First units of the 2022 BMW 3 Series are slowly arriving in the United States. The high selling premium sedan received a refresh earlier this year and it is now ready to land in customers’ hands. The sedans shown here are the 330i, 330e PHEV with the optional M Sport Package and the M340i top model. With the facelifted 3 Series, BMW touts a “significantly more muscular and distinctive” kidney grille, with a glossy black inside with a chrome frame and double slats.
The sports sedan gets slimmer headlights with sharper LED daytime running lights looking like an upside down “L.” The car shown here has optional adaptive headlights. Furthermore, the new 3 Series has lost its separate fog lights as these have been integrated into the main headlights. The front fascia now has a hexagonal air intake flanked by air curtains we’ve already seen on the facelifted X3. At the back, the taillights have remained essentially the same, but the bumper incorporates a meaner diffuser and a large glossy black area with vertical reflectors.
The BMW M340i Facelift M Performance version gets the adaptive LED headlights with blue accents as standard equipment. Beneath the new mesh grille and headlights, much larger air intakes replace the old, smaller ones. This is probably the largest area of improvement. The large air intakes of the M Sport Package are also painted in the same body color as the car, compared to black as before.
Due to pedestrian regulations, the nose is also more angles, shark-like, while the gap between the kidneys and bumper is extremely slim. According to BMW, the car is now 4mm longer, but that’s mostly due to the aforementioned changes to the front fascia.
Inside, the BMW 3 Series Facelift gets the same interior as the BMW i4, with the same new iDrive 8 integration, the dual infotainment screen setup, and BMW’s latest digital gauges. Unlike the i4, though, the new 3 Series ditches the old robot-leg shift lever for the iX’s toggle switch. A subtle update to the interior is one that does make a significant difference and that’s the…
