[Cgm9999]

I gotta agree with Karbon; the F30 barely feels like a BMW to me.

The steering is a joke and as anybody who has been smitten by a BMW before can attest, steering feel is a lot of what makes a BMW a BMW. It's kind of like the disastrous strategy Coca Cola had when they introduced "New Coke" in the 1980s. Not only did they reinvent the wheel for the worse, but they threw out the old wheel so that you couldn't even enjoy normal Coke even if you wanted to. Note to BMW: Bring back the hydraulic steering as an option or supply it as standard on the Sportline and M-Sport trims. Please. Like, right now.

The car also lacks that middleweight champion prizefighter look that all previous 3 series' possessed. It looked cut, nimble, and ready to go from any angle without being flashy or pretentious. The 3 series always just looked "right". Paired down to its significant parts, no less, no more. This look is gone with the F30. Where the 3 series once looked like a well groomed Army Special Forces Soldier in Class As, the F30 looks like a doughy, amoeba-like computer programmer with an untucked short-sleeve dress shirt from Sears. I hate how unrefined the front profile looks. It's like the designers, stymied by the European pedestrian crash test standards, started out with the hood at the ideal height and then just cluelessly piled on more height over the engine compartment without any regards to styling. It looks absolutely clumsy. Also, I'm absolutely perplexed and outraged by that terrible cutline for the hood that cuts sloppily across the front end of the car. This design detail would look out of place on a Toyota Corolla let alone a $40,000 BMW. Absolutely unforgivable. And where are the bulging, muscular fenders on this car? It looks like a FWD Lexus it's so timid looking. Further damning the styling, whenever I see an F30 on the road, I still cannot to this day tell if it's a 5 series or not until it's right in front of me. And I'm not only a car enthusiast, but a BMW car enthusiast! Sad.

I can only hope that the 2 series will be everything I want, basically, a modern E46 in style and function. If not, I have no idea what I'll be driving a few years from now.