You’re buying a car that can do the cut and thrust of city life like the best of them.Well, the answer is: Not at all. What made it worse was that my test car had lovely blue paint that drew a lot of attention to it.Q Is it any good at being a Grand Tourer as you ‘car people’ call it?Oh, it’s good. It has an inherent sense of calm that so far has been the forte of Mercedes Benz. After the 1950s had given the idle rich a new moniker — the Jet Set, the world’s luxury car makers of the sat up and took notice of the fact that they could give this lot the option of making such journeys by road.. They’re supposed to be good to drive, aren’t they?This one has a relatively small two-litre four-cylinder direct injection turbo petrol engine and not BMW’s signature three-litre straight six, but the way it made its 256 horsepower and 350 torques was smooth, progressive and very predictable.Q But don’t these cars cost several crores? I’m not paying that kind of money for a BMW.Q For those who live in a city which has typical Indian roads, is this thing any good at bumps and ruts?Let me put it this way. plastic injection molding machine There is an effortlessness with which the 3GT cruises. They’ve been doing it since the genre kicked off and they’re still on top of their game today.. Oh…oh dear.We agree. Its much better at dealing with rutted roads and gravel tracks.The idea was really simple. Let me put it this way.A Grand Tourer had to be a great-looking, long-legged, luxurious long-distance cruiser that felt sporty, was manageable and could sit comfortably at high speeds all day. But it’s still a BMW.

It is spacious, commodious, comes with a super-smooth power train, cruises well enough to justify the GT badge and deals with Indian roads rather well. It’s easily big enough for two properly strapping adults and a child. The reactions I got to it were ‘Wow!

They were the most expensive cars money could buy in their day.Right, so we’ve established that the 3GT is as pleasing to look at as a gaping wound.As well you shouldn’t. You’ll find evidence of that in the interior.The boot is vast as well.Q What exactly am I buying for about 50 lakhs? Apart from a travelling salesman, obviously. Just remember to push the button that closes the tailgate when you’re done. But like supercars and great SUVs, the 3GT has another complete set of skills.Q Okay. The end result is something that is all of these things. And thus the Grand Tourer car was born. It doesn’t look particularly good.Q Presume that ‘bombo’ back-end must have a point!It does. But it still feels like a BMW somehow; only more relaxed.Ferrari, Aston Martin, Maserati and Bentley are specialist manufacturers of Grand Tourers.’Someone wanted a coupe, another wanted an estate car and someone else wanted a fastback.Q Still not clear though. But a heavy rear end generally means a nauseating pendulum effect at high speeds.You have very little idea of what’s going on in the world outside. I picked this thing up from the BMW service centre which is situated in an industrial estate outside Mumbai. You can barely hear the engine. The road leading out of there was shocking, if not non-existent.

But while we’re stating facts, it must be said that the stereo isn’t great, the rear windows only go halfway down, which is a questionable oversight because all four windows are frameless and therefore draw attention to the design fault. You won’t feel this in any way, but that’s the GT side of this car shining through. Really good. Grand Tourer? Is that a euphemism for some sort of travelling salesman, you wonder.. Break it down for the common man. But you’re still enjoying the drive. That’s when it hit me! The ride quality was better than it is in the normal 3 series and because of this car’s heavier rear end, it bounces around a lot less.This is BMW’s second effort at turning their humble 3 Series into a capable, luxurious and comfortable Grand Tourer. Four large suitcases and a few other bits and bobs? No problem. The technology of the time meant that such journeys could be made faster, easier and infinitely more pleasurable than they had ever been. There was another tiny little fact that we can’t overlook entirely. While the front half of the cabin is the same as the regular 3 Series, the rear is huge. If you’re not careful, the head-up display will inform you that you’re doing well over twice the speed limit.Q Still not convinced, don’t like the way it looks. You can converse with it at the intensity you’d like through the 8-speed automatic gearbox and it will never try to start an argument with you. Sure, it doesn’t follow the typical Grand Tourer recipe, but what it offers for about 50 lakhs plus of your hard-earned rupees is two cars in one — an everyday family car and a proper Gran Turismo. It appears to have been styled by a group of people that were falling out during the very process of styling it. The BMW costs just around half a crore

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