It’s no secret that RFD has chosen BMWs, particularly the BMW 3-Series and its variants, as our own daily driver on multiple occasions. Heck even I recently owned an E90 328i M Sport that I swapped out for an IS300. So we pay close attention to changes in the venerable 3-series lineup.
The BMW 3 Series Sedan and the BMW 3 Series Touring, aka wagon, models are both getting new trim levels called the Edition Sport Line Shadow the Edition M Sport Shadow and the Edition Luxury Line Purity. Those are all a lot of words to say to someone when describing your new Bimmer. Perhaps we should acronym them, as our industry is known to do at times. So the ESLS, EMSS, and ELLP. On second though, let’s not acronym them.
Both the ESLS and EMSS come with various appearance accents such as black inserts for the headlamps, dark taillight clusters, black surrounds for the BMW kidney grille, black inserts for the lower air intake, chrome black exhaust tailpipes and 18-inch light alloy wheels with a double-spoke design. So basically they are following the blacker-the-better philosophy that a lot of automakers have gone with. Black out alllll the trim! The EMSS, that’s the M Sport one that RFD readers may care about, ups the ante with M Sports suspension, the M aerodynamics package and M light alloys. Basically the same sort of package that my E90 had.
The Edition Luxury Line Purity ups your baller game with satin-finished aluminum for your side windows, as well as the air intake inserts, the BMW kidney grille bars, the rear bumper cover, exhaust tailpipes and 17-inch alloys. Or, basically, satin finish alllll the things!
Inside, the various acronym’d packages include various things, some luxury focused, some sport focused. We aren’t provide pics in the release, but regardless, the one to care about, the Edition M Sport Shadow gets leather sports seats with blue contrast stitching and different interior trim with “Dark Aluminium Carbon with Pearlescent Chrome” accentuating strips. Alrighty, we don’t get pics of the inside so we’ll have to take your word on that BMW. Naturally you still get the the M steering wheel, anthracite roof liner, and M doorsill trims just like my 2011 sedan. What my car did not have is a “SPORT+” mode, which I assume is like Sport mode, but better.
My favorite bit is the new paint color though. With silver and grey continuing to be the go-to choice for German sedans, BMW will let you select Sunset Orange – which they describe a “a contemporary interpretation of the colour which was popular in the 1970s and available for the first generation of the BMW 3 Series initially as Inca Orange and later as Phoenix Orange”. Neat, although I like the old school orange in the pictures. Plus Sunset Orange will always remind me of the WS6 Firebird/Trans Am. Not sure if that’s good, or bad.
Why should you care? Well if you aren’t in the market for a new 3-series, you shouldn’t. But I can say from experience that the M-Sport variant is one of the more rewarding packages that you can add to your 3-series. So go check this one out, and if you can, get it in orange.
All photos courtesy BMW.
