Mat Watson flies to Germany for the new 3 Series, and the comments take the wheel
The reveal of the petrol 3 Series and the electric i3 drew about twenty-one times a usual carwow first day, and its comment section has become a debate about dials, grilles and the older BMWs viewers already own.
carwowStory of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 1,418,277 views a day, 21 times a normal first day on this channel (66,834).
New 3 Series revealed! Did BMW just fix EVERYTHING?
No drag race needed. This time the crowd came for a family saloon. Mat Watson flew to Germany to get his hands on the new BMW 3 Series and its all-electric twin, the i3, and twenty hours later the video had about 1.3 million views, running at roughly twenty-one times the pace of a usual carwow first day.
That puts it close to the Lexus LFA and Dodge Viper V10 duel posted two days earlier, which had a head start of several days and two of the most famous ten-cylinder engines ever made.
The video sets the two cars side by side. From outside they look almost identical, both wearing the Neue Klasse front end of a slim kidney grille between thin headlights. Underneath they part ways. The i3 sits on a new dedicated electric platform, while the petrol car builds on the previous generation's chassis. The petrol range runs from a 2-litre turbo up to the M350's 3-litre straight-six, the electric line tops out with a dual-motor i3 50 xDrive, and BMW has said there will be no diesel. The i3 name is a callback, too: BMW used it before, on the small carbon-fiber electric hatchback it launched in 2013.
The comments are where the car gets taken apart. The steering wheel comes up again and again, along with the display stretched across the windshield and the loss of traditional dials. Some ask why the rear sits so high; one viewer compares the headlights to the stickers on a NASCAR racer. Others turn to the 3 Series already in their driveways, G20s and E92s. One of the most liked comments predicts that in seven years the same people will be missing this one.
Published on Trari
What viewers say
Make a screenshot of how people are ranting now vs. when the new generation comes out in 7 years.
Can't wait for the "we had it so good". "It actually grew on me". "the G50 was the last best 3 series" comments.@Hadronyx1See it on YouTubeThis makes me want to take care of my G20 even more
@James3983See it on YouTubeThe front lights look like those fake light stickers on nascar. Kind of reminds me of lighting McQueen 😂
@Danu_chandimalSee it on YouTube
Public comments from the video's page on YouTube
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- Channel
- carwow
- Subscribers
- 11,100,000
- Channel views, pace per day
- 4,442,582 (on a normal day: 3,367,741)
- Video published
- September 30, 2026
- Video views so far
- 1,319,461 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 1,418,277
The numbers
The reveal is moving far faster than a typical carwow upload in its first hours, even on a channel used to big numbers.
💡 Test your knowledge
In which year did the first BMW 3 Series, the E21, go on sale?
The E21 was introduced in 1975 as the first car to carry the 3 Series name, replacing the 02 Series.
