Faults:

Nothing - early days. The quality feels good so far.

General Comments:

Admittedly this is a "first review" after 6 weeks of ownership, but I couldn't be happier. This is my first BMW and I am very very impressed.

The buying experience was good - the dealer was helpful and worked hard to win my business - not at all pushy and was patient.

This is a second car for my family, but needs an element of practicality to accommodate our two young kids on occasions. I also wanted something with a sporty edge, and this seemed to be the perfect fit.

The breadth of ability of this car is amazing. In ECO or Comfort modes the car will grind through the daily commute comfortably and quietly without fuss. The M Sport seats are the most comfortable I have tried and are infinitely adjustable. The ZF auto transmission is smooth and unobtrusive. The stop/start is very quick and really doesn't hold you back in busy town runs.

However, when you hit Sport/Sport+, the demeanour of the car changes completely. The chassis stiffens (although never gets too hard), the steering gets more direct and the gear changes become sharper. Using the paddles, the gears shifts are impressively quick and the car goes... really goes! The performance is very strong from the 2.0 TT engine and it sounds fantastic with a metallic gravelly growl (vastly different to the 328i I drove). Setting the "speed warning" appropriately is a critical activity!

I know that there are varying views on the interior fit out of current BMWs. Overall I think it is pretty good - the quality of the plastics probably isn't quite to the levels of my previous Audi, but it is a slightly brighter, nicer place to be. All of the switches have a nice solid feel to them.

I genuinely feel that this car is as close to "perfect" as I would find for my needs, but just to prove I don't work for BMW :-), there are some things that could be improved:

- The iDrive on the whole works quite well, but some of the sub-menus on the sat-nav are very awkward and frustrating - it can be very hard to find what you want.

- The sat-nav does not include traffic information and is very optimistic about journey times.

- The sound quality from the stereo is excellent, but loading music on to the 2GB hard drive is very clunky and awkward.

- I have never come anywhere near the manufacturer's claims for fuel economy - although this does seem to be the norm with almost every car these days.

- The doors are long... very long... and heavy. It is only a matter of time before they get damaged in a car park I feel.

- My car has the "brushed aluminium" trim finishers inside - they look good, but get dangerously hot when it has been standing in the sun for a few hours.

Overall though, I'm very impressed and look forward to driving this car every day.