125i coupe now owned for 4 years through which it’s been very reliable. Its got a slightly strangled version of the 3.0 six pot found in the 130 but a simple £300 remap un-strangles it freeing up an extra 50hp.
Bit of a hidden gem in my opinion and can’t see me getting rid any time soon, the engine is an absolute peach.

Mdavids – if it’s the same N53 engine I had in a 325i (2009) unfortunately (after much digging) I found out that there is new hardware required to get up to 30i power not just remap. The 330i of the same ilk has a trick 3-stage/length intake manifold that opens and shuts valves at different rpm creating a mild forced induction effect.

Mind you it might be a totally different engine as mine was not reliable at all and treated injectors as a consumable, in which case please ignore me!

I sold my 135 in January and changed to a Golf R estate. It was low miles and only three years old but my kids were finding the back pretty cramped – it’s tiny really, but I absolutely loved it.

The Golf should have been perfect for me, but every time I drove it I thought I’d fall asleep with boredom – too capable, probably… Build quality was hugely disappointing and not close to the 1 series, which some people think is a low bar already (I disagree). The engine was clearly capable, but utterly unlovable.

I tolerated it/tried to love it for 9 months but I’ve just swapped it for a F31 340i tourer. Not as nice to drive as the 135, but bigger. It’s a lovely place to be, and although the steering is much too light, the engine is a cracker and will be the last of the RWD 6 pots.

I’m just back 500 miles over the last two days, sat at about 70mph and it returned 43mpg. The Golf would have been 37mpg (ish) on the same journey.

I think I’ll keep it for 10 years or so while they figure out electric vs hydrogen.

I sold my 135 in January and changed to a Golf R estate

I was thinking it may have to be a Golf R next but your feedback (and others) puts me off 🙁

It is a shame, I keep seeing 140s around (there’s one on my street) and thinking that when the time comes one would be a good replacement/upgrade for the Polo GTI. I’m not sure I’d be so excited about an X Drive one and definitely not FWD.

My E91 330D Touring is lovely despite being diesel and auto, it’s made me a bit of a BMW fan after always being into VAG cars.

Environmentalists, don’t look in this thread……

I quite fancy an Infiniti Q50.

2.0T Petrol or the 3.5 V6 Hybrid – cheap as chips at 3-4 years old. The hybrid is seriously fast.

Yes I know Infiniti pull out of Europe in March but they have either Merc or Nissan engines, and are made from stock parts of both. The hybrid has the 350Z engine. Big Nissan fan here as ours have been massively reliable.

I love my petrol cars, but I do now feel some guilt and receive some shaming. Next family car will be at least HEV. Current in a mk5 gti which I am enjoying more than my m135i despite the 100hp missing. I like the hydraulic steering and the go kart handling. In fact I liked my 330i more than the m135i too.

I’m just back 500 miles over the last two days, sat at about 70mph and it returned 43mpg.

That is impressive. My F30 320i would only give 40-41 in that situation.

I owned an m135i for about 3 years. It was an lsd and some decent dampers away from perfection. Great car.

Now have an m4, which is pretty damn good, feels like a big Caterham 7.

M135i here – great car, traction is terrible though, any time you put your foot down a light comes up on the dash warning you that you have no traction!

Fantastic otherwise, good mpg on long journeys with the 8sp auto and pokey around town.

Always on the look out for the next car – thinking Panamera at the mo, unpopular choice. Before the climate change activists get in, I’m in London and drive 20 miles a week.

Mdavids – if it’s the same N53 engine I had in a 325i (2009) unfortunately (after much digging) I found out that there is new hardware required to get up to 30i power not just remap.

Nope its the N52 and the only difference between the 125 and 130 is the Ecu map. It’s a proven remap that just removes the restrictions from the throttle opening and timing settings. I’ve had it done and the rolling road figures took it from 211 to 268hp, its very noticeable.

traction is terrible though, any time you put your foot down a light comes up on the dash warning you that you have no traction!

But that’s the point and perhaps you are in the wrong car for what you need. The point of a good rwd car IMO is that you can’t just floor it every where, get an xdrive version if you want that.

RWD for me is not about power but the fact you need skill to get the best out of them. All wheel drive or front wheel drive can’t match that finesse of balancing throttle out of a corner to steer you out.

The roads are getting to that nice winter greasy state too at the min and overtaking the other day in my 330e (which has ridiculous instant torque) I just floored it pulling out and the back end went. It’s great now remembering that I need to feed the throttle in to find the limit of grip, rather than just dumping all the power at once. Makes the driving experience all the more fun!

Just would be nice if that could all happen with an engine that makes a nice noise too!

Having said that I do quite like the very quiet noise of the electric motor with ICE off.

Used C63 estate? Although I don’t think the dog would enjoy it much 😉

I just bought one to scratch the V8 itch before going electric. Got 33mpg driving from Heathrow to East Mids. I know that’s not great but with 500bhp it’s not bad…. I do cycle to work so it does, in my self centred and broken logic, offset the poor eco credentials (although the less said about the flights environmental impact the better)

Mdavids – glad to hear it, my local BMW Indie said the N52 is a much stronger and better engine than the N53. 👍 Think that means you also don’t have any of that direct injection nonsense which made mine sound like a diesel on tickover!

Car magazines were warning in the late 00s that the days of big ICE engines were coming to a close and they’ve been more or less correct. We’ve known for ages that cars are pants for the environment and the big engined ones are, rightly or not, just the pin-up.

ICE cars will go the same way as steam power. An emotional experience and a curiosity, but not mainstream.

I had my fun when I could (supercharged Golf R32 etc etc), but bikes are much more fun and a lot cheaper!

I agree with the points above re. Traction and LSD. Unfortunately the M135i is only a “good “RWD up to about 7/10ths. Above that it is quite prickly – I think a combo of open diff, poorly damped/sprung and short wheelbase. There’s not a lot of fun or finesse to be had in the twistys with the traction on/off/in-between. The open diff will just spin an inside rear before cutting power on/off (depending on TC). As above it’s about £4,000 away from being a proper drivers car.. it’s not the “weapon” some people make out. It’s very fast but not loads of fun..

I have a 135i with an LSD and stage 2 remap. It’s lairy, to the point of being dangerous. Even on a standard map with LSD it’s not much better. Basically the engine is too big for the car. Buy an A45 instead would be my recommendation.

Does make a nice noise though

Really liked our old M Sport 1 Series and it’s such a shame they dropped RWD. Never mind though as I had a good blast in a i3s and am completely sold. Great bit of kit, RWD too!

Environmentalists, don’t look in this thread……

Whoa, careful there Jeremy/Piers. It’s ok to knit your own yoghurt and drive fast cars you know, just ask Lewis Hamilton 😆

But that’s the point and perhaps you are in the wrong car for what you need. The point of a good rwd car IMO is that you can’t just floor it every where, get an xdrive version if you want that.

RWD for me is not about power but the fact you need skill to get the best out of them. All wheel drive or front wheel drive can’t match that finesse of balancing throttle out of a corner to steer you out.

The roads are getting to that nice winter greasy state too at the min and overtaking the other day in my 330e (which has ridiculous instant torque) I just floored it pulling out and the back end went. It’s great now remembering that I need to feed the throttle in to find the limit of grip, rather than just dumping all the power at once. Makes the driving experience all the more fun!

You are Surfmatt and I claim my £5!
RWD is useless in any kind of snow, and I’ve had a BMW spinning its rear wheels in heavy rain heading towards J18 on the M4, due to the water sitting in the channels made by trucks.
I got off the motorway at that point, it was getting too scary.
I’ve driven enough BMW’s* to have developed a healthy dislike, I wouldn’t own one if it was given me.
*1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Series, X2, X3, X5 Series.

and I’ve had a BMW spinning its rear wheels in heavy rain

I’ve had FWD cars do that with bad / worn tyres. So far my BMW has been fine in some horrendous weather, I do use Uniroyal Rainsport tyres though and don’t let them get too low before changing them.

And as for snow I’ve not had to try it yet but I do have winter tyres (wider than ideal at 255) and snow chains. I’ll report back if it snows this year. If it goes really badly I’ll be in the wife’s Polo.

RWD is useless in any kind of snow

No it is not, you just need to be prepared for the fact that you need opposite lock on quite a lot and stay from idiots going too slowly up hills (the ones in fwd cars who think the answer is to drive really slowly in 1st gear revving the engine hard, determined to wear out their tyres)

I scratched the V8 itch just over a year ago. Got hold of a 2013 C63 AMG wagon. It was amazing but stupid! Way waaaaaay too fast for the roads.

The thrill I used to get from the acceleration in my old Subaru Forrester Turbo getting up to speed would get you to way over 100 far too easily

You could see the fuel gauge going down, I once almost ran out of petrol in a traffic jam. £90 to fill it would get me about 200 miles

I had to switch after 5 months due to more miles for work. Now in a C250 wagon, £80 to fill, almost 700 miles.

Never had so many boy racers pull absolutely crazy manoeuvres to get past me when I’m just driving along like normal

Still want to get a newer 4.0 version though 😉

If it goes really badly I’ll be in the wife’s Polo.

You’ll be better than fine. A RWD on decent winter tyres will out perform a FWD car on non-winter tyres in snow.

For that matter, a RWD with good winter tyres will out perform a 4WD on snow on normal tyres too.

Oh god who mentioned snow and grip and set them all off!

Now we’re going to have 5 pages of my (insert type of drivetrain) can climb up the side of Everest with one snow tyre fitted, you’re all rubbish drivers, blah blah blah 😂

😂 yeah, probably.

Nothing to do with driving god status, just suitable tyres.

Here, a quick search to save 5 pages… 4WD regular, vs RWD winter. Lots of results, all the same.

Edit, wrong link: https://youtu.be/STaximkaQxo

Don’t be sad

I appreciate we can mourn the passing of something and clearly this post isn’t addressed to me but why’s it sad? Are we really still viewing cars as an entertainment platform?

My mates wife has an AMG GL43… She bought it last year and it’s bonkers, it’s a silly car for a road network like we have here in the UK. I can almost see the benefit for Autobahns, but even then driving at 150mph is silly.

So, she has it in comfort mode and thats it. She has one of those MercMe Apps that tells you where and what the car is doing.. my mate has been telephoned by her on occasion when he’s nicked it for the day to “can you take my car out of sport ++ mode please” It’s hilarious simply for the fact that we’re on our way home form the sailing club in a traffic queue…

I just don’t get why we need 4.3ltrs and Sport ++ modes on cars.

When I got my last car, it was definitely in my mind that it might be my last fossil fuel car… So I went through a list of more or less daft options, nearly went with a V8 5 series because when else am I ever going to own a rwd v8?

My mates wife has an AMG GL43…

I just don’t get why we need 4.3ltrs and Sport ++ modes on cars.

Good thing it’s only a turbocharged 3 litre then.

And the answer to your question is “because it’s fun”. There are other places and countries to drive cars you know. That electric 3 series above looks hilarious.

Sad indeed but the down sizing was inevitable. I have had a facelift M135i for a couple of years and love it, did a trip to Scotland last summer, 3 bikes on the rear rack, kids bike and medium roof box and saw 40-42mpg sitting at 65mph. Normal commuting I get 35mpg. Short blasts…. Not so good. (That’s with stage 2 map).

Once you’re out of town the big engine is much more efficient than a smaller 4 pot. A colleague of mine went from a 2.0l Focus ST to a 340i and his mpg went from 34 to 40 driving to work.

There are other places and countries to drive cars you know

But us foreigners would rather you left your RHD heavy metal monsters at home and hired a LHD Clio locally.

Happy biker – which rack have you got on the back of your M135i? I ended up getting roof bars after dealer saying towbar was not possible on that car.
Thanks

They were on to a winner with the E39. Miss my 530 M sport.

Then went hit and miss.

I was going to buy an M2 but it sounded crap.

Fully understand…
Despite my E91 325i’s replacement coming next month, I have decided not to part with it. I simply can’t face it! It’s got 145000 on it and feels like new.

It’s the last of the N/A 3.0 straight sixes and it sounds magical. ❤️
It’ll do over 30mpg on the motorway occasionally so it’s cheap to run for 20k miles a year. It’s going into semi retirement and I plan to half it’s mileage.

I’m about to downsize to a small-engined VAG 4wd 2.0 turbo estate for its replacement, which is significantly quicker but will lack any character in comparison.🙁

Nickewan, it’s a Westfalia from PF Jones. Your dealer is sort of right, the 135 is not rated for towing, but there is a towbar for all the other F20/1s so just use that to look for options. Works fine with a Buzzrack and is completely hidden when detached. Obviously you can’t tow a trailer but a bike rack is allowed.
https://www.pfjones.co.uk/bmw-1-series-hatchback-3-5-door-2011-onwards-westfalia-detachable-towbar.html