A few days ago I heard Oldham complaining about the steering feel in the 750i. He said it felt too artificial, too light and just plain screwed up.
I thought for sure he was nuts. Every time I drove the big 7 it felt fine to me. A little light maybe, but not anywhere near as awful as Oldham was making it out to be. Then I got in the 1 Series last night and before I had even left the parking garage I knew what he was talking about.
The steering is the 135i is dead on. Sure, it feels a tad heavy at parking lot speeds, but it's all in the name of road feel. Get up to speed and it lightens up perfectly and it never leaves you guessing. Why our 2008 1 Series would have better steering that our 2009 7 Series is a little puzzling, but Oldham was right on this one.
Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor, Inside Line @ 23,706 miles
Below are the fuel economy numbers for June 2009. We've listed the best, worst and overall average tanks.
As always, we were missing a few cars that were out of town or unavailable at the time of this writing. I'll continue to add them as they come in and let you know in the comments.
Car
Best
Worst
Average
2009 Audi A4 Avant
26.8
17.5
21.9
2009 Audi S5
22.3
11.3
18.0
2008 BMW 135i
27.7
13.9
19.8
2009 BMW 750i
21.8
12.4
17.9
2002 BMW M3
23.5
12.3
17.5
2009 BMW M3
20.5
12.7
16.1
2009 Ford Flex Limited
26.7
13.7
19.2
2008 Ford Focus SES
40.6
16.6
26.7
2007 Honda Civic GX
47.3
12.7
31.6
2009 Honda Fit Sport
39.0
24.9
31.0
2009 Hyundai Genesis
24.4
14.3
20.4
2009 Infiniti FX50
21.8
10.7
16.9
2009 Mazda 6
29.3
19.4
23.5
2008 Mitsubishi Evo X GSR
22.6
11.0
17.0
2009 Nissan 370Z
24.4
13.7
17.9
2009 Nissan GT-R
21.8
11.5
16.4
2008 Smart Fortwo Passion
43.4
23.5
33.6
2009 Suzuki SX4
28.3
18.6
22.5
2009 Volkswagen Jetta TDI
43.0
28.0
34.6
After the jump you can see the list sorted by best average MPG.
I got back to the office pretty late after a photo shoot and I was beat. All I wanted to do was go home, watch the game highlights and go to sleep. Our 135i was waiting for me in the parking garage and I slowly moseyed down to it after dropping off all of my gear.
That BMW gave me a quick jolt to wake me up, however. When I pushed the start button it turned and turned and turned like it wouldn't fire up.
"Crap!" I thought to myself. "If this thing doesn't start I'll have to walk home!"
The second my finger was near the panic button it sprang to life. Thanks be to the car gods. I was relieved I didn't have to walk home after the monster day I had.
Big "hell, yes" for reflashing. The 135i now feels pleasantly wired when driven around town. Eager -- champing at the bit and all that. I couldn't keep my hands off it over the weekend, and it reveled in the attention.
The little Bimmer was on fire this weekend -- it even got a couple of compliments regarding its appearance. When it comes to its sheet metal, the 135i has had its share of detractors here on our staff. Based on my experience, though, John Q. Public seems to like the look of it just fine.
Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor @ 23,644 miles
I learned to drive in my dad's 1979 528i. It was a great car that he drove for nearly 16 years. After driving the 135i last night, I realized that it has the exact same pedal setup as the ol' 528.
And I don't mean they're in the same place or look sort of similar, they're exactly the same right down to the crosshatch pattern on the brake and clutch.
So unlike most manufacturers who make changes to their cars just for the sake of change, when BMW finds something that works it sticks with it. Smart move.
Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor, Inside Line @ 23,876 miles
As mentioned previously, my keenly-honed butt accelerometer had me curious about the acceleration results we measured. Said the cheeks, "you introduced too many uncontrolled variables for a proper apples-to-apples test, dummy."
I'm usually concerned about voices that come out of my posterior, so to quell them we spent a few hours at MD Automotive in Westminster, CA. The goal? To shed a brighter light on the degree to which DME Tune's reflash pumped up our 135i's urge.
There, proprietor Mark DiBella rented out his Dynojet chassis dyno to us for the afternoon. In fact, anyone can rent his dyno. Mark's swell like that.
What's that? You want less rump talk and more dyno charts? Jump, then:
Can somebody please explain to me how the big brains at BMW can do suspension, steering and brakes so well and still screw up something as simple as a useful cupholder.
Hard to believe, isn't it? The same company that designed and built the astonishingly good turbocharged inline six cylinder engine in our long-term 2008 BMW 135i also created the stupidity above.
OMG our 2008 BMW 135i is kick-ass. It's so easy to get into trouble with all that power in this small, compact package. Shifts are so smooth and that exhaust note is addictive. But look for a dyno test in the near future to give you all the info about just what this newly reflashed 1 Series can do.
Instead I'll just talk about how tiny the side mirrors are and how difficult it is to see anything at night. And is it just me or are they slightly tinted?
Being the guy who shepherded our longterm 2008 BMW 135i to and from DME Tune, the test track and all over southern California, I've spun up quite a few digits on the odometer in its newly invigorated state. And here my impressions.
The first thing I noticed immediately after DME Tune reflashed it is that driveability around town is actually better than stock. In these off-boost conditions, the 135i now accelerates more brightly, as if it just downed a half-serving of espresso. Miata guys would describe this as "crisp."
Then, when you lay fully into the throttle, the 135i pulls with a vigor that in no way can be mistaken for stock. There's loads of midrange grunt on tap, and the redline comes up right quick. And as other editors have noted, there is indeed no downside to the way this thing now drives--it's all gravy and no lumps.
An observation: the oil temperature gauges now stabilizes at about 10-20 degrees cooler than it did with the stock flash. Could it be that the DME Flash also includes tweaks to the (electronically controlled) thermostat?
Now, we don't weather-correct turbocharged cars since they largely compensate for ambient conditions. However, when you modify a boosted car, you eat up a bit of this ability to compensate. I'd really like to re-test in in weather conditions that more closely match the test conditions of the stock flash for a more apples-to-apples comparison.
Hmm. With the variables associated with acceleration testing, maybe we just need to suck it up and do a full-on dyno geek-out comparison of stock vs reflashed.
That's a lot of work, though. And I'm busy enjoying this 135i.
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor @ 22,620 miles.
All I wanted to do was put the windshield wipers of our 2008 BMW 135i on intermittently and I couldn't figure out how to do that just by feel or even by looking at the windshield wiper lever. That's a lot going on for a windshield wiper lever, don't you think? Can you figure out how to switch it on intermittently without RTFM?
Okay, so the 128i ragtop in our Edmunds.com Convertible Comparison Test technically represents year two of the 1, being a 2009 model and all. But it is the 135i's little brother, and it does take on a 2009 Mini Cooper S Convertible in the aforesaid top-down smackdown. Give it a read, and check out the full track numbers over at Straightline, and tell us what you think.
The following is the actual text message I sent to Mike Magrath upon arriving home from work Friday afternoon:
1:47PM Fri, May 22 To: Magrath/M
Thoughts on new 1 engine: weeeeeeeee!
I've never been a big fan of modifications. They usually result in offensive noise, back-breaking rides, unrefined neck-snapping acceleration and horrendously tacky body modifications. Other than the latter, it's the reason I've never driven our long-term GSR home. Call me a wimp and there certainly are folks who do the job right, but in general, no thank you.
The DME Tune Reflash of our 135i, on the other hand, is a modification I can get behind. As Jay noted yesterday, the reflash had a relatively minor effect on straight-line acceleration times but its added midrange punch makes it feel faster. Get above around 3,500 rpm and the twin-turbo-6 blasts forward with giggle-inducing thrust -- it makes the biggest difference on the freeway. The 135i was always faster than you expected it to be, but now it's been turned up to 11.
Best of all, the 135i remains livable. When casually accelerating in the muck of city traffic, it remains the same pleasant car it always has been. There's no neck-snapping throttle response or crazy turbo lag. It feels very natural, as if no Frankensteining had been performed.
Not that this is scientific in any way, but our first tank post-reflash returned 17.62 mpg.
So call me a fan of the reflash. It makes BMW's 35 engine even sweeter.
(this photo doesn't have anything to do with the words below; I just dig the image)
Before and after. That's how we test the cars in our longterm fleet. We test them when they first arrive, and then we re-test after we've driven them for about a year.
As our longterm 2008 BMW 135i is nearing the end of its stay with us, a few weeks ago we performed the "after" testing. Our 135i produced the following acceleration performance after its year with us:
Stock 0-60--5.1 seconds (4.8 seconds with one foot of rollout like on a drag strip)
Stock 1/4 mile--13.4 seconds at 103.4 mph
Even more recently, we had DME Tune reflash our 135i. Do the nature of the space-time continuum, we had to test it at an even later date. We would have preferred to test both configurations (stock vs reflash) on the same day but Einstein frowns upon universe tinkering.
Click the jump to see the result of the DME Tune reflash.
Would I buy one? It's a question I ask myself whenever I slide behind the wheel of a car. Would I drop my hard earned money on one of these? Would I want to own it? Drive it for years? Look at it in my driveway? Tell people it's mine?
It's also the question you the reader ask me the most. So I've decided to go through all the cars we now have in our fleet and decide whether or not I would buy one. I also included a few recently departed vehicles. Seems appropriate since they just left us.
You can tell the 135 is different now from the first time you roll into the throttle. It's no lounder, and the revs don't raise any quicker, but it takes fewer revs to get the clutch out smooth from a stop. And then once it's rolling the differences are even more apparent.
I can't speak for the full-throttle gains before and after the new tune as I was driving on public roads, but even in those highly limited scenarios, the DME reflash proved its worth. There's a whole new midrange. There's no turbo lag, there's just a powerful surge that doesn't stop 'till you let off the gas. Why they didn't do this from the factory is beyond me. It's as driveable as it ever was before except now there's more power everywhere. Not like the GSR with unreasonable power surprising you somewhere north of 5-grand, the 135 is smooth and linear instead of peaky. It hasn't reinvented the nature of the 135i, just brought it out into the light a bit more.
If I had a 135 and didn't want to go whole-hog with a plug-in tuner, I'd get this on day-one and just consider it part of the cost of purchase. Again, it should've-- and could have-- come from the factory this way.
Fortunately for us, our office is literally minutes away from DME Tune. Scott hooked up said Versace-class battery charger and a magic reflashing box to our longterm 2008 BMW 135i and we split for grub.
Over a bowl of steaming pho at the local Vietnamese joint, Scott described the company's tuning philosophy. In a nutshell, they have examined various aspects of the engine and settled on a few states of tune that they reckon provide meaningful power increases while maintaining healthy safety margins. And by employing a reflashing strategy, they have access to virtually every operational parameter of the engine which gives them full control over the changes they make.
He continued by explaining that our 135i is receiving his Stage 2 reflash. This is, apparently, one better than Stage 1. The price for either flash is $649.
More specifically, Stage 2 can be used on turbocharged N54 BMWs equipped with, at a minimum, the factory oil cooler. And our 135i has one. If you want to see if yours does, take a peek in the passenger side wheel well. If you see a heat exchanger lurking behind slots in the plastic liner, you just found the oil cooler.
When we returned to the car, the process was complete. We were back on the road minutes later and giving the spurs to our homely little German coupe.
We'll have driving impressions and performance test results for you shortly. So keep your ears on, fine IL blog readers.
As good as our longterm 2008 BMW 135i's twin-turbo 3.0-liter inline-six engine is--and it is undoubtedly good--there are people out there that think it can be made even better.
We recently crossed paths with Scott Barbour of DME Tune, a purveyor of BMW go-fast tuning solutions. In fact, tuning BMWs is all the company does.
After a brief chat, it became obvious that DME Tune is serious about doing it right. Company principals include Jim Conforti, a well-known name among BMW performance tuning, and Scott Barbour of Harman Motive tuning fame. An example of their anality is that they use a $1300 battery charger while reflashing, just to ensure the voltage stays absolutely stable.
Shortly thereafter, we decided to take the plunge and have DME Tune reflash our little 135i to give it some more punch.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Some background first. Click the jump to learn more.
As a single guy who loves small rear-drive performance cars, I should be totally smitten by our longterm 2008 BMW 135i. Yet the 135i doesn't haunt my dreams. In a way, I'm in a similar boat as my colleague Mr Sadlier is with the 370Z.
Not that the 135i isn't enjoyable to drive. On the contrary, it is a fine car. It rides well, is plenty quick and has a big dose of refinement in the way it takes to the road. The engine is flat-out sensational in just about every way you could conceivably ask for. Maybe the interior doesn't offer the last word in gadgetry, but that's not what I'm after. The seats in our long-termer do suck, though, as you're already well aware.
In analyzing my indifference, I've finally settled on this well-rounded docility as the source. 300hp in a car this small? On paper the 135i should be a cold-blooded assasin. It should be the performance car to take on all performance cars. A hooligan's delight. A rabid wolf in a droopy clown costume. You get the idea.
Instead, this small car is accessible and has the comport of a larger car. To BMW's credit, this no doubt helps with appealing to the masses. But there's another reason they're keeping the 135i meek. Fully exploiting the potential of what they hath wrought with the 135i would tread on the territory of the 335i and possibly the M3 too.
I can't deny that this is probably smart business sense. But whenever I drive the 135i, I think about what might have been.
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor @ 22,095 miles.
Yes, the picture isn't a close-up of the right-hand sideview mirror, but I felt it was a little more interesting. It was taken on Las Posas road in Camarillo, which is about 60 miles north of L.A., just off the PCH. Blue sky, open road and a twin-turbocharged Bimmer. It was a good day. Well, except for that mirror.
It's easy to lay into the BMW 135i for its price tag: As equipped, our 2008 BMW 135i coupe cost $37,145. But these adaptive, bi-xenon headlights are standard on the 135i, and as I learned on Saturday night, they work very well.
That afternoon a friend (with a modified WRX) and I caravaned to Yerba Buena Road north of Malibu and took our cars through some corners. Yerba Buena is a rough road, but the 1 Series has plenty of suspension travel and managed fine over the ruts, remaining composed and compliant. It's hard not to notice the car's safety-minded predisposition toward understeer, but between its small footprint, sharp steering and gargantuan torque, it was still very fun on this narrow road.
We then parked the cars and hiked 1.5 miles up to Sandstone Peak, oooh and aahhing at the panomamic ocean/mountain vista upon reaching the top. Unfortunately, we turned down the wrong trail on our descent and had to do almost 2 miles of backtracking, using our cell phones to light our path. When we got back to the parking lot (shown above), we were tired, hungry and cold.
But the day wasn't over. With the BMW 135i lighting the way down Yerba Buena back to the coast, there was more driving fun to be had. With the high beams on (low beams shown above), I could see through most of the corners and we kept a decent pace on the way down.
You asked for it, you got it. The suspension of our 2008 BMW 135i lays bare before you -- sort of.
BMW has proven that the simple strut front suspension doesn't have to be an instant ticket to mediocrity. A front engine, rear-drive powertrain layout helps a lot, of course. And so does a forward-mounted steering rack, hinted-at here by the backside caliper placement.
I get this question almost daily from somebody, and my answer usually blows their mind. I say, "Well, everyday this guy Mike walks up to me with a clipboard that contains a list of 15 to 30 cars ranging from a Smart to a GT-R and he says, 'Scott, what do you want to drive home tonight.'"
Our 135i just turned 20K and it's doing quite well thank you. In fact, it's been one of our most trouble free cars over the last year, a virtual 300-horsepower Honda Accord with real tires.
It's only been in the shop twice. The first trip was for scheduled maintenance and the second was to replace the original rubber that Erin tore to pieces at a local track day.
Even with its light colored interior, the 135i is wearing well. The seats look good, the dash isn't scratched or fading and the carpet looks respectable. Sure, it was not a cheap car to begin with, but it's not giving us any reason to believe that it's not worth the price.
I wanted to give you guys an update on the vehicles we cover everyday on this blog. I think there's some concern out there that we have too many BMWs. We don't, it just looks like we do.
Fact is, the X5 is done. The wrap-up of its year long run with us will hit Inside Line thisThursday night. Our 2002 M3 is also pretty much finished. We've had it for 15 months, and have just been waiting for a new M3 sedan to arrive before we sold it off. Well, the new M3 arrived today. Don't worry, it's a 6-speed. No SMG. Or DCT. Or whatever they call it now. Look for it's intro to this blog in a couple of weeks and the wrap-up of our year long test of the E46 in about a month.
That leaves our 135i. It too will end its run soon. We'll have had it for 12-months sometime in May.
So, our timing may be a bit off, but the plan was to replace the 135i, the E46 M3 and the X5 with our new 750i and a new M3 sedan. So if you give it a month or two to play out, we'll be back down to just two BMWs.
I had a free afternoon yesterday, and I looked at our 2008 BMW 135i coupe in my carport and decided a drive was in order. We went to Little Tujunga Canyon Road, a favorite of mine because of its convenient location and pretty even mix of fast sweepers and tighter turns.
We've written before that the 135i is an easy car to drive quickly because it is so benign -- perhaps the most benign of any rear-wheel-drive car currently on sale in the U.S. Slow down on your entry to counteract the understeer; then, exploit all that torque (300 lb-ft from as low as 1,400 rpm) on your exit. Find your rhythm, know your road and you'll be fast. And safe.
I love the steering feel in this car. You never have any doubts about front tire grip.
And I love the driving position: It's not sexy; I'm not going to see the curves and contours of the car as I do in our 370Z or a G37. Really, I might as well be sitting in a sedan when I'm in our One. All I see is a flat hood, and I jack the seat way up so I'm sitting high. But I don't care. The steering wheel fits perfectly in my hands, and flat and squooshy as the driver seat is, it orients me perfectly for steering, shifting and working the pedals.
Other than the sneaking suspicion that this car doesn't need me (with all that torque, it barely even needs me to shift), the one complaint that came up during the drive is the 135i's lack of a limited-slip rear differential. Mind you, I probably could live without one if I owned this car. But, occasionally, when the rear tires had trouble getting the power down on exit, I thought about driving the Genesis Coupe 3.8 and wished the One had a torsen limited-slip, too.
I was going to write something about how effortless it is to drive the 135i, too effortless, in fact. Despite the car's undeniable performance capabilities (effectively matching those of the new 370Z), I fear BMW may be going down the refinement road that leads to the Lexus IS 350 cul-de-sac. The IS 350 is straddles the fence between isolated luxury sedan and harsh-riding sport sedan and it does neither one exceptionally well. Yaddah, yaddah,... that's so academic.
Something more intriguing came up this morning over the first cups of coffee. We early risers were talking about Make/Model = Band/Song soundtracks.
Our long-term 2008 BMW 135i coupe will automatically tilt down its side mirrors when you put its six-speed manual gearbox in reverse. This is great when I'm parallel-parking and don't want to curb the pretty 18-inch wheels. But it's not so good when I'm backing into my carport and see the ground, instead of the stucco wall and metal pole that frame the space (and that could potentially "reshape" a 1 Series coupe).
Fortunately, auto tilt-down is not mandatory in the BMW 1 Series. If the slide switch is the left, the mirrors will automatically tilt down in reverse. But if the switch is to the right, the mirrors stay put. (The switch doesn't have a neutral position.)
As I recall, our E46 M3 also has "choose-your-own-tilt-down," but I've never noticed it in any other car. Surely, there are others, though, because this is a nifty convenience.
In a recent LT Blog textcast about our Nissan 370Z, Magrath wrote, "I like that the Z doesn't give a backseat. The option of four seats just makes people think it's okay to ask for rides."
At first I was inclined to agree (because Magrath is cool), but then I realized I have way too much baggage in my life to live out this reality. This morning with our long-term 2008 BMW 135i, I realized I need a backseat. I need the seatbelts to keep my laptop bag (and whatever other bags I'm lugging) secure through tight turns. If I risk having to take passengers along for the ride, so be it.
So I'll keep the rear seats in the 135i coupe, but if I owned this exact car, the driver seat would have to go.
After reading the comments in yesterday's open thread, I took our 2008 BMW 135i coupe on a quick drive through the coastal canyons this morning.
On the way there, I experimented with shift points. If you were bound and determined to exploit the twin-turbocharged, 3.0-liter, inline six-cylinder's flat torque curve, you could upshift anywhere between 1,250 and 1,500 rpm without lugging the engine. Shifting at 2,000 is more comfortable, though, and in normal driving, I usually upshift between 2K and 3K. I usually don't get the best fuel economy, though.
We've tested our little 2008 BMW 135i twice. The first time was on May 6th of last year when it had just 1,735 miles on its odometer. Then we tested it again in early December as part of a comparison test with the new 2009 Nissan 370Z. At that point, the car was approaching 15,000 miles.
As is usually the case when you test the same car more than once, the 135i test numbers do vary a bit from test to test. Regardless, there's no denying that this car is stonk fast, and its awesome ability to turn and stop put the littlest Bimmer in rare air.
Our longterm 2008 BMW 135i is equipped with what has been dubbed The BMW Paddle, aka indisputably the best cruise control interface known to humankind. I've extolled its virtues back when we had our 330i, and it's still the best:
1. It is large enough to be readily accessed yet remains unobtrusive. Never fiddly like so many other cruise interfaces.
2. It is always on--you don't ever need to turn it on with a separate button before you turn it on by settting your speed.
3. It is intuitive--you simply press the paddle away from you to increase speed and pull it towards you to slow. Use either of these motions to set the speed. Push it up or down to cancel. Done. Simple. Versatile.
Unfortunately, it appears BMW may be phasing out The Paddle if the latest generation of their flagship 7 Series is any indication--they've moved the cruise to the steering wheel. Worse yet, their implementation in the 7 lacks tactility, so you have to look at the buttons to use it.
Even the 1 Series paddle here appears to have been somewhat de-contented--it lacks earlier Paddles' ability to adjust speed (up OR down) in 5-mph chunks via a second detent in the paddle's fore-aft movement. Hmph.
Yeah, I'm kind of a cruise snob. But I still dig me some 135i paddle.
Jason Kavanagh, Engineering Editor @ 19,073 miles.
The latest Long-Term Blog Textcast finds flag-waving Associate Editor Josh Sadlier debating the merits of sub-$40k performance cars with a snarky Canadian who suffers from Euro envy. Freedom fries and liberty cabbage were served.
Sadlier: So, the question before us, courtesy of our man Bob Holland: "If you had to spend your hard-earned money on a vehicle--to be used as your daily driver--which would you pick and why? 135i? STI? Evo? Keep in mind, this would be your do-it-all car. Which would you pick?" Sadlier: Sounds like we're keeping to the $40k-and-under crowd. Sadlier: I'll add the G8 GT/GXP to the list of prospects, and the Genesis Coupe 3.8 Track, and the Infiniti G37, and the Mustang GT/Challenger RT/Camaro triumvirate. Sadlier: And I will arbitrarily exclude the 370Z. Well, actually, I've got reasons -- it doesn't have a backseat (hence Miata, S2000...um, Solstice Coupe...are also out), and it got a lot of face time in the last textcast, and the G37 is an able stand-in. Sadlier: So. What say you? Riswick: I'd pick the STI because I like rough plastic interior flaring digging into my skin and my stereo to sound like its speakers are encased in Jell-O-filled metal drums Riswick: I also enjoy road noise. Mmm, yeah. Lots of delicious road noise. Sadlier: All this for only $35 grand! Riswick: Oh, and we'll make it simultaneously ugly and boring-looking Sadlier: Personally, I would take a four-door VW GTI in a heartbeat and keep the $11,000 difference Sadlier: ...and if I really thought it needed more power, I'd spend a grand or two of the savings on a chip or whatever. Riswick: I'd wait for the better-looking next generation GTI, but I hear you. Although I'd personally go for the Mini, but that's a digression from the task at hand. Sadlier: Oh, yeah, forgot about the Mini. Hell, even if the STI were as cheap as the Cooper S or Clubman S, I think I'd still go with the Mini. Riswick: No question. Sadlier: Alright, we're agreeing too much. Let's narrow the field. $30k-40k. Discuss.
An unfair test of a car's back seat is having a 6-foot-3 editor such as myself set his seat then attempt to sit "behind himself." While I can often technically fit, it's usually the type of fit on par with John Goodman in a Power Rangers unitard. OK, so that was hyperbolic, but you get the idea. I'd usually have to scoot the seat forward in order to allow myself to comfortably be seated in the caboose.
The above picture is the result of sitting behind myself in the BMW 135i. Lo and behold, I fit. Sure, my legs are straddling the driver seat and my head is cocked forward like a jockey to avoid the roof, but that's a technical fit. (I'd apologize for the picture not showing head room, but you try taking a picture by yourself in the back seat of a tiny BMW). If I were really to be sitting behind me, I could scooch the driver seat forward and still be reasonably comfortable driving. That wouldn't be the case in a Mini Cooper. Head room in the 1 would always be an issue, but it's much better than an Infiniti G37 or Hyundai Genesis Coupe, which is useless even for folks much shorter than I. Finally, both leg and head room in the 1's back seat are way better than in the 370Z.
Obviously, the 135's aft quarters are not meant for four-person long hauls. However, for those rare times when I would need the back seat (especially for average-sized people), this baby Bimmer would be more practical than most sport coupes.
"Aren't you goin' out on the track?" I asked the young guy from the tire industry publication. We were at a tire event at Cal Speedway and were taking the ex-Long Beach celebrity race Celicas on the big oval at speed.
"I can't drive stick," he replied. He never had a manual transmission car and never had a chance to borrow a friend's car to learn. It's a shame, and unfortunately, this situation is much too common nowadays.
It's too bad he doesn't have access to a 135, because this is my favorite MT car to drive. The shifter is light, but positive. The clutch is also light, but with a good engagement feeling and a smooth stroke.
But where the 135 shines is the pedal arrangement, particularly the placement of the brake (B) pedal in relation to the throttle (A) pedal. For me, it's perfect: the B- and A-pedals are not only close enough laterally, but also almost on the same plane with the B-pedal depressed, so you don't have to roll your foot so much.
Some carmakers are afraid of this placement, as it can induce "unintended acceleration" from a few morons.
In most other cars, I can butcher my heel-toe downshifts. But in this car it's easy to get them near-perfect. The flexible, zingy engine doesn't hurt, either.
I should have told that tire guy to rent a 135 -- at least after he gets some shifting proficiency. Because it's one of the best cars to practice your blipped downshifts.
In the past couple of weeks we've had a lot of turnover in our long-term fleet. Some cars have gone bye-bye and we've gotten a couple of newbies. I thought you'd want an update.
Gone are the BMW X5, Audi R8 and Dodge Grand Caravan. There will be no more blogs on these cars, but look for an in depth wrap-up on each in the next few weeks, just like the one we published on our Mercedes C300 today. All three are already missed. The X5 and R8 were staff favorites, and the minivan proved to be great at moving people and things, even if we didn't always shower it with praise.
You don't necessarily buy a compact performance coupe based on its ability to handle mundane chores like toting luggage. Still, I got the chance to see how the 135i fares in this respect over the weekend, when it was tasked with hauling home some newly acquired baggage (not the emotional kind).
The 1 Series has 10 cubes in back. That's more than the 370Z (6.9 cubes), the same as the Genesis coupe and less than the Audi TT (13.1cubic feet). At the end of the day, 10 cubes was more than enough to swallow my brand-new 27-inch suitcase and 20-inch carry-on.
Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor @ 18,501 miles
Let's settle this once and for all, people: the 1 Series interior is a step down from the 3 Series. As it should be -- the 1 is, after all, BMW's entry-level car. But I'm tired of hearing that the 1 and the 3 have comparable interior design and quality. They don't, and here's proof.
First, the lead photo. Bryn posted a similar shot awhile ago, but she was talking about the wood trim strip. This time, let's talk about that random four-inch-wide chunk missing from the end of the dash, which a 3 Series would not be caught dead with. As I wondered in a comment on Bryn's post: "Maybe this is the interior equivalent of flame-surfacing? Or maybe this dash was originally intended for a car that was four inches narrower? Or maybe German passengers have really long right femurs?"
Our long-term BMW 135i is starting to stretch its legs. Though it's just ticked over the 18,000-mile mark, it finally feels as if this twin-turbocharged mill is breaking in. Many of us were wondering if this would ever happen, as BMW has done such a remarkable job of refinement in this force fed mill that it almost feels too civilized. Now past the 18K mark, the baby Beemer is finally starting to loosen up.
I've spent the better part of a week cruising around in the all-new BMW 750i, the flagship of the Bimmer line -- the big daddy if you will. There are certainly worse ways to spend time on the road. Then as fate would have it, I got handed the keys to the opposite end of the family, our long-term BMW 135i. I was going from the big daddy to baby Bimmer.
This week's textcast gets to the heart of the recent 135i vs. M3 brouhaha. Eventually. We promise. Click on the photos to enlarge.
(1:58:52 PM) Sadlier: Legacy GT: best car subaru makes. and quite possibly the best-handling family sedan, period. despite body roll and gooey steering. tell me why i'm wrong (2:07:14 PM) Magrath: I'll agree that it's the best car they make now that the Forester has jumped the shark. (2:08:07 PM) Magrath: As for the rest of your nonsense, self-contradictory nonsense....well, it's just not right. (2:09:07 PM) Sadlier: seriously, all that suspension needs is some firming-up. it feels like they started with a sport sedan and dumbed it down for americans (2:09:41 PM) Magrath: ...some firming up and some being better at being AWD. (2:09:45 PM) Sadlier: how so? (2:10:31 PM) Magrath: It doesn't rotate off throttle. It plows or oversteers. There's no middle ground that a good AWD setup can usually find. It was one of those things that I was glad was verified by the test data because I just thought I was bad at driving it. (2:11:43 PM) Sadlier: well, i definitely tossed it around with more abandon than any previous family sedan. you know what it reminded me of -- a softer and less sharp but more entertaining A4 (2:20:55 PM) Magrath: More entertaining = less stable? You're quickly falling down the hole of "less confidence means more fun!" (2:21:30 PM) Sadlier: that's my motto. the less confidence the better (2:21:34 PM) Magrath: Soon you'll have a '65 mustang with one seat, no carpeting, bias-ply tires and no seatbelts. (2:21:47 PM) Sadlier: now that sounds entertaining
I've never really cared for the manual transmission in any BMW. Mainly, I find their action too light. But I also dislike the spring-loaded feel when moving it out of gear, and the general soggyness and excessive play once the shift lever is in gear. To be fair (and I've always kept this at the back of my mind) the only Bimmers I've driven heretofore were knackered old Bavarias, salvage titled M3s, and various and generally worn out 3-Series'. And don't get me started about the shift action in our 2002 M3; think about moving around a dislocated cadaver's elbow. Go on, think about it.
So when I got the chance to drive our six speed 2008 BMW 135i, I decided to put aside my past experiences and give this new, non-beat to Hades gearbox a try. And guess what? I really don't like it. The action is too light, and I don't like the way it wants to spring out of a gate and into neutral. But what I really don't like is the combination of a short, almost cut down, gear lever and that center armrest. As you can kinda see in the above picture, going from any of the bottom gears (two, four or six) into another gear requires you to more of less underhand the shifter. I find it uncomfortable and annoying to bend my wrist down with every other shift. A taller shift lever to match the height of the center armrest would solve that problem. But I still couldn't live with the action of the shift lever.
So would it keep me from buying the car? It's not the only one, but it's a big reason I wouldn't buy one of these.
Last week Associate Editor Josh Sadlier went all Tom Cruise on us. (Although he did it via internet tubes instead of Oprah's couch, but hey, we take the soap boxes we can get.) He's in love, it's cute. But it's also scarred a scary amount of psychosis on his already shredded psyche. Like Katie Holmes, I think he's got Stockholm Syndrome.
Following the jump will lead you down a path to understanding why the 135 is a fantastic drivers car. Why the M3 is overrated and why Sadlier needs an M3 intervention. (That, or it'll be a fantastic waste of about 5 minutes.)
Way back before the gas crisis, the housing crisis and the credit crisis, we did a comparison test between a new BMW 135i (very much like our long term BMW 135i), a new BMW 335i and our newly aquired long-term 2002 BMW M3 E46. The idea was simple. Where is your money best spent on a BMW hot rod coupe? And it played out like this:
335i: Great in every way, but unnecessarily expensive.
135i: Almost great in every way, the quickest of the bunch, but still unnecessarily expensive.
E46 M3: Still great where it counts, fast, although the slowest of the three. Also the cheapest by a bunch. Best looking too. And the most viceral. We have a winner.
Well, I just spent some time in our E46 and I just spent a night in our 135i. As much as I'm a lover of both, I would spend the extra bucks a month and buy a 335i sedan. Turns out I don't think it's unnecessarily expensive. For the extra cash you get the best drivetrain, the most refinement and the best interior. I also prefer the suspension tuning and directional stability of the 335i, even with the sport package, which I would hope to afford. The 135i is bit all over the place on the highway and it rides a bit choppy for my taste.
Still, the 135i is my second choice. Some lowering springs and a set of deep dish wheels to set it off and I'd be happy for a long time. Choppy ride and all.
And then there's our E46. It's a car I lust after. And owning one would be a privilege. However, I'm taken by the awesome refinement, the subtle tuning excellence and the turbocharged thrust of the new cars.
I'm in love with the BMW 135i. Maybe not our 135i -- it's far too red and I hate the tan interior with its '70s shade of wood trim. I'd have the manual seats too. But aside from that, I love this car. Everything related to the driving experience is exactly how I like it. The small dimensions make it feel more like driving a sports car -- more Z4 than 3 Series -- but it's quiet and offers a comfortable ride. True, it's not supple, but I don't want supple and I never found it harsh during the extensive driving I did this weekend between Orange and Ventura counties. The engine provides tremendous thrust, but it's also civilized in terms of throttle response and noise. The steering is tactile and light, and its wheel falls exactly how I like it thanks to an excellent, tall-friendly driving position (and that's with the less-adjustable power seats). The pedals are also perfectly placed and the clutch/shifter is without fault.
If I were to buy a car today, I would buy this car that I so dearly love. But then Associate Editor Josh Sadlier had to describe the 135 as "monumentally ugly," comparing it to a pot-belly pig and lamenting hard-touch materials. He's "just not interested," he so coldly said. I just couldn't let that stand. How dare that lobster-eating Maine-dweller impugn my love in such a way. So I crawled over our cubicle divider and popped him. That's right, cold-cocked him I did. Of course, he then jumped up and flashed some fancy jujitsu moves he picked up in Japan. I quickly ran away.
Anyway, even if Sadlier had a point about the styling, I couldn't possibly care less. That's called unconditional love.
Nothing makes me relish a Friday more than opening up the sunroof to soak in the warm and beautiful weather. And it's January! January! It's gorgeous outside. Sigh, I love sunroofs. Now if only this car had seat heaters, too. Heh.
You might recall that our 135i needed some new tires. Sounds premature at just over 16,000 miles, but we're not easy on tires to begin with and those miles included two days of lapping at Big Willow which finished them off quite completely.
So with rubber flapping in the wind, we headed to Stokes Tire Pros to get some new Bridgestones. Since our 135i is still within its first 12 months, we opted for another set of the stock Potenza RE050A RFTs. They measure 225/40R18 up front and 255/35R108 in back, and they are not cheap. Our total bill for four new tires all mounted and balanced was $1,431.
Moral of the story? No matter how cheap that local track day might look, it's always going to cost a little more than you think.
Ed Hellwig, Senior Editor, Inside Line @ 16,651 miles
It was a quiet weekend for our long-term 2008 BMW 135i, which is waiting for new tires following last week's visit to Willow Springs. Still, I put on another couple hundred miles running around Los Angeles.
Our 1 Series coupe averaged 24 mpg, which is twice what it got on the track. A check of the fuel log revealed that my 307-mile tank is actually the longest we've ever driven the car before fueling up. The car's previous best was 306 miles, and that tank netted its best ever mpg reading -- 25 mpg. Not exactly frugal, but then, this is a 3,400-lb car rated for 300 hp and 300 lb-ft of torque.
Also, as you can tell, I used the driver-side door bin. I'd never had much use for its funky three-slot design previously, but when I found myself traveling with 3 CDs and a snack, the compartmentalization proved useful. None of the slots will fit my sunglasses case, though, nor will the cupholders in the console. Whatever. For more detailed analysis on 1 Series storage, see Brent's earlier entry.
On Friday I told you about my efforts to trash our 2008 BMW 135i's tires on the Big Track at Willow Springs. Today I'm telling you that I'd really like to buy and modify a 135i for my personal track-day use.
In stock form, this coupe is as quick as I'd need it to be. In fact, after taking a few laps in our 135i, my instructor, who races a stock-class 135i, said it was no slower than his race car. (Removing the backseat took weight out of the race car, but putting in the rollcage put it back in, apparently.)
Complementing that speed is pretty decent gas mileage: I got a consistent 12 mpg out of the 135i in 230 miles on the track. That would be terrible on the street, but it's about as good as I'd ever hope for during track use.
Our 135i is also very stable through high-speed turns, which describes nearly every turn on the Big Willow course. I'd want to stiffen up the suspension for use on tighter, more technical tracks, but the factory state of tune really isn't that bad. And the ride up to Willow was just fine.
I kind of wish our 1 would take attitude more readily like our E46 M3. But the 1's less oversteery, less personable nature probably makes it safer for someone like me to handle at high speeds... ah, well, maybe that's true, but there's gratification to be had in catching and manipulating a slide, too.
Months ago, I lit into our long-term 2008 BMW 135i for having an insipid personality. But I didn't go to work yesterday. I took the day off and drove up to Willow Springs for an Evosport driving school on Big Willow. And there I buddied up with our 1 Series like never before.
Undoubtedly you've heard or know that Big Willow is a fast but not very technical track. Its turns don't require much actual turning, so if you have some idea about what you're doing, torque is pretty much all you need. The 135i has plenty of that. There doesn't seem to be a weak spot anywhere in its twin-turbo inline-6's powerband. As a track car, the 1 is incredibly user-friendly. It felt very quick, too, at full throttle down any straightaway.
Although I've criticized the 135i for not having good enough steering feel, the truth is that I knew exactly when the tires were gripping and when they weren't -- all that really matters on a track.
The One also has very strong brakes (13.3-inch front discs with 6-piston calipers, 12.8-inch rear discs with 2-piston calipers) and excellent pedal feel. It was very easy to skim off speed in preparation for Turn 1 at the end of the front straightaway. The brakes lasted well, too, and seemed none the worse for wear by the end of the day. But I can't say the same about the tires.
Those with a keen eye will note immediately that the 2008 BMW 135i pictured here is not our long term 135. The car pictured is my friend, Jon's, car and represents everything good about the 135 that ours isn't. It's black. It's got a black interior with aluminum trim. It's got an iPod hookup. And most importantly it has the awesome and aggressively bolstered manual seats.
It's also $39,000.
Last weekend we saw temperatures in the mid-eighties here in SoCal and, as we're both East-Coast transplants, we did what every car guy on that side of the world wishes they could: We hit the canyons around Malibu. Windows down.
I was driving through the Hollywood Hills to a party that was located at the end of one of those twisty roads when I noticed that our little 2008 BMW 135i was doing an extra good job of lighting up the way. Finally on a straight stretch of road I was able to test out why by turning the steering wheel back and forth. It had cornering lights that moved back and forth like high-beam eyeballs! Neato!
Apparently xenon adaptive headlights with auto-leveling and cornering lights are standard equipment. I was just surprised that it had this feature, which seems luxurious to me, considering our $37,145 coupe does not come with seat heaters or even a little light that turns on when you flip open the visor mirror. I don't know which I'd appreciate more in the long run: cornering lights or seat heaters. Hmmm.
Caroline Pardilla, Deputy Managing Editor @ 15,842 miles
It's been one of the colder winters in recent memory here in Los Angeles, with temperatures dropping as low as the 30s. For the most part, the 135i has been up for the challenge. The car's HVAC system did an excellent job keeping the cabin warm and toasty over the chilly holidays. Still, heated seats would have been nice, considering this Bimmer's not-insignificant price tag.
In other news, the car continues to attract attention here in L.A. -- no doubt due to the fact that there just don't seem to be a whole lot of them on the roads. Most onlookers respond favorably to the 135i, but not all. One snob in a 3 Series slowly pulled up next to me as I waited to make a left turn, checking out the car's sheet metal with a condescending sneer. Guess for some people, 1's a whole lot less than 3. But those people have obviously never driven our 135i -- I couldn't have asked for a more exciting companion over the holidays.
Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor @15,090 miles
Recently we used our long-term 2008 BMW 135i in a hard fought comparison test against the new Nissan 370Z. At first it seemed like a crazy idea. You know, a four-seat, turbocharged BMW vs. a two-seat, normally aspirated Nissan.
But the more we thought about it, the more it made sense. Perfect sense. Their prices, performance and reason for being are actually very similar, and our two-car shootout, BMW 135i vs. Nissan 370Z, turned out to be a good fight between two great cars.
Which would you choose?
Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief @ 15,189 miles
BMW's ain't cheap. Our 2008 BMW 135i carries a base price of $34,900 and an as-equipped MSRP of $37,145. And it's a quality car with a spectacular drivetrain that anybody would be proud to own. Still, for more than thirty-seven grand, I'm amazed it is without heated front seats, a navigation system, satellite radio, real leather upholstory or Bluetooth.
Well, today I got a little taste of what you do get for the price; killer service.
When I fired up the car this morning I noticed it was due for a service (several hundred miles overdue actually), but I had some business in Orange County 60 miles away so it would have to wait. I returned to Santa Monica about noon. A bit late to bring the car to the dealer. Usually they want you there first thing in the morning. I went anyway. I drove right into the service department of Santa Monica BMW. No appointment.
Incredibly they accepted the car with a smile, asked me if I needed a ride and promised it would be ready by the end of the day. These people were exceptionally polite, you know, like they should be, and they didn't try to sell me any extra services, just an oil change and a microfilter as BMW demands.
And don't think we got the gold treatment because we're Edmunds. I hid that from Marc Pizzuto, our service consultant. Unless he did some detective work when I wasn't looking, he thinks it's my personal car.
Wait, then it got better. At 3 pm the phone rang. The car was ready. No charge.
Considering this was the first time the car has needed service, or any repair for that matter (impressive after 15,000 miles), and it was as painless a procedure as possible, I'd say I have found a reason to buy a BMW over some other brands.
Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief @ 14,998 miles
This morning, during a torrential rain storm, I decided to check the oil on our long-term 2008 BMW 135i. Took me about 10 seconds, and I didn't even need my galoshes.
Sometimes, modern technology is hard to argue with.
Scott Oldham, Inside Line Editor in Chief @ 14,897 miles
Like most of the Edmunds staff, I love driving the 135. There are many great things about its driving experience: the accurate steering, the powerful and flexible engine, the excellent handling, the light and perfect shift action, the easy to control clutch. You've heard it all before. I even don't mind the flat-bottomed seats, although I've never tried the sport seats that everyone gushes about. Almost everything's great. Except the radio -- which is crap.
Jacobs wasn't kidding when he said that the 1 Series still attracts attention. Just the other day I stopped to hit an ATM and as I was returning to the car I noticed a big work truck from a concrete cutting company pulled up next to it. The grizzled old guy in the passenger seat took a long look and gave it a thumbs up. Probably not the crowd BMW was aiming for, but hey a compliment is a compliment.
Then just this morning, I stopped to grab a cup of coffee at the local donut shop. As I was coming out there were two older guys, maybe early 70s or so checking it out. They asked me all the usual questions about the engine and price. Then one of them said, "I would definitely buy that car, neat stuff," before driving away in his Boxster.
And me? Not into the styling, but I can't argue with the way it drives.
I drove our 135i for the first time this past weekend. I've heard a lot of positive things about this car, mostly about its engine.
Thankfully, I had brushed up a little bit on the specs of the car before I left the office for the weekend because the two times I went to the grocery store there were guys gathered 'round the car taking a closer look when I came back out.
I got a lot of the kinds of questions you'd expect. Is this the turbo? Is this the new 1 Series? Is it fast? How much horsepower does it have?
Yes, it's all those those things (and 300 horses), but honestly I had a tough time with the shifter. I'm not as skilled a driver as other folks here on staff, but I found it wasn't fast throing and that I sometimes jammed it between gates. Maybe I was having an off weekend, but I was less than thrilled with that shifter.
Would I consider buying one? Buddy... Three-hundo and a turbo? Wouldn't you?
As you may have noticed, it was touch-and-go this weekend for many folks in Southern California. For those of us who live in Orange County, it was pretty serious. Just in case, I packed up photo albums, keepsakes, computer backup files, documents.
I haven't had the opportunity to drive our 135i very much so when it was offered to me for a weekend road trip I jumped at the chance to put a few miles on one of our most popular cars.
It's well documented how much we like our baby BMW, and it's hard to find anything but good things to say about it; but rather than writing about all the great things that 135i has to offer I decided (before I drove it) that I would try to find something I didn't like. To my surprise that something became obvious to me within the first 10 or 15 minutes of my commute home on Friday.
While sitting on the 10 envying the motorcyclists who were able to breeze through traffic, I realized that as a bike approached the rear of the car they disappeared for a moment before reappearing in my side mirror. The combination of the rear pillar and rear seat head rest creates a blind spot just big enough to completely hide a motorcyclist. Throughout the weekend I was constantly trying to tweak my mirror positions to try to minimize the blind spot, but no matter what I did there was always a blind spot just the right size for a motorcycle. The only solution I could come up with was to vary my speed slightly just before changing lanes in order to make sure I wasn't about to run over one of my two wheeled friends.
Seth Compton, Broadband Production Coordinator @ 12,053 miles
I'm not so sure. Though the baby Bimmer does make a hell of a lot of the stuff (this is a one-week accumulation) it also happens to stop from 60 mph in 109 feet. And it has a rock-solid pedal stop after stop. I've now hammered this little coupe over the Angeles Forest and Angeles Crest Highways twice and am yet to have anything but confidence in its stoppers.
Six pistons. Amen.
Josh Jacquot, Senior road test editor @ 11,265 miles
Holy cats, does the 135i show you a good time. It added some real spice to a vanilla weekend spent running vanilla errands and driving to vanilla places like Burbank to connect with friends.
Thanks to our compact Bimmer, that drive to Burbank was actually one of the high points of my weekend. Said drive was some 21.39 miles. Most of the journey was comprised of freeway travel, and since I left home early Saturday morning, the city's arteries were uncharacteristically unclogged. That, of course, meant that I got to really enjoy the 135i's 300-horsepower twin turbo. The little car soared like an uncaged bird, and I was happy to be along for the ride.
But the rough roads in my 'hood brought the 135i back to earth. Its run-flat tires absorbed minor surface irregularities, but deeper pavement pockmarks were received in a significantly less favorable light. There's one jumbo pothole in particular -- more like a lake bed, really -- that's impossible to avoid, since it's on the street that leads to my apartment building. It's bearable in cars with regular tires, but in the 135i... ouch. Every time I traveled over it, I got a jolt that surely shifted the location of an internal organ or two.
All in all, though, this is one fun ride. More, please.
Warren Clarke, Automotive Content Editor @ 9,881 miles
I was thinking the other day (always a dangerous proposition, I know) and wondering how all the current (or really, really recently departed) Edmunds/Inside Line long-term vehicles stack up against each other in fuel economy, at least the fuel economy we've been recording during their time with us. So I made a list. For you and for me. In case we were both wondering.
The only current vehicles missing from my list are the Audi R8 and the Dodge Grand Caravan, and that's because no one has entered any fuel data into the tracking spreadsheet for those vehicles yet. The very top and the very bottom of the list aren't going to surprise anybody (I don't think), but the middle is kinda interesting. Seeing the Rondo and the WRX so close to each other made me raise my eyebrows. Ditto the Ford GT's spot above the Veracruz. Ready to check it all out? Follow the jump with me.
I can't write a title of "Poor Man's M3" because at $37,145 our 135i isn't exactly affordable. Still, for about half the price of a new M3, you're getting a larger percentage of the M3's renowned traits -- namely, the engaging handling and steering, a potent engine and enough refinement and room to make it a viable daily driver.
I drove our 135i last week on the same curving mountain road I've used recently to test out our long-term Lancer Evolution and Impreza WRX STI. Of these three near-$40K 300-hp machines, the BMW was by far the most enjoyable to drive.
Brent Romans, Senior Automotive Editor @ 9,221 miles
It's not where you might think it is. The battery is actually in the trunk, mounted in a deep well covered by a lift-up panel. The 135i has run-flat tires, so there's no spare, jack or inflation kit.
Of the many BMWs I've driven over the years, I can't say too many of them are memorable in terms of interior storage. The 135i continues the trend. Following is a detailed report on where you can or can't store stuff. It's hard-core investigative journalism at its best.
With plans to head up north (from L.A.) to San Luis Obispo for the long weekend, I requested the 135i. I figured with its effortless power, roomy (for two) cabin and (hopefully) decent fuel mileage, the baby Bimmer would be trumps for the trip. Rather than get tangled up in all the Friday traffic, we hit the road early (7:15am) Saturday morning as I wanted to enjoy the drive.
Here's a detail that matters. Something as simple as an exhaust tip can make or break a car's appearance. This is a shot of the exhaust tips on our 135i. Notice that they're dark. And it's not because they're dirty. No, it's because BMW uses an anthracite-colored coating which makes them always look the same -- whether they're clean, covered in road grime or exhaust soot. They look good. Always.
It's easy to feel inadequate at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance. Money is everywhere. Big money. During Concours weekend, the parking lots of even the most humble motels on the Monterey peninsula overflow with Ferraris, Aston Martins and Lamborghinis. So it was with a flush of humility that I rolled up to the Lodge at Pebble Beach this past Sunday in our BMW 135i. Sure, it's not a bad car, but it's not going to be in the catalog anytime soon at Gooding and Company, either.
After the awards had been given out and the confetti had been sprayed, I merged our little 1-Series into the long line of traffic waiting to wind its way out. As I crawled past Peter Hay Hill, I pulled over to say hello to a friend who was standing next to a pair of shiny Spykers parked by the curb. As we spoke, I sighed and stared at the beautiful Dutch sportscars. After a few minutes, I turned to get into the 135i and head home.
"Just a minute," said a man in a chauffeur uniform, whose limousine was parked next to our BMW. "Someone wants to ask you about your car."
In addition to a couple of other Edmunds folks, I also drove up north this past weekend for the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance and Monterey Historics (and I thoroughly adored this car's powertrain while ticking off the miles). On Friday night I attended the annual Lexus fashion show, followed by the Gooding auction preview. Afterward, as I pulled out of my parking spot on a grassy hill, I heard a popping sound akin to a breaking twig. A few seconds later, the tire pressure warning lights went on.
I keep hearing from others how good our 2008 BMW 135i is, so this weekend I did my best to ignore its red-orange paint, eternally stunned expression and squishy seats. For the first 30 miles of errand-running, this was pretty easy: This car is quick. Not in an explosive, must-go-to-redline sort of way, but in an I-can't-believe-I'm-going-that-fast-because-it's-just-so-smooth kind of way.
But after I realized how easily I could make myself into the most beloved motorist on the freeway in the 135i, I got bored with it.
It doesn't ride well and feels much less refined than a 3 Series: When it hits an expansion joint, the 1 feels kind of squooshy as its springs compress, but then it rebounds more harshly than I think it should. The steering disappoints me, too. The ratio doesn't seem quick enough for the small, elfin BMW, and there's not much feel. I realize my observations contradict earlier things we've written about this car, so you should feel free to disagree with me on all points.
Another California road trip, another Pea Soup Anderson's (the Buellton location), but this time, we left the kid with her grandparents and grabbed the keys to the long-term BMW 135i. Heading to the wine country of Santa Barbara county (about a 3-hour drive) for a vineyard wedding allowed us the opportunity to try out the 1-Series' road trip capabilities.
As expected, the 135i was stupid-fun to drive, even in the stop-and-go Saturday morning traffic that we experienced for most of the drive out there. Seat comfort was good, though lumbar support in the driver seat would have been appreciated, and neither my husband nor I attempted to nap on such a short trip, so we can't speak to the merits of the power seats for longer trips.
And I know I'll get blasted for complaining about cupholders in this car, but here I go: they're too small and their placement causes any drink that's put there to get in my arm's way when I'm working the shifter. We resorted to storing our tightly closed bottles of water on their sides in the center storage area of the back seat instead. In the grand scheme of all things 135, not a huge problem, especially when you've got someone riding shotgun who can act as "water monkey," and I certainly don't expect this to be a deal-breaker for anyone considering buying the 1 Series, but it's an inconvenience, nonetheless.
Bryn MacKinnon, Senior Editor, Edmunds.com @ 6,204 miles
It seems that every single blog comment section regarding our long-term BMW 135i devolves into "It's ugly, those headlights look goofy, the grille's too big, the rocker panel is strange, it looks like a bowler hat." Even around the office, every time I say I like the 135i, a certain contingent pops over their cubicle wall (cough, SadButTrue, cough) to remind me that it's ugly.
Well I don't give a flying Fletch. Sure, it's far from one of the best-looking cars in the world, but when something is this wonderfully fun and athletic with tiny proportions that nevertheless fits me perfectly, it could look like, well, the 135i and I would never kick it out of my garage. Which got me to thinking about Audrina Patridge. I have no idea what she does and I've never heard her speak (probably for the best), but I've seen pictures. When someone is that wonderfully fit and athletic with tiny proportions, she could look like, well, Audrina Patridge and I would never kick her out of my be...nnigans.
Huh, did you just say butterface? I certainly didn't, but that seems like an apt descriptor for the 135i. "Everything's excellent, but its face..."
As Karl wrote in his blog this morning, you really don't need the 135i. The 128i is plenty of fun -- if you didn't know the twin-turbo 3-liter was out there, well, ignorance is bliss.
But, should you want the 135i? Is the difference really that big? To find out, John Di Pietro (JDP) and I just got back from bombing through Topanga and Old Topanga canyon roads back to back in the 128i and 135i. No matter what the answer is, what a blast.
I noticed this little detail on our 135i over the weekend. Kinda cool. A nice addition on the first model year of a car this unique.
What's more, our 135i has recorded an even 19.0 miles per gallon since Ed Hellwig's last post on the subject at 3,837 miles. This is a significant decrease in fuel economy, but is probably more realistic than the 20.2 mpg the car had earned up to that point.
Anyhow, this little Bavarian rocket truly is special. I drove it over Angeles Crest Highway one night last week and was able to appreciate its abilities on many levels. A few observations: 1) It has excellent headlights. Never once did I wish for more reach or coverage. With the high beams on I could comfortably see far enough to keep up with my rapid pace. 2) The handling difference between this car and a 335i is significant enough to matter. If you're considering the 1 and don't need the 3's additional space, don't bother spending the money. 3) The looks are growing on me. I'll never love the details, but the proportions are right.
Josh Jacquot, Senior road test editor @ 5,307 miles.
More and more cars are making dizzying power numbers these days, yet few stand out in my mind as being really eye-openingly fast. Our long-term BMW 135i is one of those few. I hadn't really put it the car through its paces until last night, when I snagged the keys and headed for the canyons. Quite simply, this is a lot of motor for such a diminutive car...
I recently read a study about why people find certain things (and other people) attractive - buildings, art, or the opposite sex symmetry is the key. That could explain why some aren't loving the 135's looks. From some angles it does appear like they took the greenhouse from a larger coupe and stuck it on the lower body of a small roadster. The roof can seem too tall...
Frankly, I'd rather be comfortable than look cool so I'm happy w/ the styling compromise that makes plenty of room for my asymmetrical head.
Like many BMWs, our 2008 BMW 135i emits brake dust--a lot of brake dust. At least the open 5-spoke wheels are easy to clean. And these brakes squeal a bit when I gently apply them at 30 mph or so in creep-along freeway traffic.
Do I care? Not much.
They feel excellent and the stopping distance is mega-short. At a photo shoot at a racetrack, another 135i's brakes never faded after lap upon lap. We recorded 105 feet when this car went through its check-in test. That's what brakes are for, right?
I'd much rather have this problem than quiet brakes with no dust that stop in 120 feet with wishy-washy pedal feedback and fade after a few stops.
But here are some 135i minor problems that nevertheless do irritate me:
That's what I'm talking about. The last couple of days and nights in the 2008 BMW 135i reminded me of why I loved this car so much the last go 'round. Excellent steering and handling, mega brakes and that 300 hp (at least) twin-turbo engine in a compact body--it's just the way I like 'em.
A six-speed shift-it-yourself gearbox is great on mountain roads, but any manual just has to suck in rush hour traffic, right?..
What you see here is the passenger side end of the trim piece that Ed mentioned in a recent post about the 135i. It's a little too long at one end and a little too short on the other. Hmm, not great. But still, the kooky little coupe is a ton of fun to drive, and I can’t see this end of the dash from the driver seat.
Bryn MacKinnon, Senior Editor, Edmunds.com @ 3,851 miles
With over 3,000 miles on the odometer, it's high time for a mileage update on our BMW 135i. I'll confess to not paying much attention to efficiency when it comes to driving the 300hp coupe. For most of this weekend, if the road was open, the big pedal was down.
Once again, my quarter-mile commute turns into a trivial observation about our 135i. This time the odd-looking little BMW gets a pat on the back for showing some restraint.
Turns out, when you put anything of significant weight on the passenger seat, the airbag sensor assumes it's a person. So, of course, when I fail to buckle up my computer bag it lights up the dashboard warning along with a pleasant chime...
How does the all-new 2008 BMW 1 Series handle 2+2 duty? Depends on the size of the "+2," but if they are over 5-feet tall it probably won't work unles the "2" are under 5-and-a-half feet tall.
With me (6'0") and my wife (5'4") in the front seats, my daughter (4'2") fit behind me and my son (4'8") fit behind my wife -- but only just. The entry/exit process was aided not only by the easy, flip-forward seatback release but by the power-slide button located at the top of the seatback.
When the BMW 135 first arrived, I had zero interest in the car. Maybe it's BMW owners, then again maybe that's just a stereotype. I'm sure they're not ALL posturing with leased 325s they can barely afford while living in a small rented apartment on the very edge of the trendy part of town. Surely some BMW owners have a real love for the purity of their cars...
Opting into our long-term BMW 135i for a trip to Sequoia National Park over the holiday weekend was a smart choice. Yeah, there's all the boring stuff like it's easy to park and snaps through traffic like a squirrel, but the more compelling reason is that the park's foothills offer roads from a driver's dream--switchbacks, sweepers and mercifully little traffic.
This is one well-rounded car. On the boring freeway slog, the 135i was relaxed and quick. Exploiting the quickness on the fun roads, however, revealed that these seats offer hopelessly inadequate lateral support...
Another California 
