How Does It Drive? Just like the old N54 engine, the N55 is as smooth as single malt, makes a sweet sound, and is plenty powerful. Also like the N54, it seems to make more than the advertised horsepower. Back in 2007, a twin-turbo coupe managed 0 to 60 in 4.9 seconds. This one did the deed in five flat.

View 2011 BMW 335i Sedan Photos from Car and Driver. Find high-resolution car images in our photo-gallery archive. Features and specs for the 2011 BMW 3 Series 335i xDrive including fuel economy, transmission, warranty, engine type, cylinders, drive train and more.

Through the quarter-mile, the earlier car managed 13.6 seconds at 105 mph versus 13.7 at 106 for this 2011 model. The 2011 pulls away beyond 100 mph, hitting that speed in 12.0 seconds (the 2007 needed 12.1), with a 1.8-second advantage to the hugely important-for-your-commute 140-mph mark (26.2 seconds versus 28.0). As the chassis remains unchanged, dynamic performance is identical to that of the previous car. Both stopped from 70 mph to 0 in 160 feet, and they recorded skidpad performances within 0.01 g of each other: 0.88 for the new, 0.87 for the old. The real difference came in mileage. The 2007 car had EPA city and highway mileage ratings of 17 and 26 mpg, respectively.

The 2011 version improves to 19 and 28. Our observed figure improved even further, from 18 mpg overall in the 2007 model to 21 in the 2011. How Does It Stack Up? Bloody Rage 2 Hacked Cheats Games. The 3-series coupe drives beautifully, with faithful steering, stout brakes, and fluid control feel. The six-speed manual has short, positive throws, and the chassis balance is terrific, with lots of power oversteer available in the lower gears. The new engine sounds slightly fuller than the old one, and the power delivery is even more linear: One can stick the car in sixth gear at ridiculously low revs, and it will pull from 30 mph on up without hesitation.

The Audi A5 and the Infiniti G37 offer similar performance and style, but neither car has the fluidity and refinement of the BMW over twisting pavement. What’s the Cost? The rub, of course, is the price. BMW charges $43,525 for a base 335i coupe, although our tester was packed with just about every available option. Add in nav, the Sport package with 19-inch wheels and tires, the Premium package, and parking sensors—among other items—and the sticker swells to $53,525.

That price will plant a person into a lot of cars, from a sexy Audi S5 to a boisterous Chevy Corvette, but there’s nothing that matches the blend of refinement and performance provided by a 335i—two turbos or one.

We’ve sampled a bunch of configurations of BMW’s latest-generation 5-series since it debuted about a year ago, but they’ve all been rear-drivers. Last fall, BMW launched the all-wheel-drive 535i xDrive, fitted with the most recent iteration of the company’s all-wheel-drive system. With the trailing edge of the Midwestern winter dropping the season’s last snow on us, we buckled up our test gear and set out to see how this all-weather sleigh stacks up against its predecessor and its current rear-drive siblings. It Runs in the Family. Be it the V-8–powered, the 535i or, or the entry-level, all members of the 5-series family are generally swift, cushy cruisers, with a competent chassis that connects all the dots, with one exception: the numb and artificially heavy power steering, which differs from rear-drive cars' in that it's hydraulically boosted.

(Excepting the M5, non-xDrive 5-series models have electric systems.) Like the flimsy seats in the Corvette, this is something we’ll continue to rant about in the 5er until it’s fixed. It is that bad, and the xDrive 5’s steering is little better despite it being assisted by a pump and not a motor. But as mentioned, the remainder of the 5 package isn’t bad at all. The exterior is handsome, and the interior is equally noble.

The chassis delivers a smooth ride while keeping the body flat in corners. This test car demonstrates what a vast improvement the new generation of BMW’s xDrive hardware represents over the last. The new version employs similar hardware to last year’s, but the car now sends more torque to the rear wheels during cornering and has adopted a much-faster-acting computer system.

Like the old system, the 2011 535i xDrive’s has a default front-to-rear torque split of 40/60 percent. During cornering, the old all-wheel-drive 535xi maintained that split, but the new system moves to a 20/80-percent split to counter the understeer that plagued the old all-wheel-drive 5. Also aiding the 5’s ability to rotate fluidly is a torque-vectoring system that applies the brake to the inside rear wheel while feeding a bit more power to the rear end—and therefore to the unbraked outside wheel—to compensate for the drag. Together with the quicker computer, these two features make for a very agile sedan.