The M340i is one of those cars people quietly love without making too much noise about it. Our own Sean Kealey has a love affair with it. It’s not the M3, so it doesn’t carry the weight of expectation. It’s not a sales chart dominator like the X3 or X5. It’s the car enthusiasts quietly spec out online at 2am and actually buy, because it does almost everything well and costs significantly less than the full M car. BMW has been making a version of this car, more or less, since the E46 era, and with every generation the recipe has gotten sharper.
Now BMW is replacing it. The G20 M340i makes way for the G50 M350 (yet to be officially acknowledged by BMW), and based on everything we know so far, the upgrade is substantial enough to make this the BMW I’m most looking forward to in the next 12 months.
No More “i” In The Badge
Start with the name. BMW is retiring the “i” suffix from its combustion-powered M Performance models — the same move it already made with the G45 X3 M50. Going forward, the “i” is reserved for electric vehicles. So the M340i becomes the M350, and that isn’t just cosmetic housekeeping.
Under the hood, BMW is putting a revised B58 inline-six with mild hybrid assistance, and the numbers should go up. Power estimates sit around 410 to 417 horsepower, which is roughly 30 horsepower more than the current North American M340i and closer to 48 more than the detuned European version. That puts the M350 closer to proper M3 territory than its predecessor ever reached.
The styling is the other big change, and this is where things get interesting. Spy shots of the G50 M350 testing at the Nurburgring show a front end that owes more to the Neue Klasse design language than to the oversized grille era that peaked — or bottomed out, depending on your vintage — with the G82 M4. The kidneys are still there, still functional, but slimmer.
The lower bumper on the M Performance variant opens up into a wide trapezoidal intake, closer in proportion to the G90 M5’s front fascia than to what the current M340i wears. Red-painted M Sport brakes sit behind what appear to be 20-inch wheels, up from the 19-inch ceiling on the G20 M340i. And only M Performance and full M models get visible quad exhaust tips — everyone else gets clean-cut bumpers with no pipes showing. That alone makes the M350 easy to spot.
The Ultimate Driving Machine Reloaded
The G50 rides on CLAR II — an evolution of the same architecture that underpins the current G20 and the G45 X3. This isn’t the all-new Neue Klasse NCAR platform that the forthcoming electric NA0 i3 uses. And because of that, the proportions are slightly different with a longer hood, shorter overhangs and a larger boot.
At the same time, the driving dynamics of the 3 Series should stay the same. In fact, we expect them to get even better. Why? Because the suspension geometry, weight distribution, and chassis tuning are all starting from a solid base.
What we don’t know yet is whether the rear-wheel drive option survives, but we’re holding out for it since the writing has been on the wall for quite some time. The current M340i is available with RWD in some markets, including the U.S, yet the most popular choice remains the xDrive model.
The manual transmission is gone entirely. That’s one thing we’re willing to bet one. Not just from the M350 — from the G50 3 Series lineup altogether. If the rumors about the full M3 G84 going automatic-only hold up, this would mark the first 3 Series generation without a clutch pedal anywhere in the range. That’s a genuine loss, even for those of us who mostly drove the M340i in Sport+ mode and forgot the manual existed.
The Most Exciting 3 Series, Until The Next M3 At Least
The G84 M3 isn’t coming until July 2028 at the earliest. The G50 M350 enters production in November 2026 at BMW’s Dingolfing plant and should be available from launch alongside the rest of the G50 lineup. So if you want a performance-oriented 3 Series on the new platform, the M350 is the only option for roughly two years.
That’s actually a decent position to be in. The M340i was often the smarter buy over the M3 anyway — lower insurance, less tire wear, and enough performance to satisfy on a backroad without requiring the kind of commitment a full M car demands. The M350 arrives with more power, futuristic styling, and a new platform, without the M3 tax. If BMW prices it within range of the current M340i, the M350 could be the most complete sporty sedan BMW sells for a while.
The G50 enters production in just a few months. We’ll know a lot more about how it actually drives in the next few months. Until then, the spy shots, the power numbers, and the fact that BMW is replacing one of its best everyday performance cars with something more capable in almost every measurable way — that’s enough to keep it at the top of my watch list.
First published by https://www.bmwblog.com
