Mark Gilbert said the company had a good start this year. In a market that saw a 28-percent decline over the years, BMW has increased its volume by 94 percent, thereby increasing its share in the luxury car market by 261 percent, Gilbert said in his speech.

Worldwide, last year was the most successful for the German auto giant, achieving a retail sales volume in excess of 820,000 units, up by 9.4 percent from the previous year. Gilbert added that while BMW is the 12th largest automaker in terms of volume in the world, it nonetheless rivals Porsche as the most profitable manufacturer on a per-car-sold basis.

Fortunately, BMW is now mounting a serious offensive on the local market, too. Heading this assault are the company’s most successful products, the 3-series and Z-series models. Set to be available in local showrooms this June are three variants of the 3-series cars and two Z-series sports cars.

Widely accepted as the benchmark when it comes to sports sedans, the 3-series has defined what a sports sedan is or should be since its introduction in 1975. Which is not surprising, since earlier BMW iterations – particularly the 2002, from which the first generation 3-series was based on – virtually invented the sports sedan genre.

Lucky folks with fat wallets and an even fatter appreciation of fine cars can opt for a 3-series, either in 325i Limousine, 325i Touring or 325i Coupé variants. The "limousine" is actually a four-door sedan, the "touring" a station wagon and the "coupé" is a, duh, two-door sports coupé. All are equipped with newly-tuned, six-cylinder 2.5-liter engines. All are fitted with five-speed Steptronic transmissions. All are intoxicating.

And you know it the second you get behind the wheel.

Acceleration is brisk but not wham-bam brutal. Shift to "D" or opt to use the Steptronic function to shift gears manually, floor the gas pedal, and the car scoots away in a quick but drama-free manner. And BMW’s VANOS variable valve timing technology makes sure there’s plenty of power on tap at any engine speed.

Even at high speeds – in the wet at that – the car displays no tendency to exhibit any hair-raising theatrics. It remains as stable and composed as it is at any speed.

This is especially true with the 325i Coupé, where we hit the 200 kph mark on the North Expressway going back to Manila. Even on less-than-perfect road surfaces, the Coupé tracks straight and true. There are no perceptible vibrations on the dashboard, steering wheel or anything on the car, for that matter. Noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) levels are so impossibly low, the car’s smooth, smooth, and smooth all the way. Add to that the fact that only high quality materials like leather and wood trim find their way inside a BMW car.

The irony, however, is that despite the level of smoothness and luxury, the car feels in no way disconnected to the road. It still clearly communicates to the driver its intentions. With Dynamic Stability Control, which encompasses traction control and ABS, the car is also smart enough to correct the mistakes of a stupid driver. A stupid driver having tremendous fun, we must add.

What fun the Z-series sports cars were too. Available either as a 170-horsepower, 2.2-liter six-cylinder powered Z3 Roadster 2.2i, or a 225-horsepower, 2.8-liter six-cylinder Z3 Coupé 3.0i model, these cars must be the best fun one can have with their pants on. These two cars are rolling testaments of BMW’s legendary steering prowess and handling capabilities.

As with the other BMWs, steering is laser-guided precise, and handling is right-here, right-now responsive. In the Z3s, though, those attributes are even taken a notch higher. The result is pure driving nirvana. Take a topless Z3 Roadster to speed at Kennon Road at night, and you’ll know what we mean. The car carves canyons as cleanly and precisely as its Xenon headlights carve through the darkness. There’s simply not enough space here to rhapsodize about it.

Suffice it to say that it is easy to see now why BMW has consistently top almost all the comparison test drives of the most prestigious and authoritative car publications around the world, besting its rivals that bear equally exalted names. The difference? At BMW the slogan "The Ultimate Driving Machine" is not just any mumbo-jumbo advertising pitch crap. It is plain fact.