Edmunds: Full Test review: 2008 BMW 135i Coupe

[hector]

Originally Posted by Design1stCode2nd

The senior editor’s opinion is just the kind of thing I can’t stand. Entry level is a Cobalt,...not a 1 series...

God damn it!! here i was enjoying the prestige of cobalt ownership looking down upon all those aveo driving peasants. thanks for busting my balloons..

[Genericuser1]

:biggrin:

Sorry man ummm forgot the sub compacts, yes Aveo is true entry level. Rock on with the Cobalt yer movin up! :wink:

[Red135]

Has any one else read the Road and Track road test? They noted a 0-60 time of 4.8 secs. Considering that Car and Driver tested 4.7, why did Edmunds get a noticeably slower time (5.0)? Those additional tenths are enough to put it in another class of vehicle (speed-wise).

[E82tt6]

Bad conditions, bad gas, bad surface. Any number of reasons.

[ZweierCoupe]

The variation in different weights probably comes from the fact that both cars don't have the same amount of fuel in the tanks unless they're being weighed at the gas station.

Also, heavily optioned cars will have more electric motors, heaters, and speaker magnets. The heavier weight of the options will possibly lead to BMW installing slightly heavier springs in order to provide the same basic feel.

Originally Posted by E82TT6

Slower? What do you mean? Same power, less weight=Faster. I'm not sure where you're getting that from. I haven't seen anything to suggest that the 1'er won't be faster than the 3er. It's physics.

OK, let's do some basic physics, and this relates to my having referred to the 135i as a "high drag queen" earlier this month in a different message, due to its aerodynamic coefficient of 0.33. By contrast, the 335i has either 0.29 or 0.30 (I've seen both values, so it's probably a quaestion of what tires they had or how well waxed or dirty they were). Both cars have almost the same frontal projected area (according to the Internet 2.12 m² for the 335i and 2.10 m² for the 135i.

Therefore, the 135i would have between 10% to 15% more drag (slightly less fuel efficient at constant highway speeds) than the 335i. So with identical engines under the hood and 18" wheels having equal weight distribution the 335i would have a higher top speed (that is, with the electronic limiter deactivated) than the 135i. Even under 250 km/h the 335i would have more power reserves to accelerate, say, from 200 km/h to 250 km/h. Whether people will actually drive that fast is a side issue here because the question revoloves around which of the cars is faster. You'd have to invest heavily in super lightweight alloy wheels having lower angular momentum in order to compensate for the higher aerodynamic drag of the 135i.

[E82tt6]

Interestingly enough, the only test we've seen with high-speed acceleration shows that the 135i actually WIDENS the gap up to 140mph, compared to the fastest 335i numbers available.

Based on this, I would guess that the frontal area is considerably smaller for the 135i, otherwise I find the difference in high-speed acceleration difficult to explain. Unfortunately, there aren't numbers widely available from an official source.

Even if the data we have available is erroneous, high-speed acceleration after 80mph is likely not a major consideration for the poster's wife.

[TP 135i]

Interesting.....their car had the cold weather package and appeared to have a rear seat arm rest !!
Would have been nice of BMW to inform us that that was the case. Oh well no harm done.

[Red135]

Originally Posted by E82TT6

Bad conditions, bad gas, bad surface. Any number of reasons.

Yes, that is it. Those would definitely slow the car by 3 tenths of a second. So hard to find good gas these days.

[Genericuser1]

Edmunds consistently has slower 0-60 times. They had an article about why theirs might differe fromother magazines but I can't find it on their site. Their search function is very basic. It had something to do will other magazines allowing for 0.5 seconds or so of wheelslip or something like that.

[hector]

Originally Posted by Design1stCode2nd

:biggrin:

Sorry man ummm forgot the sub compacts, yes Aveo is true entry level. Rock on with the Cobalt yer movin up! :wink:

glad you realized that i was tongue in cheek although a cobalt ss is actually my d.d.:wink:

[Project 393]

[I found it very interesting that it posted a 109ft 60-0 stopping distance on those stupid runflats.]

The problem with them pesky runflats is the noise they generate as they wear. I replaced my E90 runflats at 25k with conventionals as the vibration was unbearable. It was bad before with a bi-directional tire that was rotated every 5k...I am not looking forward to how the 135 RFT's will sound given that it will be impossible to rotate or even move fore and aft due to the different demensions front to rear.

My only saving grace will be winter tires Nov-April.

[Huskydriver]

Regarding understeer, y'all may want to consider this tidbit from the Skip Barber racing syllabus:

"The majority of cars intended for street use are intentionally designed to understeer at their cornering limit. The thinking is that if an indifferent driver stumbles upon the car's cornering limits they are likely to lift off the throttle, which is exactly the right thing to do to restore grip to the front tires. This setup is less than ideal for the racetrack, where you'd like the front and rear ends of the car to do their appropriate share of the direction change..."

[Red135]

Originally Posted by Design1stCode2nd

Edmunds consistently has slower 0-60 times. They had an article about why theirs might differe fromother magazines but I can't find it on their site. Their search function is very basic. It had something to do will other magazines allowing for 0.5 seconds or so of wheelslip or something like that.

According to Edmunds, other magazines utilize a 1-ft rollout and their test is a 'true' 0-60.

[Mystiqueskillz]

That was a nice read, I'm really impressed with what the 135i is capable of. And those pictures, make the 135i look beautiful. They're the best pictures of the 135i that I've ever seen! :eyebulge:

[F0Bman]

Superbe!