Just been past the BMW garage down the road and thought as I glanced over, why have they parked a bunch of Ford Galaxies on the forecourt? Upon the second look I saw they had a BMW grill up front. Weird. 😯

For the Alpha Male Driving God who forgot to pull out.

Welcome to the first fwd BMW (badged) model. 1 series next.

This?

KIA BMW cairens?

End of an era right there. There’s no way that’s a BMW. Photoshop, surely?

I had one as hire car in Switzerland last year. M Sport spec, 19″ wheels and just about every option ticked. And I’m almost ashamed to say I absolutely loved it. It was the active tourer not the grand tourer but still a bit of a departure for BMW

For the Alpha Male Driving God who forgot to pull out.

There’s a joke about lane discipline there, but I am too sleepy to do have a crack.

I am too sleepy to do have a crack

Must….resist….

There’s a joke about lane discipline

Or not signalling before you make a manoeuvre?

Or not signalling before you make a manoeuvre?

If changing lanes, you should always signal first. Especially at high speed.

FWD too

and there was me thinking that

the Alpha Male Driving God who forgot to pull out.

drove one of these

isn’t that right CaptainFlashheart ?

I chose not to pull out. And am very happy to have done so. Twice. 😀

Also, I’m far from a Driving God, unless you mean my mad skillz in getting off the road safely after a tree mullered the windscreen! My choice of car is based on it being comfy, safe, and having a massive boot!

and having a massive bootie

FTFY

[video]http://youtu.be/oU19mwjHiRs[/video]

I like big boots and I cannot lie….

Not impressed with that BMW at all

Just been past the BMW garage down the road and thought as I glanced over, why have they parked a bunch of Ford Galaxies on the forecourt?

Its not just the Ford Galaxy – they’ve ripped of the Suzuki X-90 too 🙂

The forthcoming hybrid version of that is supposed to be very good if, like me you want a school run / kiddie carrier most of the weekend and a trip to Grandmas at the weekend.

That grille is awful, looks as though its melted and gone all droopy

Not a driving God, but I really like that. Looks a sensible practical family car. FWD does away with my main concern with having a BMW as a family car. Just need to win the lottery.

Haters gonna hate, obviously.

CaptainFlashheart – Member
I like big boots and I cannot lie….

who forgot to pull out

a skill i could do with learning

End of an era right there.

what era is that – there are loads of pig-ugly BMWs in their history and lots of poorly handling ones as well.

Convergent evolution, innit. Like the Tasmanian tiger.

Have test driven the Active Tourer twice but not bough it. Drives quite nicely for this type of car but very picky about tyres (Scandinavian spec winters were quite vague to drive). Small annoyances include center console which is bit of mess with buttons and displays compared to 3-series and above, also some equipment options and pricing is bit meh.

For BMW enthusiast 3-cylinder engine used in 218 should be more shocking than the car type. 😀 (would have been ok for me)

I had a Grand Tourer as a courtesy car a couple of weeks ago and it was rubbish. It was underpowered with the 1.5 petrol engine, with the same hp as an engine that I have used in a 1 series before and that was fine, as the car is so heavy. It didn’t like going around corners, and inside everything felt like it was in the wrong place and that you were perched up high rather than sat in. The only thing I liked was the leather lower dash.

The engine I had was branded as the 218i this is the same engine with the same output as the 116i, with the 116i being lighter and rwd the car felt loads faster.

Obviously the higher centre of gravity that a people carrier brings means that they don’t go round corners quite as well as a normal car. However from memory my old C-Max cornered better.

In my 3 series and the 1 series I previously drove the whole dash feels well laid out, everything is in a sensible place that you can reach without even thinking about it. I had the seat in the lowest position and it still felt really high, like I was sat on a stool, I think a lower driving position would have made the controls feel more natural and less of a stretch to reach buttons.

Edit

Just looked more into it as I didn’t realise that the 116i has now been changed to the 118i and a 1.5 3 pot. The old 116i with a 136bhp 1.6 4 pot was fine and even quite fun, god knows what the 1.5 will be like in it. Interestingly they have moved the old 118i to be the 120i but with the 1.6 4 pot and 177bhp.

Roter Stern – Member

Just been past the BMW garage down the road and thought as I glanced over, why have they parked a bunch of Ford Galaxies on the forecourt? Upon the second look I saw they had a BMW grill up front. Weird.

Nah the Galaxy is a far better resolved design than that bulbous overly aggressive looking lump of Ultimate Driving Machine.

It’s a molgrips / smurfmat hybrid vehicle 😉

TurnerGuy – Member

End of an era right there.

what era is that – there are loads of pig-ugly BMWs in their history and lots of poorly handling ones as well.

I suspect it was a reference to the fact that it’s the first modern BMW with front wheel drive……