BMW’s next six-cylinder 3 Series all-wheel drive M350 will be able to send all of its power to the rear wheels. You just have to open a menu, touch a widget, and 100% of the power shifts to the back. But is that good enough to replace the pure rear-wheel drive feeling of the M340i? Let’s explore this.
The 2027 BMW M350 xDrive replaces the M340i at the top of the combustion 3 Series range, and BMW has announced one version of it. xDrive is standard, and the M350 is the only six-cylinder in the petrol lineup. BMW hasn’t said there will never be a rear-drive M350 for the world, but nothing it has shown suggests one. If that doesn’t change, the G20 M340i is the last six-cylinder, rear-wheel-drive 3 Series below the M3, and we’d hang onto one.
What Drift Moment Actually Does
Drift Moment will live in the central display. Select it and the M350 sends all of its engine output to the rear axle, using M-style control of the multi-disc clutch. A two-wheel-drive setting like this has been an M3 and M5 feature for years. Putting one on an M Performance 3 Series is new, and BMW didn’t have to do it. But it might had to.
It won’t be there on day one, though. M350 xDrive production starts in the second half of 2026, and BMW plans to switch Drift Moment on during 2027 through a Remote Software Upgrade, including on cars already delivered.
The hardware underneath is a big step up. The 3.0-liter inline-six with 48-volt mild hybrid assistance makes 437 hp (443 PS) and 428 lb-ft through an eight-speed Steptronic. Adaptive M suspension, an M Sport differential, and variable sport steering are standard. BMW’s provisional 0-62 mph time is 4.1 seconds.
Will The M350 Drive Like A Pure RWD?
Rear-drive mode doesn’t take anything off the car. With Drift Moment on, the M350 still carries a transfer case, a front differential, and front driveshafts. That hardware adds weight, and much of it sits over the front axle. The car is the same either way. Only the torque/power split changes.
The rear-drive M340i doesn’t have that hardware at all. Its front wheels only steer, so there are no driveshafts running through the front hubs and no front differential in the nose. The RWD M340i weighs roughly 3,850 lbs so it’s likely that the M350 xDrive is at least 100 lbs heavier which, for the purists, might alter the driving experience and feel.
A US-Market Oddity
The rear-drive M340i has mostly been an American thing. BMW of North America offered it alongside the xDrive car from the start of the G20 generation, when the 2020 RWD sedan started at $54,000 and the xDrive version at $56,000. It survived the LCI (Life Cycle Impulse, BMW’s term for a mid-cycle refresh), shows up in listings for every model year from 2022 through 2025, and is still on BMW USA’s site. The latest pricing we’ve seen is $62,300 for the RWD car and $64,300 with xDrive.
Being the less common configuration in essentially one market is a small thing today. In 20 years, when someone wants a clean one, it won’t be.
Why Owners Pick It
Start with the engine. Current US cars pair the B58 3.0-liter inline-six with a 48-volt mild hybrid system for 386 hp and 398 lb-ft combined. The B58 has been in BMWs since 2015 and has a following in the tuning world, and in the M340i it only has to drive one axle.
Then there’s the $2,000 you don’t spend on xDrive at current MSRP. That’s a set of dedicated winter wheels and tires, which the RWD car needs if you live anywhere near Chicago.
The bigger reason is harder to put on a spec sheet. Every 3 Series from the E21 onward was built around rear-wheel drive, and xDrive only became common much later. Buying the RWD M340i means buying the 3 Series in its original layout, with the most powerful engine you can get short of an M3.
There are some downsides, of course. The RWD car is slower. BMW USA lists 4.4 seconds to 60 mph against 4.1 seconds for the M340i xDrive. We recall doing a sprint test as well and got 4.5 seconds out of a rear-drive test car and found that its narrow tires held back braking and handling.
Winter is the other problem, and good tires only solve part of it. And like every US-market G20 3 Series, it has no manual, which is the one thing that would have made it an easy future classic instead of a probable one.
Will It Be A Classic?
Probably, but not automatically. The M340i wasn’t a limited edition, and plenty of rear-drive cars will get tuned, crashed, or run into the ground. The stock, well-kept ones are what collectors will want.
What it has going for it is timing. If the M350 stays xDrive-only, the M340i RWD is the end of the six-cylinder, rear-drive M Performance 3 Series. It’s also a fairly complex modern car, and nobody knows yet what mild hybrid components and G20-era electronics will cost to keep alive in 2045. That will decide a lot.
First published by https://www.bmwblog.com
