I don’t think it’s about being too old to enjoy the car. It’s about possibly being old enough to afford the 5 series equivalent, which is an up-sell. He’s just a slimey salesman doing slimey salesman things.

Wouldn’t worry about it. Try both, he could be right, or he could be wrong.

The power makes me nervous, as it’s over 100bhp faster than my 330e and even that was a lot.

A lot of people say this when they’ve never driven a car over ~350hp. It really doesn’t matter, it’s not like you’re hit with 370hp or whatever it is the moment you touch the throttle. The car can handle it fine, you won’t get that power unless you ask for it.

If you loved the 330e, you’ll absolutely LOVE the m340i. Imo the 330e drives like a wet blanket, the mixed drivetrain falls apart when you really “drive”. Once you try the 3l, you’ll never be able to look at a 2l the same way again.

Turbos, direct injection, variable valve timing/lift, materials, engine management systems (ecu software), compression ratios, cooling.

Turbos and direct injection are probably the primary drivers in power, but improvement over time comes from many small improvements in all areas.

As others have noted, modern cars are massively more _efficient_ than older cars. That doesn’t necessarily mean they consume less fuel - it means fuel/power conversion is improved, so your engine does more work for the same capacity.