The great thing about BMW is that despite a fairly sober reputation – albeit for building excellent driver’s cars – head office still signs off mildly ridiculous products.
The M135i is one of those. It’s a small hatchback, considered a family car in countries with rather less room to move than we have, with a whopping great engine. The 1.5-litre triple is flung out, replaced by Munich’s tremendous 3.0-litre turbo-petrol straight six.
It also gets some attention from BMW’s M subsidiary, purveyors fast car pedigree like the M3 and M5. Fireworks ensue.
VALUE
The hot BMW M135i starts at $62,900, an easy thirteen grand less than when the F20 1 Series first landed in Australia. The recent LCI update has made it better looking (although the M version has always looked okay) and with it has come the requisite tweaks to spec.
Rolling on standard 18-inch alloys, you also get a seven speaker stereo with Bluetooth and USB, climate control, leather and alcantara trim, keyless entry and start, DAB+ radio, adaptive LED headlights, adaptive M suspension, sat-nav, reversing camera, parking sensors front and rear, cruise control, auto headlights and wipers, launch control and various M bits in and out, including the excellent M steering wheel.
Added to our car was metallic paintwork for a ballsy $1485, ConnectedDrive Freedom telematics for $429 and a glass sunroof for an even cheekier $2600. All up, the car we tested was $67,414, but there’s nothing here that’s essential. Which is good.
DESIGN
Calvin Luk’s top and tail of the latest 1 Series also gets a bodykit to make the most of the lowered chassis. The darkened wheels look brilliant although – oddly – slightly small despite being 18-inches.
The relatively long bonnet seems like it belongs to a larger car as the cabin is quite truncated. It’s also now identifiably a BMW, which for some people is very important – the hockey stick rear lights and funky daytime running lights see to that.
Inside is as good as ever, with plenty of good materials and the big screen perched on top of the dash, dominating the smallish cabin like a 55-inch television in an inner-city apartment.
The front seats are brilliantly comfortable and adjustable while the outboard rear seats are short on legroom but otherwise comfortable. The middle passenger will not be at all happy for trips much longer than about half an hour.
SAFETY
Six airbags, ABS, traction and stability programs, blind spot sensor, reversing camera, collision mitigation and warning, brake force distribution, lane departure warning.
The 1 Series scored five ANCAP safety stars.
INFOTAINMENT
As ever, the centre console is graced with the iDrive rotary controller, in this case the larger wheel with scratchpad in the top. The controller looks after the functions on the 10-inch screen which doubles as the reversing camera.
The DAB+ radio is a nice bonus but it also means the AM radio is MIA. Tunnels mean a retreat to either streaming from your phone or, terrifyingly, FM radio.
ENGINE / TRANSMISSION
The N55 3.0 straight-six turbo spins out a very attractive 240 kW and 450 Nm. All things being equal, you’ll find yourself sprinting from standstill to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds and BMW claims the 1450 kg car will average 7.5L/100km.
With the eight-speed ZF transmission you also get stop-start to help you see that number but in all likelihood you’ll hover around 10L/100 km unless you’re a masochist and choose to run in Eco-Pro mode.
DRIVING
The idea of putting a large six-cylinder turbo in a small car may be getting more ridiculous by the day but the execution of the concept is brilliant.
Sixty-three large might be a lot of money for a little car but the amount of fun you can have belongs to cars from a class above, or at least it used to. The M135i has been joined by Audi and Mercedes with RS3 and A45 AMG respectively but neither of them are purist, rear-wheel drive and neither are nearly as much fun or challenging to the driver.
The M135i’s engine has such deep, strong lungs – when you sink your foot to the firewall, it’s all there, the six cylinders spinning up the turbo with little lag, the eight-speed’s sporting tune giving clear, positive shifts either automatically or through the plastic paddles.
The exceptionally well-tuned steering also means you’ve got terrific communication back from the road surface, getting very close to the kind of feedback found in the hydraulically-assisted 130i and original 135i coupe of days past.
The M135i’s adaptive suspension delivers a taut chassis but one with a huge amount of adjustment. The front end has very high limits that announce themselves with protesting tyres rather than washing understeer. Turn off the electro-nannies and you’ll get bags of oversteer, but very controllable – on the track, obviously. Those lovely sticky tyres are brilliant and the only shame is the lack of limited slip differential available in the M235i.
That suspension also means that when you’re not in the mood, the ride smooths out when you drop back to Comfort mode. The 1 is always a bit of a hard rider because the rear doesn’t have the sort of travel its front or all-wheel drive rivals do and in M Performance guise, has stiffer springs than the smoother 118i.
SUMMING UP 4/5
BMW’s M135i doesn’t have the restrained cool of the Audi or the banzai poppity-pop of the Merc, but it’s a better driver’s car than both and a lot cheaper than A45. Which is impressive, because those other two are a hoot.
Despite being a bit silly on paper, it’s fantastic to drive in every way, combining the super-smooth qualities of a torquey six cylinder turbo with a sharp chassis that just keeps on giving.
It could be better looking, it could be cooler, it could be attached to a badge with current world-beating motorsport pedigree but when you point it down a winding road, you’ll know you’ve made a terrific choice.
Likes: engine transmission combo, rear-wheel drive chassis, equipment level
Dislikes: Tight rear space, iffy leather, no limited slip diff
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