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No video review yet but Top Gear’s online edition has published good news to BMW enthusiasts: they liked the new BMW 1 Series. The release of this facelift was quite controversial because of the exterior design. If you were one of those who were not won over, maybe this review is what you need to appreciate what the car can offer:
Time to hit the road. BMW’s smallest car now has a cabin that’s on a par with its much bigger, pricier siblings. It’s almost a decade since iDrive appeared in its brave but misfiring v1.0 incarnation, and, for my money, BMW’s current multi-media system is easily the most elegant and user-friendly of the lot.
Hard drive-based navigation and 12-speaker Harman/Kardon hi-fi with DAB and a digital amplifier are all brilliant if pricey options, but even a parched 1-Series is a handsome place to be. Good materials, great driving position and some decent design flourishes. I love the interior doorhandles, and the cup-holder recesses in the base of the doors are cleverly designed and spacious. Here, at least, it kicks a Golf or A3 into touch.
It gets better. As with the previous 1, this might be a small BMW, but the bits underneath are very grown-up. The suspension is independent all-round, with MacPherson struts on the front and a sophisticated five-link axle at the rear. The front axle is mostly aluminium, which reduces unsprung mass, and the suspension’s kinematics have all been sharpened. You can tell immediately. A veteran of numerous ruinously run-flat-clad BMWs, I actually got out after 10 minutes to double-check that TG’s test car was actually on them and that my arse wasn’t lying to me. It’s still firm enough, don’t get me wrong, but it filters out the worst that the UK’s beaten roads can chuck at it while maintaining a decent entertainment focus.
