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2001 BMW 3-Series Review

 Paul Wiley Cockerham Paul Wiley Cockerham
Editor

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Adding words of praise to the volumes that BMW’s small series has already garnered is pointless. No question that the 3-Series defines the contemporary sports sedan, but the 4WD wagon variant does raise some interesting questions of identity.

For one thing, it’s small, even by the definitions allotted to “small wagons.” It gives you enough space to make airport runs more useful, and the rooftop cargo rails, without cross pieces, are a joke. You’d need to supplement the rails with pieces from Yakima or Thiele to get use out of them.

The cargo area has both a cover and a vertical net that supposedly allows you to stack cargo safely to the ceiling. It is, however, quite flexible, and our 68-pound standard poodle, Willy, had no problem wiggling through a side edge to escape the cargo area and join us up front.

So, as a wagon per se, the 325xi is only incrementally useful. As a 4WD vehicle, it does allow BMW thrills to be enjoyed year-round, particularly in snowy climates, if the consumer feedback you read in the press means anything.

You can’t really detect the full-time, 62-percent rear/38-percent front system under normal conditions from the driver’s seat, save that on dry pavement, the 325xi clings like the 20th Century Limited to New York Central track. We didn’t have the chance to test the system in inclement weather, but on gravel-and-dirt mountain roads, the car, with its dynamic brake control and DSC-X stability control systems working overtime, couldn’t really get out of its own way, particularly with loose gravel allowing lurid slides toward the trees. A Subaru WRX

Impreza it isn’t. Nor is it a Mazda Tribute, for that matter. We tested the Ford Escape clone at the same time we had the 325xi, and the Tribute’s 4WD-locked-axle system with 50/50 front/rear power distribution inspired a lot more confidence in the same conditions, even with 15 additional horsepower and added mass.

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