Steve.Huntingford@haymarket.com
YOU DON’T USE a search engine, you Google, and you don’t video-call your friends and family, you FaceTime them. Yes, occasionally a service or product is so successful that it becomes a verb. And, similarly, there are certain cars that transcend their brands.
Take the 3 Series. Sporty yet practical and desirable yet obtainable, it’s BMW’s bestseller. But more than that, it has dominated its class to such an extent over the years that every new premium-badged executive car tends to be billed as the rival manufacturer’s 3 Series.
Here, though, we really do have a new 3 Series. Or, more accurately, an updated version of the seventh-generation car that’s been on sale since 2019.
Visual changes include double rather than single slats in the front grille, more angular…
