BMW 1 Series Range Car Review

Facts At A Glance
Car: BMW 1 Series range
Prices: £17,610-£33,670 - on the road INSURANCE GROUPS: 10E-15E
Emissions: 117-225g/km
Performance: [120d 5dr] 0-60mph 7.5s / Max speed 140mph
Fuel Consumption: [120d] (combined) 58.9mpg / [116d] (combined) 64.2mpg / petrols – 34-44mpg (Comb)
Safety: Twin front, side & head airbags / ABS
Dimensions: [5dr] Length/Width/Heightmm Length/Width/Heightmm 4227/1936/1430

ONE FOR THE ROAD

Our Rating: 6.7 / 10

The 1 Series had a shaky start but BMW has devoted its corporate know-how to turning it into a winner. Jonathan Crouch reports

If you want a compact hatchback with a premium feel and rear wheel drive, there’s the choice of a BMW 1 Series and…. well that’s about it. That unique drive layout allied to a range of powerful engines gives it a unique selling point for enthusiasts but for the many others who just don’t care and like the unique styling, there are plenty of other attractions. Primarily, it’s the most efficient and affordable to run of all its rivals and whether you go for three or five-door hatch or Coupe or Convertible, it’s a car with figures that stack up beautifully.

BMW is a company that has always done things differently, a refreshing trait in a sea of automotive sameness. The Munich maker’s reputation as the purveyor of ‘The Ultimate Driving Machine’ was built around rear wheel drive and that famed perfect 50/50 weight distribution, cornerstones that were put to the test early this century when the time came at last to develop a compact hatch to slot in below their all-conquering 3 Series.

Compact hatches are packaged so tightly that they can only really be front driven – or at least that’s what everybody thought until BMW brought out the 1 Series in 2004. They’re also fairly conventionally styled, a concept this car again turned on its head with its unique, unconventional looks that offered a real alternative to cars like Audi’s A3, Volvo’s C30 and Mercedes’ A-Class. An initial range of five-door hatches was quickly expanded, first with this smarter three-door version and then in 2008 with Coupe and Convertible models. All got BMW’s EfficientDynamics engine technology for class-leading running costs.

Unless you count the MINI, all BMWs are built around rear wheel drive platforms. Why, the Munich maker asks, would you ever want your front wheels to simultaneously try and perform the tasks of steering and deploying power? Or to put it another way, how many Formula One cars are front wheel drive? Exactly. If you’re an enthusiast, you’ll notice the difference immediately you throw the car into a corner and enjoy the way that the back end pushes you through the apex. In the wet, if you’re brave enough, you can even turn off the DTC (traction control) and DSC (stability control) electronic nannies and let the back slide out.

And if you’re not a would-be racer? Well, you don’t need to be a Grand Prix driver to appreciate slick body control, perfect cornering balance and supremely judged damping. Sum it up how you will, maybe just as a rather vague feeling of responsiveness that you can’t quite put your finger on but that is very pleasing nonetheless. Part of it is that this car really feels sporty even before you actually go anywhere. You sit relatively low, cocooned by a broad facia and central transmission tunnel. The wheel and gearstick fall to hand beautifully and feel great to use. And there’s one of those stop/start dash buttons you get on sportscars to fire everything into life.

All the engines are more powerful than you would expect, with even the 141bhp unit in the 118d diesel variant strong enough to push the car to sixty in under nine seconds on the way to 130mph. The top 204bhp 123d diesel reduces these figures to seven seconds and around 150mph, only a whisker slower than the 258bhp 3.0-litre 130i petrol flagship.

Designer Chris Chapman was trying to give this compact hatch the look and feel of a BMW Z4 sportscar. It’s not everybody’s cup of tea but viewed in that light, you can see what he was trying to do. The car has a strong shoulder line, a ridge surmounting a concave-then-convex flank, plus a long, shallow side-window line that offers those sitting in the rear seats a glass area that extends far enough back to give a decent view out.

One legacy of rear wheel drive is the presence of a transmission tunnel that renders it virtually impossible to seat three across the back seat, but then for most customers, that would be irrelevant anyway – it’s not what the 1 Series is all about. If you want a practical car, go and buy a mini-MPV. For the record, there’s 330 litres of boot space with the rear seats in place, a figures which extends to 1150 litres with the bench folded in the hatchback models, extra capability you might miss if you opt for a Coupe or a Convertble. One