Review: BMW's new 2012 3 Series gets you hooked

— -- The 3 Series compact sedan is a huge part of the BMW franchise in the U.S., accounting for about four of every 10 BMW vehicles sold.

It's the first BMW for many, and sometimes the last, because it's satisfying enough some owners stay put instead of moving up.

"They love their 3 Series," U.S. CEO Ludwig Willisch says. Owners might move to other versions of the 3 Series that have a "different engine, or maybe different specs, but they're not really aspiring (to a different BMW). Their dream is not the (big) 7 Series."

So a new 3 is a big deal for BMW. And the new 2012 3 Series sedan, on sale since February, is the sixth generation 3 Series.

Other models of the 3, such as the coupe and convertible, are not getting the makeover immediately.

The four-door sedan — available as the smaller-engine 328i and bigger-engine 335i — has significant changes.

•Size. It's a little bigger, which opens up more space, mainly in back. More generous knee room there now.

It remains far smaller than the 5 Series midsize (about a foot shorter, for instance) and is $10,000 to $12,000 less than the 5 at the entry level.

•Looks. The extra size lets BMW drape the sheet metal a bit more gracefully, so it manages to look both sleeker and more muscular.

•Drivetrain. The base model 328i now has a 2-liter turbocharged four cylinder in place of last year's 3-liter, non-turbo six.

Same power rating — 240 horsepower — but the four is coarser in its delivery. It's especially unpleasant at low speed and in stop-and-go traffic.

It's a sweetheart under hard spurs on the open road, though.

The uplevel 335i sedan carries over the same turbocharged, 300-hp six-cylinder. It was not tested this time, but the same engine has been delightful in other BMWs Test Drive has sampled.

Both engines come with BMW's automatic start-stop feature. At long pauses, such as red lights, the engine will stop running to save fuel and cut pollution. It restarts instantly when the driver pushes on the clutch pedal on a manual-shift model or relaxes pressure on the brake pedal in an automatic. But there was lots of shaking and shimmying when it did its business in the 328i manual-transmission test car. Not refined enough for a BMW. You can cancel the start-stop feature via a button near the ignition switch.

BMW has an evil genius for options so the 3 gets pricey in a hurry. While the base 328i is a tempting $36,000, you must layer on several packages, none cheap, to get the blend of features you probably prefer. Figure $45,000 to $55,000 for a 3 you want.

Satisfying attributes of the new 3 include what you might expect on a BMW.

•Steering is nicely balanced, able to point the car straight ahead without lots of small corrections that some vehicles demand, and quite responsive when you turn the wheel. Makes it easy to accurately place the car in a tight corner, staying in your lane without panic.

•Brakes have a reassuring feel, neither spongy nor artificially boosted.

•Cornering ability is more than adequate, able to keep you on the road and out of the ditch when, oh, say, you hit an unfamiliar corner that's much tighter than expected while going pretty fast. The kind where, just for example, the back end begins to slide and the tires howl. Just for example.