Review of the new BMW 318i Touring

It's easy to swallow the 'Ultimate Driving Machine' party line when you're behind the wheel of a BMW M6. Press the power button, prod the throttle and deploy over 500bhp to make Porsche Carreras a dwindling speck in your rear view mirror. For most of us this is automotive fantasy, the reality being that we need cars that are more affordable, more practical and more mature. Crashing back to earth with a jolt, I present possibly the least exciting car in BMW's entire line up. The 318i Touring may not fit in quite so well in Casino Square but it works a whole lot better in the Tesco car park.

That's not to say this car is totally devoid of any semblance of style. What the Touring definitely does have is a 'lifestyle' edge to its image. A horrible marketing-speak word, 'lifestyle' has come to represent the kind of exciting, trendy activity-based existences that modern families with gleaming dental work are supposed to lead in their spare time. Even when you're packing the kids into the car to pop out and pick up something to shift the latest stain the cat has left on your carpet, it would be nice if the neighbours thought you were all off mountain biking or kite-surfing for the day. Get in, look purposeful and you'll get away with it in a 318i Touring.

Power comes courtesy of a four-cylinder engine that fronts up with 143bhp, a little down on the 170bhp 320i to be sure, but still endowed with a reasonable amount of go. The 190Nm of torque isn't much down on the 320i and on the road there won't be much to choose between the two models. Whereas the 320i will make 60mph from rest in 8.4 seconds and accelerate to a top speed of 142mph, the 318i isn't too far behind, notching a 9.5 second sprint and a terminal velocity of 130mph. The outstanding fuel economy figure of 47.1mpg is a little better than the more powerful car although it's doubtful if too many decisions are swung by this factor. A CO2 figure of 146g/km is also an impressive showing for a car with this sort of performance.

The 318d's outstanding economy and emissions figures come courtesy of BMW's EfficientDynamics technology programme. Features including Auto Start-Stop, Brake Energy Regeneration, high precision direct injection, active aero dynamics and optimum gear shift indicators go into EfficentDynamics and the results put BMW products near the top of the tree when it comes to environmental and running costs considerations.

"The 318i Touring keeps things relatively simple for a modern BMW. Simple is good in my book"

Priced from £22,215 in ES trim, rising through £23,245 for the SE and topping out at £25,535 for the M Sport model, the 318i Touring is still a pretty serious financial commitment. Standard equipment has come on a long way from the days when you counted yourself lucky to get seats and a steering wheel. The ES model gets 16-inch alloy wheels, a six-speed manual gearbox, air conditioning, a BMW Professional Radio and CD Player, heated and electrically adjustable door mirrors, electric windows all round, run-flat tyres and Dynamic Stability Control. If there's a little more disposable income washing about, the SE is very well-appointed but the M Sport is the trim level that almost makes the 318i Touring sexy. With sports suspension, sports seats and the M Aero package, it looks purposeful at the very least. Factor in a shortened gear lever, an M leather-trimmed multifunction steering wheel, anthracite headlining, brushed aluminium fascia detailing and door finishers and what BMW dub a High-Gloss Shadowline exterior trim and you have a car that's rather nicely polished. Viewed in profile this car looks for all the world like an elongated 1 Series.

The aesthetics count for very little unless there's some practicality to back it up, without which the 318i Touring loses its raison d'etre. We've just recovered from a rather odd period where a spate of 'sporthatch' style estate cars were launched that really didn't do practicality at all well. Alfa Romeo's old 156 Sportwagon could famously cope with 18 litres less than a 156 saloon and the Audi A4 saloon and Avant have similarly topsy-turvy load volumes. This is strange because anyone can see the additional bulk around such a car's hindquarters which suggests that there should be more space in there somewhere and it's also a little alarming because estate buyers in this sector are typically asked to pay around £1,000 more for the privilege. That's extra money for extra space that may not necessarily be present. The carrying capacity of BMW's 3 Series Touring isn't smaller than that of a 3 Series Saloon, it's exactly the same. Like the other load-luggers in this sector, however, it justifies its price premium on grounds of versatility with a soupcon of 'lifestyle' kudos thrown in.

By examining basic carrying capacities, we're not being entirely fair to these estates. You see, the practical advantages of the 3 Series Touring and its ilk over their saloon counterparts only really make themselves felt when there are less than four people in the car. You get a 460-litre void back there to fill with the paraphernalia of your choice and that doesn't compare at all favourably with the 460-litres you get in the saloon for £1,180 less. Fold the rear seats down, however, and the available space mushrooms up to 1,385 litres. Never mind about taking garden rubbish to the council tip or shifting that chest of draws home from the furniture store, you could hold a wedding reception back there or have it converted into a squash court.

The 3 Series Touring's 60:40 split-folding seats open up the possibility of seating a passenger in the back while still maximising the available loadspace and there are other practical features included in the package as well. Most notable is the split tailgate which opens up two different cargo access options by opening up in two sections. You can simply lift the standard tailgate to get at whatever you've got inside or release the rear window hatch which flips up to reveal a smaller aperture. Perhaps you've reversed up too close to something and there's no space to let the full tailgate swing upwards or maybe you just can't be bothered to open it. In either case, the hatch allows smaller items to be quickly and simply dropped inside. Under the floor, there's a waterproof container that can be used to house dirty items that might play havoc with the boot-floor carpet and the boot itself has a handy cargo net to keep unruly objects under control. If you had to pick fault, it'd be with BMW's build quality and no, this isn't a gripe about fit or finish. Rather, the German marque have surpassed themselves, producing a parcel shelf cum cargo cover that's so substantial you need to risk a hiatus hernia lift it out.

Otherwise, the 318i Touring is beautifully executed. Although the power output is modest, it's easy to see where the money has been spent. It's a car that takes a bit of time to acclimatise to, but once you're in the groove with this car, you'll realise why it doesn't need big power, a swoopy shape or any of the lifestyle flim-flam to sell. In my experience of modern BMWs, the simpler they are, the better they are. In this regard, the 318i Touring has a shout at being one of the best of the bunch.

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