What's all this about?
The oddball BMW 3 Series GT has been facelifted, like its Saloon and Touring siblings last year.
Are you sure? This looks like the same car as ever...
No, check out the reshaped lamp clusters front and rear. They're pretty much all LEDs now, with Adaptive LED headlights an option, while the fog lights are also LEDs and the air intakes are LEDs too... sorry, we mean, the air intakes have been reshaped. Two new colours can be had on any model of GT, which are Arctic Grey and Jatoba metallic, while Estoril Blue is exclusive to the M Sport variants.
Not exactly ground-breaking stuff - so what's the interior like?
Largely the same, save for some new wood finishes, chrome and high-gloss elements around bits of switchgear... and, er, and different colours of contrast stitching for the leather upholstery. Connectivity and infotainment software has been updated too.
You're not convincing me. Have all the engines changed?
Well, the petrol ones have. They're the new modular family of more efficient TwinPower Turbo units, which means 500cc per cylinder. Therefore, the 320i and 330i models are both 2.0-litre four-pots and (rather obviously) the 340i is a 3.0-litre six-cylinder unit. Power ranges from 184- to 326hp, with torque of between 270Nm (320i Steptronic or xDrive; it has 290Nm as a manual rear-wheel drive model) and 450Nm. Performance ranges from 8.4- to 5.0 seconds for 0-62mph times, and top speeds are between 139- and the de rigueur limited 155mph maximum.
You mentioned xDrive and Steptronic briefly; what are my choices?
All the petrol GTs can be had as either rear-wheel drive or xDrive all-wheel drive models, while only two of the diesels (the 320d and 330d) can be optioned up with xDrive and the 335d comes with xDrive as standard. A six-speed manual gearbox is standard on the 318d, 320i and 320d models, while an eight-speed Steptronic automatic is fitted to every other car in the GT range. The auto is an optional extra on the cars fitted with a clutch pedal.
Care to elaborate on the diesel badging?
Also modular, there are three 2.0-litre fours and two 3.0-litre sixes. In the first category, you've got the 318d, 320d and the 325d. In the second, the 330d and 335d. Of these, the ones with a '5' in their badges have twin-turbo set-ups, while the rest possess single blowers. Keeping up?
Barely. What are we looking at for the diesels' on-paper stats?
The bookends of all of the following 'extreme' figures are the 318d (least potent, most parsimonious) and the 335d (silly powerful, not quite as good on fuel). So, here goes: outputs go from 150hp/320Nm to 313hp/630Nm; 0-62mph times stretch from a blistering 4.9 seconds up to a more leisurely 9.3 seconds; fuel economy starts at 49.6mpg and reaches as high as 65.7mpg; and the attendant CO2 emissions range is 112- to 151g/km.
Can you just tell me the petrol cars' green figures?
You'll get 36.7mpg and 175g/km from the 340i xDrive, and 48.7mpg and 132g/km from the rear-wheel drive 320i Steptronic. The others all lie in between.
When will the revised 3 Series GT go on sale?
In July this year, with prices starting from £30,405.
Matt Robinson - 31 May 2016