BMW’s Individual catalog of paint colors is now more impressive than ever before. Over the years, BMW has expanded the color palette for several models and in the case of the 3 Series, there are literarily hundred of exterior colors to choose from. Yet, customers’ choices don’t cease to surprise us. Take for example this 2023 BMW M340i hailing from the United Kingdom and featuring a unique blue shade: Gentian Blue or sometimes called Enzian Blue (color code W37).
Refreshed Design, Upgraded Engine
We’ve seen plenty of blue hues on BMW cars, but Gentian Blue is certainly one that you don’t come across every day. It sits somewhere between Santorini Blue and Voodoo Blue, and brings an electric hue to the sporty lines of the BMW M340i. Speaking of the M Performance model, this M340i Facelift comes with the Shadow Line extended option with the afferent dark accents. It also gets a mesh kidney grille, along with black tailpipes, tinted window and a a blacked out trim.
The car sits on 19-inch light-alloy wheels, double-spoke style 792 M bi-color, paired with M Sport Brakes and red calipers. For extra design aggressiveness, this BMW M340i features the M Sport Package. The BMW M340i Facelift M Performance version also gets the adaptive LED headlights with blue accents as standard equipment. To simplify the light design, the new 3 Series has lost its separate fog lights as these have been integrated into the main headlights.
Beneath the new mesh grille and headlights, much larger air intakes replace the old, smaller ones. This is probably the largest area of improvement. The large air intakes of the M Sport Package are also painted in the same body color as the car, compared to black as before. Next, the front fascia received a hexagonal air intake flanked by air curtains. At the back, the taillights have remained essentially the same, but the bumper incorporates a meaner diffuser and a large glossy black area with vertical reflectors.
Of course, the engine went through a slight revision for 2023 as well. BMW’s workhorse engine – B58 – was upgraded. The 2023 BMW M340i features a mild-hybrid technology providing a temporary 11 horsepower boost. The inline-six 3.0-liter unit still generates 374 horsepower and 500 Newton-meters (369 pound-feet) of torque. As for performance, the sedan will do 0 to 62 mph (100 km/h) in 4.4 seconds.
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