Quote:
Originally Posted by Oldracer
Hi 1er people,
1st post here.
Forgive me for resurrecting a very old thread here but I've just been going through this same decision making process. So far, Mister Deep's comments below make sense to me but after spending the last couple of days reading all the old posts here I could find, I'm still in a bit of a quandary.
The new car would be my wife's daily driver and at the risk of boring everyone, I think I should elaborate a bit. Pardon me if it seems long-winded.
I gather that most of the denizens of this list are considerably younger than we are. When I was younger I couldn't get enough performance. Fair enough. But priorities change and I find that the new BMWs on offer have changed as well.
My wife's current car is an E36 3.2 M3 (red) that we purchased new. Her previous car was a '90 E30 325is (also red) that we also purchased new and we still own. Prior to that she drove a succession of '70s Porsches and Golf GTIs and while she was living in Europe she drove a 5er.
When I was young and in engineering school I used to buy, rebuild and sell '50s sports cars. Some Alfas but mostly 356s and later, early 911s. Needless to say, each time I see the current value of these cars I kick myself for ever selling them.....especially the two Speedsters and the Convertible "D". At the time though, they were just old odd cars.
I also worked as a chassis fabricator and pit crewman for three racing seasons campaigning a McLaren M8C in the old Can Am series and a 911 endurance car. I still have a D/C production Lotus Elan that just sort of fell into my lap one day.
We both are "spirited" drivers but as we have gotten older, we've slowed down quite a bit. When my wife first got the M3 I used to say that the option she really needed was a spindle on the dash to hold all the speeding tickets. 
So much for that. Here's the real question:
We seem never to part with autos. (Except of course for the ones that would have made us wealthy!) We tend to buy the best and keep it. Recently however, my wife has been talking about something new and coincidentally, the son of one of her former colleges has been bothering her about selling him the still low mileage M3.
We're both retired now and have been considering an extended trip to visit old friends living all over Europe. European delivery would work well for us but if so, we need to make a decision soon for Spring pick-up.
Fortunately, we are in the position where we can afford any car we want. My first default position was a new M3 but after looking at them, we just don't care for how much larger they've become.
We do like the size (if not entirely sold on the styling) of the 1 series though. If one compares the specs, the 1er is surprisingly close to the E36. Even more surprising to me is that the current 128i with M sport package compares very favorably with the performance of my our current E36 M3! Needless to say, I've always been an advocate of larger displacement, normally aspirated engines. As Briggs Cunningham famously quipped; "The only replacement for cubic inches is cubic dollars".
So, will somebody please offer a good reason why old people like ourselves should spring for a comparably equipped 135is?
Thanks for plowing through this and, in advance, for any good advice.
A |
I'm going to quote the old cliche - "you're only as old as you think you are".
I am 68, going on 21. My current car is a 2012 135i MSport DCT. As my sig says, I have had several other BMWs in my recent past, including a 2009 M3 Sedan, DCT. I am on my 16th BMW.
I cannot speak to the 135is, as mine is only a 135i. However, I find I am enjoying the power, quickness, and handling of the 135i as much, if not more than my M3. In town, where most of my driving is, the 135i is very fast off a light, and easy to toss around. Although it is blasphemy for some, I find the 135i to be more fun in town than the M3 ever was. And it does it for far less money, and less fuel. I may put a Dinan Stage 2 in it in the Spring, and a BMW PE; although no real reason to do that. It is plain fun, right off the shelf.
Why buy a 135i (or 135is) over a 128i? It's a personal choice, but, for me, I drove both, and bought the 135i for the additional power, the thrust of the turboes, and the extra goodies that are standard in a 135i over the 128i. As far as reliability goes, if you do the regular servicing/maintenance, the turbo engines should be good for a long run. In the past five years, I have owned a BMW with the N54 engine, and now 2 BMWs with the N55. I have not had any problems with either engine (whereas a 2007 328xiTouring I drove for 8 months needed a warranty fix for engine problems, well documented).
Personal call, you will not go wrong with either the 128i or the 135i (or even the 135is, although you can make more power for less money by adding a Dinan Stage 2 to a 135). The 135is is not the car the 1 Series M Coupe is, another beast altogether. But that is not the topic here.
I think the current 1 Series is one of BMWs best-ever cars.
