The Next 3

This morning when I visited BMW's website to play with their car configurator, and I clicked on the link to the 330i sedan to find that it had been updated to the 2006 model. I love their tech, but I'm not so keen on the 2006's design. What loses it for me is the eyebrows over the kidney grill aspect of the design. It's a design touch that is meant to appeal to aesthetic senses, but it has quite the opposite effect on me.

I'm also sad to see that they don't have SMG on the 2006 3-series (probably when they introduce the new 3-series coupe/convertible), since that was the one piece of tech that I found most interesting in their current lineup. Kind of makes me want to purchase a 2005 SMG-equipped 3-series before they disappear.

A piece of new tech on the 2006 is Active Cruise Control - you set the speed you want to cruise at, but the car can detect the distance of the car ahead, and will set cruise control to match the speed and follow at a safe distance. The idea sounds really good, but I can't see myself really trusting this feature, and for $2,200 it seems to be too expensive to be a useful option.

These should be in showrooms in May, so I'll definitely go and take a took and hope it looks better in person.