The BMW 1 Series kicks off at around 40 grand. But if you want to spend 80, no problem. The Audi A3 is actually a bigger seller. And the Dover? It offers blistering performance at a much lower price point. It's like going to Harvey Norman to buy a TV. There's too much choice. And here's someone who's spent almost a month in a whole bunch of different 1 Series, Car Advice road tester Alborz Fallah.
Sum up the One Series for me in a nutshell.
Look, it's the entry BMW. It kind of came out for people who wanted to get into a BMW, but probably couldn't afford a 3 Series, starts around 40 as you said, goes all the way up to around 90 if you really want to get the convertibles with the options. But it is a good car. I really do like the 1 series.
There is a great deal of choice in this whole prestige, compact segment, isn't there? How do you measure all that up and how do you decide? I was gonna go for an entry model luxury car. I would be looking at the 1 Series, that wouldn't be my choice in that.
BMW seems to be pretty good at two things, don't they? They seem to be pretty good at straight sixes, and they seem to be pretty good at rear wheel drive. That's it, that's what they specialize at, you know. Every one of their cars is rear wheel drive. They won't ever go back on that, they've said that before.
They'd rather create a whole new brand than make it drive BMW. So I think the One Series, as opposed to most of its opposition, is driven through the rear wheels. And as a result of that, it's got such good driving [xx] and it goes around corners brilliantly. It might now be powerful, but because of their structure and their chassis, they're always good to drive.
So they're precise. I could also spend forty grand buy some other pretty special cars. Yeah, you can. I mean, you can obviously buy a top of the range Japanese car for about the same price as an entry model BMW. But you are getting a BMW, so you're paying a bit for the badge as well. But you're also paying for the idea of being in a car that is actually well put together got the latest technology in it.
So what about elsewhere in the range, right up the pointy end of the range? Is that almost M division power at normal BMW price. Absolutely, I mean you're getting a car in the mid to high seventies. But that is only about half a second or little bit more slower than an M3 which is nearly double its price.
So, you're getting a really good value for money in the 135i, but if you get into a base base model 1, you've got like cloth trim and not much else really there. You don't have an iDrive system to start off with.
So if we just talk about iDrive for a minute, iDrive is the interface with the car so that the driver can control all of those secondary systems right? It's everything from the radio to the navigation?
To the Eco in some cases, you can even do that with some of them. Yeah and you can have shortcuts, you know one button I wanna go home on the navigation, or second button I want to this track on this CD player on this CD and it's great. It's very intuitive.
If you're in a medium spec 1 Series or even the 135i, what won't you like?
You might not like the interior as much as you thought you would. Especially if you haven't tick the iDrive system or half the luxury items, it's gonna look relatively plain. And I think the rear seat don't have much room.
Does it convertible really impinge on your luggage space?
It does, but I mean, if you're buying a 1 Series convertible, you're kind of aware that you're not going to be moving furniture with. You know, I actually really like the 1 Series convertible, I think soft top is done quite well in that regard.
Is it still nice and rigid and a dynamically precise thing or does it lose something?
It loses a little bit but it's still quite stiff and it does still, especially when you go to the higher spec convertibles, it still is quite a decent car. But you know I have to say, the1 Series is quite strange for me because the 118 D and the 123 D would be my picks. And then I'd sort of forget about everything in the middle and I'd get the 135i.
I would just go for the diesel or go for the 135. There's nothing else in there for me.
Thanks, Alborz. Well, it's the diesel or the high-performance 1 Series, or nothing else. You can read the full review, download the specifications, add comments, and even get a quote from a BMW dealer. Just follow the links on this page.
