2014 BMW 328i Gran Turismo offers spacious, luxury ride at high cost - Newsday
They don't show up much in mid-sized, mid-priced territory, which is dominated by traditional sedans with trunks. The latest example is BMW's 2014 3-Series Gran Turismo. The company doesn't call it a hatchback, probably figuring that would denigrate it. But it's actually way bigger than the compact 3-Series sedan -- fully seven inches longer, with a back seat that has limousine-like room to stretch out, along with... There's also a cargo area of 18 cubic feet compared to the sedan's trunk of 13 cubic feet. The BMW Gran Turismo neatly finesses that with its fastback profile, which itself is catching on with an increasing number of nameplates, both in sedans and hatchbacks. Witness the Jaguar XF and Audi A7. You might expect that a car with such a generous back seat -- likely to be popular in China, where cars like this usually are chauffeur driven -- would provide enough room for all the positions with seatbelts. But the Gran Turismo's center-rear seat is an uncomfortable hard cushion made more difficult by a large, square hump in the floor that requires the person's legs to be splayed to the sides. In BMW's defense, punishing center-rear seats are common. Source: www.newsday.com
