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Latest Update 12-4-2012: Cold weather fault can develop with 'Active Steering'. There is a dealer TSB on this and it should be attended to during routine service. Otherwise, the cost is a stiff £1,750 + VAT for a new steering column, though BMW is aware and had been known to do the decent thing on 4 year old cars, even those serviced independently.

Introduction:

The first time I drove an E90 3-Series I crashed it. We were supposed to be experiencing blowouts on a bend at a test track. The brief was to lock it on cruise control at 80, take it once round the bend like that, then, second time round, the passenger's job was to throw a switch that pulled the valve out of a back tyre. First blowout on ordinary tyres; second blowout on Bridgestone runflats.

Except I forgot that the bend after the 80mph bed tightened up and there was no way through it at 80 in cruise control. So we understeered onto some gravel, had a little 80mph rotation, kept the engine running, then got on with the real job.

And, of course, the car handled it brilliantly. Without Dynamic Stability Control, on standard tyres, the rapid deflation led to a spin. With DSC, it didn't. Then, without DSC, when the runflat deflated, the result was as undramatic as the standard tyres with DSC.

After that we did 10 miles on rural Italian roads in a 320i with a front runflat running flat. The 10 miles with a rear runflat running flat. All a very impressive demonstration of BMW DSC and Bridgestone runflats, but hardly a fair introduction to the new E90 3-Series.

So today, we went to Scotland and drove the new 320dSE Touring, which came on Michelin Pilot Primacy 205/55R16 runflats. This is likely to be the best-selling E91 3-Series Touring.

Road test BMW E92 320d and 326i Touring