BMW 325i SE Convertible

When pictures of the new BMW 3 Series cabriolet first surfaced, much was said about BMW's decision to fit a folding hard-top instead of the traditional cloth roof... apparently it's still brilliant.

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Broadly speaking, it is possible to put every car ever made into one of two categories: ‘Surprising’ and ‘Not Surprising At All’. Paradoxically, despite the new BMW 3 Series offering some very surprising features indeed, like the brilliantly resolved folding hard top (a first for BMW), leather that refuses to get hot even on the sunniest day and some of the sweetest engines available, the BMW 3 Series Convertible finds itself placed firmly in the ‘Not Surprising At All’ camp.

This is an unsurprising car, which is not to say that it isn’t exciting – quite the opposite in fact – it’s just that BMW would have had to drop the ball in a truly spectacular fashion for it be anything other than completely as expected. The track record of BMW drop heads is so strong, I would have been stunned if this car fell short of outstanding, which for the record, it is.

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One of the most successful aspects of the new 3 Series Cabrio has been BMW’s elimination of the trade mark Coupe/Cabrio hunch back. Look at pretty much any ‘CC’ on the cheap side of a Mercedes SLK and you’ll notice the Quasimodo-style hump dominating the profile: making the car look rear heavy, hinting at the lack of packaging ingenuity displayed by the 3 Series and generally spoiling the lines of what are often very handsome hatchbacks. Renault Megane CC: quod erat demonstrandum. If anything, the boot line looks a little lower on the convertible version of the Beemer.

The trademark kidney grille dominates the front view and, thanks to the standard Bi-Xenon headlamps taking up less space than a conventional halogen unit, the designers were able to lower the bonnet lip of the car – giving it a slightly meaner face than the last model. You still get the ‘corona rings’ though, probably the coolest headlights on the road today. The rear end is only slightly less successful, but only because the front remains completely untouched by the necessary ‘coupe/convertible’ modifications.

The three-panel retractable hard top will open or close in 22 seconds via a switch on the centre console or, somewhat ostentatiously, a button on the key fob. If you’ve gone for the ‘Comfort Access’ option you can close the roof using the remote too, although the actual reason for needing a function like this eludes me completely, it is very ‘BMW driver’. The fitment of a solid roof does make you wonder how the centre of gravity will be affected (compared to the older models), but it doesn’t feel top heavy and the removal of the vandalism paranoia associated with traditional convertibles is very welcome. They’ve even managed to do minimal damage to the boot space – with 350 litres roof up and 210 litres roof down – it’s a darn sight better than many of the mainstream CC’s on sale today, although still not ideal, or anything like as civilised as a traditional soft-top. But, they have managed to fit in a ski chute, which is obviously essential for every St Albans upper middle management cocktail drinker. Ahem.