All good things...

The 3 Series has set the exec saloon standard for 50 years, from humble E21 to tech-laden G20 – but, asks RICHARD LANE, for how much longer?

- PHOTOGRAPHY MAX EDLESTON

The roll call of cars that were on the scene 50 years ago and which are still being built today is short.

It gets shorter still if you stipulate a perfect, unbroken run of production. If you then dismiss those cars whose name has lingered but whose physical form has flitted from one class to another, a mere handful are left to consider. All of them are, at least in automotive terms, household names: Mustang, Golf, S-Class, Land Cruiser, Civic, 911. BMW is possibly unique in that it contributes to the list twice. The 5 Series arrived in 1972 and the 3 Series came along in 1975 (the 7 Series followed in 1977). The impact of both has been colossal, but it is the junior partner, which turns 50 this year, whose legacy hits hardest. Think 20 million cars sold and a remit spanning from top-tier motorsport to diesel repmobile. There's even been an M-badged track-day estate.

It is a hell of a legacy - one whose start and current end points are sitting on the edge of a field and being photographed by chief snapper Max Edleston. Neither we nor this lovely E21's owners, Thom Williams and Neil Phipps, anticipated what a reflective moment it would turn out to be. Parked up are two cars, one unsullied philosophy, half a century of automotive development and the bookends of a model that melded pedigree handling with practicality better than any other.

So what exactly do we have here? To celebrate the 3 Series' birthday, we sought to bring the current car together with one of its ancestors. Tempting as it was to enlist the 523bhp M3 Competition to represent today's lineup, in the end a 2025-model-year 320i M Sport was selected as the chosen contemporary representative. It's a car that seats four in comfort, will return more than 40mpg at a cruise, costs a little over £40k and will satisfy you on a Broad despite the on-paper meagreness of its 181bhp powertrain. If you ever needed one sensible but rewarding steed to see you through, the 320 is surely it.