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      12-11-2007, 07:36 PM   #1
Mechanicaldan
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Talking American 120d owner impressions



I'm not just an American, I'm also a BMW 120d user. I've been lucky enough to have have scored a job in Scotland, and my wife an I wanted a car that we couldn't get in the US, and my wife has been wanting a BMW for a while, so we ordered a 2007 120d.

Specs: 5-door, half cloth/leather interior, comfort access, memory seats, lumbar support, heated seats, premium sound system, 6 speed, sport suspension package, Visibility package, parking sensors front and rear.

Here are some of my impressions after driving it for 4 months and about 1500 miles.

It's an absolutely lovely car. The dynamic stabiltiy control system rocks. I love throwing it into a roundabout with the pedal floored, have the rear kick out, and then have the electronics bring everything back under control. The 120d is plenty powerful. It'll spin the single rear wheel easily under power. The car really, REALLY should have a limited slip differential option. I love having a rear wheel drive car again after a few years of Civic and VW Golf ownership. Prior to that I had a '93 F-150 Lightning. I've dragraced and autocrossed my previous rides. I wish I had this 120d stateside to thrash. I have had to adjust to driving a diesel though. I've tagged the rev limiter so many times. I've just had to adjust to short shifting, ie shifting at 4500 RPM instead of 7000 RPM. You just have to adjust to TORQUE instead of HP.

The comfort access is so sweet. The keychain remote stays in my pocket. I just grab the door handles to unlock and open the door, and then when leaving a quick swipe on top of the handle locks the doors. My wife and I are about a foot different in height, so the memory seats are great.

Speaking of seats, wow are they nice! I have the lumber support and heat options. The side blosters of the sport seat and all the adjustability is remarkable.

The premium sound system is everything I need it to be. Plenty loud, very clear, and it does have an generous amount of bass.

One of my favorite features is the Auto Stop / Start. When stopping in traffic for a stop light, just put the car in neutral, let the clutch out, and the engine turns off. No wasted fuel. Very smart! When the light turns green, just push the clutch in, then engine automatically starts, put the car in gear, and away I go.

As I've already mentioned, I was a truck owner. I just don't see the point anymore. The fuel mileage is just terrible. If I have a car with a reasonable amount of power, I can pull my motorcycles on a trailer. For just about all other activities the hatchback is perfect. Groceries, IKEA, hardware store, whatever, it'll likely fit for 90% of my big purchases.

When I get back to the states in a couple years, I'll be looking for a hatchback. Subaru is at the top of my list, unless BMW brings a 1 series hatch to the US, and then I'll be a repeat buyer.
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      12-12-2007, 12:30 AM   #2
Nixon
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Now you are just torturing us poor folks who can't get diesel BMW's over here.

The thing that kills me is that your 120d sounds so good, that the idea of a 123d really puts me over the top.

I'm dying here.
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      12-12-2007, 08:27 AM   #3
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+1 Nixon! I wish BMW would bring the diesels!

I was at a new car show recently just watching the people shopping for new autos. Almost every single person first looked at the mileage then at the car. Many walked away without looking at the car because everything on the floor had 14 - 19 city/19 - 24 highway mpg. It didn't matter if it was an econobox, sedan or SUV. Even a Vette had 14 city/22 highway which beat nearly every single Chrysler product! Sad, sad, sad!!!! The Euros have wonderful diesels that get mid-30s to 40s!!! And they are superior autos!! Bring that OVER HERE PLEASE!!
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      12-16-2007, 08:50 PM   #4
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dont get a subbie! nice write up!
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      01-21-2008, 10:07 PM   #5
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why do you haveto tease us like that, anyone hear word on when/if the 120d will be coming stateside?
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      01-27-2008, 05:14 PM   #6
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BMW is testing the diesel waters in the US in 2008 with their 2 most popular models. It's also testing to see how well received the 1 coupe is. Depending on how well all three models sell in 2008 will determine BMW's next step.

Personally, I think the new clean diesels will be a big hit with most Americans. They already love diesels in their big pick-up trucks. Starting in 2008, they'll be able to get them in their cars also. Diesels are fun to drive. Very torquey and fast off the line, plus really good fuel economy on the highways. There are LOTS of highways in the US. BMW, Honda, Subaru, Audi, VW will all be adding diesel cars to their US market in 2009-2010. I'm sure BMW will be adding their diesel engines to more models.

In my own personal opinion, the 1 series hatch looks the most like a Mazda 3 and the 2008 Subaru WRX hatch. The Mazda has sold well, and the Subaru will sell well. The automobile market is shifting to Crossovers, slighly away from SUVs. Nobody really wants to admit that station wagons are cool again, so they've been given a cool name instead: Crossovers!!! They've becoming popular again because they've functional. Same with Hatchbacks, functional!!!

Come on BMW, bring the hatch to the US, with a diesel!!!

I'll order mine via European delivery, for obvious reasons.
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      01-28-2008, 04:15 PM   #7
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Congrats man!
Just wanted to say that if you wanted to accelerate the fastest you have to change gears around 4000, a bit before is mostly better.
Why? Because diesel works mostly of torque and is more powerfull in lower rpm's. So if you change around 4k it picks up much better than let say around 4,5k.
Me in my 118d have to change around 3,5k.
You must try it sometime !
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      01-29-2008, 01:27 PM   #8
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Hey, I have a 130i hatch in South Africa and I love it.

On the Diesel side of things, my wife has a 2006 e91 320d and I installed a Schnitzer ECU. It increased the power from 115kw to 149kw and the torque from 330Nm to 390Nm. It's a amazing!

The best thing of all is that the turbo comes in now around 1600rpm and pulls hard to around 4300prm AND when you hit 4300rpm it doesn't feel like you are hitting a brick wall like the standard 2.0d motor.

Get your 120d chipped and it'll fly!
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      03-31-2008, 10:41 AM   #9
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Just curious, how useful is the hatch? Granted it doesn't look as good as the coupe, but I guess it's very useful. what's the square footage with rear seats up/down? How's the leg room in the 2nd row compared to the coupe?

The 3 and 5 series wagons all look great. The hatch is the same as the coupe, right (the front half)?
Thanks.
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      03-31-2008, 01:22 PM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 130iM View Post
Hey, I have a 130i hatch in South Africa and I love it.

On the Diesel side of things, my wife has a 2006 e91 320d and I installed a Schnitzer ECU. It increased the power from 115kw to 149kw and the torque from 330Nm to 390Nm. It's a amazing!

The best thing of all is that the turbo comes in now around 1600rpm and pulls hard to around 4300prm AND when you hit 4300rpm it doesn't feel like you are hitting a brick wall like the standard 2.0d motor.

Get your 120d chipped and it'll fly!

And i know a good adress for chip tuning!!!!

They can sent you the software by e-mail.

www.autotuneheinz.be

Its a famous tuner in europe , he works whit the same dyno bench as the have in Munchen where they develop there engines
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      04-01-2008, 04:04 PM   #11
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Beamy View Post
And i know a good adress for chip tuning!!!!

They can sent you the software by e-mail.

www.autotuneheinz.be

Its a famous tuner in europe , he works whit the same dyno bench as the have in Munchen where they develop there engines
That site suggests you can get 400 hp from a 123d!!

:eyebulge:

Doesn't give more info (or a price) though.
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      04-01-2008, 05:05 PM   #12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by InquisitiveA View Post
That site suggests you can get 400 hp from a 123d!!

:eyebulge:

Doesn't give more info (or a price) though.
That just can't be right.

The 120d is just +37 HP and +90 Nm torque.
The 325d is just +34 HP and +100 Nm torque.
The 330d is just +41 HP and +100 Nm torque.
The 335d is just +64 HP and +80 Nm torque.

Even the 05-07 118d Stage II that includes a new turbo and injectors is just +78 HP and +150 Nm torque.

Nearly doubling the HP by +196 HP just doesn't seem possible. The site says "under construction" in a number of places, and all the fields aren't filled out for this tune. The only thing that makes sense is that they put the torque rating of the stock 123d (400 Nm) in the tuned HP box by accident.

I'm optimistically hoping tuned 123d numbers to go from 204 HP / 400 Nm torque up to maybe 240-250 HP and 480-500 Nm torque. Doubling the HP would have to mean at least doubling the torque, considering that tuning diesels usually delivers more torque gains than HP gains, due to the low redline. If the 123d were stage 1 tunable to 400HP/800 Nm torque, I would already be on a flight over to BMW headquarters right now to demand it's import into the US. At gunpoint if required.

Has anyone out there actually tuned their 123d yet who has real numbers to share?
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      04-02-2008, 12:27 PM   #13
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I agree, TBH the power output of the engine is already immense (more than 100 HP per litre for a diesel etc) so to double that would be crazy.

Nice if you could, but crazy :biggrin:
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      04-20-2008, 04:41 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by InquisitiveA View Post
That site suggests you can get 400 hp from a 123d!!

:eyebulge:

Doesn't give more info (or a price) though.

I prepared my old Golf 4 TDI 100 there

I want to prepare my 120d there also but not yet available for the new diesel

for the 123d with 400hp, it's between 1500 and 2000 euros but they delete the particuls filters and add an other cluch
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      04-22-2008, 03:24 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanicaldan View Post
When I get back to the states in a couple years, I'll be looking for a hatchback. Subaru is at the top of my list, unless BMW brings a 1 series hatch to the US, and then I'll be a repeat buyer.
Can you bring the thing into the States?
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      08-06-2008, 10:16 AM   #16
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Update on ownership

I thought I'd post an update. I've finally taken the car on a couple of big roadtrips. We took a ferry from Scotland to Belgium and drove to Nice, France for vacation a couple of weeks ago, and I also just got back from a road trip to London. In between the two trips (luckily), the actuator linkage on the turbo froze up. I called BMW, they sent a local technician who pulled the codes and replaced the linkage while my car was out in front of my house. I was back driving 4 hours after the problem occurred. I was shown some excellent customer service from BWM. :thumbup: For those that don't know the *20d cars have a variable vane turbo and the linkage will freeze up over time. The fix is a new linkage with a bushing and some special grease.

So, back to the road trips. The sport seats are very good and offer a lot of adjustment during long road trips. Love them! The car averaged about 40 mpg at around 80 mph through France. The HID lights (Visibility package) were well worth the money, as was the Premium Sound System. Big props to TomTom 930 also.

The car now has almost 10,000 miles. It won't need an oil change until about the time my 2 year lease is up. I only put diesel and windshield washer fluid in it so far. It's picked up a few rock chips on the aluminum hood. The gearbox has loosened up after the first 3500 miles. There is a little turbo lag just before 2000 rpm if you are just driving normal, heavy footed and you don't notice it. The Sport suspension package is a little stiff and does bounch just slightly over bumps, but I still like the stiffer suspension on twisty roads.

One annoying point is that if you roll only the rear windows down, there is a painful deep bass harmonic. I'm not sure if it's caused by the rear cargo cover vibrating, but it's not pleasant, so all the windows are rolled down, or they are all up, or only the front windows are rolled down.

Otherwise, I absolutely love driving and owning the 120d. It feels really nice and balanced when throwing it into a roundabout.

If it weren't on lease, I'd put a LSD in it, chip it, and probably have to enjoy replacing the front and rear tires in another 10,000 miles.
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      08-06-2008, 06:27 PM   #17
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mechanicaldan View Post
If it weren't on lease, I'd put a LSD in it, chip it, and probably have to enjoy replacing the front and rear tires in another 10,000 miles.
You still get something external like a spider tuning box? I'm seriously looking at one of these atm, but they're about $1100AU over here.
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      08-08-2008, 02:02 PM   #18
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I've been living in Cambridge, England for nearly 3 years and I LOVE driving my '04 120i Sport 5-door Hatchback. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE it!! Now, I'm heading back to the US, so I ordered a 135i. Can't wait!!
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      08-08-2008, 02:37 PM   #19
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Mechanicaldan -- you sir are one lucky man. Both on account of the 120d and on account of living around some of the best driving roads in the world.
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