Bucket Seat: BMW M135i

I'm not the biggest fan of hatchbacks, we've only ever owned sedans in my family and big ones at that. Learning how to drive in a large sedan did prove useful to me as anything else that I needed to drive didn't seem like a big adjustment. Hence my love for them continued, even whilst many raved about hatchbacks, I never really took the liking to them, yes I admired the hot hatches but the urge wasn't there. Yes sure they're great cars and most are great value for money but maybe I just preferred having an actual boot? 

BMW called me up  earlier this year and said they were going to send their M135i to me for a week, this was the second time this car was scheduled for me as the last time someone had some trouble with the power of it and it had to go in for some minor repairs, so I was really looking forward to getting this car. Having driven the 120i late last year, I knew the 1 Series was one of the better in it's range compared to it's competitors so having a go in their range topping model was an opportunity I was waiting for.

Since the day it arrived, you knew this car was special. It rolled in, painted in their signature Estoril Blue, with 18" smoked alloy rims, flared air in takes on the front M Sport bumper which was painted in silver and the twin black performance exhausts that hummed to the tuned of its roaring 3 liter, 6 cylinder engine. It made the hair on the back of your neck stand up, this car was no soccer moms car but a proper hot hatch and as much as you can read stats out of the booklet, there's no true way to describe this car unless you experience it yourself. 

BMW cars come in 4 driving modes, Eco-Pro for your conservative driver, Comfort, for your everyday, any type of driving style, Sport, something to beef up the engines response time and then lastly Sport + which beefs up the engine as well as switches off any car aids such as tractional control and ESP. In a car like the M135i, one won't even bother with Eco-Pro as once you take off in comfort with your foot planted to the floor, all you want it more!

The roar from the exhaust is exhilarating and unleashes various emotions while driving it, all of them good though! I described this car as such in one of my tweets, the raw power of the motor working with the twin turbo's is magnificent, it evokes the pure passion of the guys from the factory in Munich. It's relentless and hard working but delivers performance every time you need it. It left me flabbergasted to be honest. It got to a point that I wanted to drive all them time while I had it, I offered people rides to places and even took pointless drives. 

Style

The One Series isn't much to write home about in terms of styling but I really like what they did with the face-lift. The revised lights both at the front and back add real character to the car and gives it that more executive feel. With the M Sport Package, it really beefed the car up. The M front bumper with large air-intakes, blacked out kidney grille and the non-existence of fog lights really gave the car a menacing look. The side profile has had some tweaking with M135i badged into the side skirts of the doors, the rear which had a splitter in the back bumper with it blacked out at the bottom completed the devilish look of the car. Something different about this car is the day time running lights, normally with the BMW we're used to seeing the "angel lights" or halo around the main lights but with the One series, it's more of a tear drop at the bottom which I thought was quite cool.

Comfort

Getting into the car, it seems like any other BMW, pretty much a standard setup with the added extra's of the M Sport package, that being lots of chrome, silver and sporty finishes, not forgetting the electronic racing seats. The M Sport steering wheel is probably my favourite steering wheel ever, if they can be such a thing. The look, the feel and the styling of it is just great. Being a sports model, you would expect the ride quality to be quite stiff and hard but it was quite the opposite, you cant tell the difference of the ride quality between this and a 318i.

Performance

Where do I begin? All you wan't to do with this car is give it horn's and its more than happy to reciprocate. Acceleration is phenomenal, 0-100Kph in 5 seconds and it just keeps climbing at the same pace, no slowing down until it reaches it's governed speed of 250Kph. Unfortunately unlike the German's autobahn one needs a private road or test track to achieve this as our national speed limit is 120Kph. The engine is the same one that get's fitting into all of the '35i badged cars, well now they're being re-badged as '40i. You won't get the most out of this car from day to day driving as it isn't as thrilling as taking it out on the open roads, which is why I did a trip to the Natal Midlands over the weekend. 

Driving

There's no ill I can speak about the car, it performs like a beast, handles like a dream, comfort of any other car in the BMW stable and it makes such a beautiful noise. Maybe there is one thing, but that would be a given,  it does tend to make you notice more than you would like. The fuel consumption, the booklet claims it to have a combined consumption of 8 liters per 100Km but realistically its more like 10.9, switch over into sports mode and the figure almost doubles, hence I said at the beginning to throw the booklet out. The estimated range on sports mode drops faster than the Rand when we change Finance Ministers. Is it worth it though? Hell yes! Every single rand to liter is worth it with this car.

Extras
The car came with pretty much most of the thing standard on the M Package but notable extras were the reverse camera with front and rear PDC, Satnav and larger display screen, lane departure warning which comes handy at high speeds, Xenon lights, Memory seats, Sunroof and light package.

Verdict
This car gives you an andrenilin rush of note, it gets your blood pumping and awakens your soul. Yes it is small and not the most powerful engine from BMW but the complete package is simply mind blowing. The amount of joy it brings you from driving it is unbelievable and it will leave you with a stupid grin on your face every time you get out of the car. Compared to the other hot hatches it lines up against, it's not the fastest but I'd rate it the best in terms of what you're getting. It's not badly priced and the quality of the product is great. If I could afford one, I'd definitely have one in my garage. 

Specifications

• 3 litre, 6cylinder TwinPower Turbo
• 8 Speed Sports Automatic Transmission
• 240kW
• 450Nm torque
• Consumption: 8.0ltr/ 100km
• Top Speed: 250kph
• 0-100kph: 5.1 seconds 
• Price: R572 000 (excluding extras)

Bucket Seat: BMW 120i

It's been just over a week since I gave back the BMW 120i and truth be told, I miss it more than I expected to. Being the baby of the fleet, BMW's 1 Series won't strike you as a car that could live up to it's bigger siblings but German manufacturer thought otherwise. Despite being relatively well priced, they spare no expensive in making this car as good as the rest. 

The face lift 1 Series that is on sale now feels like a more mature product that the model it replaced, not to say the previous one was slightly less better but with revised front headlights and back tail lights just make the car look a little more grown up. I had the 3 door 120i to drive around for the week and I was seemingly impressed with it. 

Style

As mentioned above, the revised lights do give it that more elegant grown up look but the car it self looks more sleeky and less bulky than before. The 3 door variant exudes the sporty nature, with it's long coupe doors with frameless windows which curve back to form the boot makes the car look like it means business. The rear of the car is finished off flush with the new elongated tail lights and the boot lid opened secretly hidden in the BMW emblem. The car came with 17" alloys which did look rather drab for the Sport Line kit but there are other variants to chose from.

The interior is nothing short of class, sticking to their minimalistic approach, BMW's team crafted this cabin with the same attention to detail as they would any other of their cars. All materials are of high quality and it's evident in everywhere you look. Some manufacturers tend to use cheaper quality materials in their entry level segments but I'm glad to see BMW didn't follow suite.

Comfort

When inside, it feels like anyother BMW, ride quality is great, the suspension perfect and with it's some-what nimble size, its perfect to throw around the corners. With the perfect weight distribution, driving around in the car is fun all the time. Even though it might be bigger than the Mini, it still gives you that go-kart feel but with a bit more stability. The car came with electronic memory seats which I have become quite accustomed to and is honestly a must have in the car, this also helped with the ease of moving the seat for the back passengers to get in. The room in the back was pretty decent given that this was  a coupe, 2 adults could sit in comfort when seating arrangements were slightly comprised for the front passengers. 

Performance

Power for the 120i is derived from BMW's 1.6 litre Twin Power Turbo engine, pushing out 130kw and 250Nm of torque. The car is a  heavy and in comfort more it did feel a bit sluggish on take off but I think that was mainly due to the gear box, when switched over to sport mode, things did get more lively, at a price though since your consumption goes up.The standard automatic gearbox is to blame, its good but the optional 8 speed M Sport with paddle shift just gives the car a little more oomf with its faster changes and higher revs, which in turn makes it much more fun to drive.

Storage

The trunk in the 3 door 1 Series was surpringly big for a car this size, more than enough space to chuck in some luggage for a weekend away, or if there was something more bulky, simply drop the rear seats and you're good to go. 

Extras

The car came with some handy extras and some not so handy extras, nothing that was unique to the 1 series though, on a car like this you wouldn't necesarrily want to add the reverse camera on it as it would be fairly simple to park but thats just me. The extended screen for the Satelitte navigation was a plus for me, not sure why but the bigger the display for me, the better it is. As I said previously, electronic memory seats should be standard and this one had it, albeit as an extra. Things it didn't have that annoyed me was single zone airconditioning and the normal automatic gearbox.

Verdict

Overall, it's a brilliant product from BMW, priced well along side its competitors and in honest offers the better product. There's nothing that makes this car feel inferior compared to the other models in BMW's stable. It's built well, it looks great and it drives like it should. Even though it was not the range topping 135i, it still gave some hot hatches worrying moments on the road.

Specifications

• 1.6 litre, 4 cylinder TwinPower Turbo
• 8 Speed Sports Automatic Transmission
• 130kW
• 250Nm torque
• Consumption: 5.3ltr/ 100km
• Top Speed: 225kph
• 0-100kph: 7.5 seconds 
• Price: R415 300 (excluding extras)

Bucket Seat: BMW 1 Series

After selling over 2 million units world wide in just under 10 years, BMW have released the latest update to their 1 series line up. The new model sees it adopt the same design philosophy as it's bigger X brothers with sharper, straighter lines, edgy twin kidney grille and redesigned tail lights which in my opinion suit the car a lot more!

There also is a revised engine line up which BMW claim set new benchmarks in efficiency. Leading the pack in that department is the all new 116d Efficient Dynamics Edition with 85kW/ 116bhp and average fuel consumption of 3.4 litres/ 100km. C02 emissions test cycle was recorded at 89h/km. There is a host of engines to choose from including a variety of diesel ones, ranging from the 116d EfficientDynamics to the 125d which sounds very exciting!

All engines are TwinTurbo powered with the petrol ones have TwinScroll Tubro engines whilst the diesel engines having turbo charger with variable turbine geometry. They're available in 6 speed manual or 8 speed steptronic transmission. Not sure what that means exactly but we'll soon find out. No word on pricing as yet, it should surface before the official local launch which I presume will be in the next two months. 

The interior seems pretty standard from what we come to expect from BMW, nothing to really shout about but everything seems to be neat and tidy, looks pretty comfy as well. Not sure if room in the back has increased but it wasn't to bad in the older model. 

Overall the 1 Series update seems very promising, it's almost like a grown  up, mature and sophisticated version of the old one. The range of engine types is welcoming and also gives you an insight into what BMW could be planning for other model ranges. 316d anyone?