alpina b3s 3.4 litre review

Have a picture of Alpina B3S 3.4 litre?, please send it to us.
Picture courtesy of Alessandro Borghi.

Average Ratings

Performance	10/10
Practicality	9/10
Reliability	9.8/10
Value for Money	8.8/10
Reviewer Rating	10/10
Overall Rating	9.4/10

100% Recommended4 out of 4 Reviews

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By Ray73 on 17th Sep 2004

Ray73's Ratings

Year Manufactured	2004
Length of ownership	1 Month
Performance	10/10
Practicality	10/10
Reliability	10/10
Value for money	9/10
Overall value	10/10
Ray73's recommendation

Good Points

Engine power, engine soundtrack, suspension (this is a major plus over the M3), the fact that its hand made! Rare.

Bad Points

Loose big money in the early years

General Comments

I've been a big fan of the BMW Alpina B3S 3.4 litre since I was about 14 and having bought my first one in May 2004 I haven't been let down in owning one of the world's best kept secrets - The Uber BMW (Alpina)!

The first thing that struck home when driving it properly was the suspension. Unlike sports suspension, Alpina's attempt seems to glide along yet hold firm when asked to handle a corner at speed - something I didn't think was possible! The engine which is handbuilt has fantastic acceleration even at high speeds and has a soundtrack to match a 911.

Alpina supply the car with a auto and paddle shift gearbox and the latter is in my opinion the best semi auto box (excluding F1 !!!) out there. The gear changes are smooth and in this mode the car really does fly.

The great thing with Alpina is that they deal (and deal succesfully) with every part of the car - engine, suspension, gear box, interior design and exterior design and their attention to detail is second to none. The shell may well be that of BMW 3 series (which is a good car in itself), but what you have is something totally different and special.

Driving it every day is an honour and pleasure and to be honest I wouldn't drive anything else as my day to day car.

The only downside is that Alpina's seem to loose a lot of their value in the first two years of ownership, so buying them at this time is the best. But buy new and keep it for five years and the loss isn't that great.

If you want to have a smile on your face for the rest of your life - buy an Alpina!

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