Couped up and loving it

By Alastair Sloane

There are ordinary cars, good, cars, exciting cars and exceptional cars. Most fall into the good category. A handful are exciting. Very few are exceptional.

But the BMW 3-Series coupe sits comfortably in the exceptional category. It's no gatecrasher, muscling its way in through marketing money.

It gets there simply by its sheer ability to be a docile day-tripper one minute and a highly tuned hustler the next, all the while retaining an urgent poise.

Briefly, the coupe is as desirable as cars can be and is arguably the best-looking BMW on the market.

BMWs are more appreciated these days. In the 80s, on the sharemarket money-go-round, BMWs were the cars in which to be seen. The carmaker acknowledges that. These days it is more comfortable with itself.

Much has been written about the new coupe, how it will succeed where the previous car didn't, how it is no longer a hand-me-down model which looked like a two-door version of the four-door.

Simply, the new model has an identity that the old one lacked. And that identity spills over to an improvement in dynamics, looks - the whole box and dice.

It best demonstrates BMW's claim to the "ultimate driving machine." Its balance is superb, its ability to change direction urgently at speed is a tribute to its body control, grip is as good as it gets from a rear-drive car, and the steering is smooth and flowing.

The coupe costs between $79,000 and and $103,000, depending on specification and choice of six-cylinder engine, either the 2.5-litre 323Ci or 2.8-litre 328Ci, both with more oomph than the law will allow.

The coupe, like many cars for that matter, looks much nicer in the flesh than in photographs. It sits squatter than its predecessor, it's longer, wider and not as high overall. It has a delightfully menacing look about it.

It comes with up-to-the-minute safety systems, too, airbags galore and brakes and electronic devices that keep the careless driver on the straight and narrow and help to prevent him from going backwards through a hedge.

One intriguing feature of the car is a customised electronic function which allows the driver's seat, the air-conditioning and radio to be set individually.

A husband and wife, for example, can set the car up to suit themselves.

A remote control key is used with the car's computer to programme the each function. He sets the driver's seat, the air-conditioning and the radio to his liking. The information is downloaded electronically into the key. She sets the same functions to suit herself.

Everytime he opens the car with the remote the driver's seat, air-conditioning and radio set themselves to suit. The same thing happens when she takes the wheel.