BMW M135i review!

Yea, that's just so...
This is just great.
A compact car with a big engine...
... a really big engine.
Rear-wheel-drive.
Which is quite nice.
This is just...
... this is it.
And since this the first BMW M performance car on petrol, it's a scoop too.
M performance previously released the M550D and the X5 and X6 with the tri-turbo diesel engine.
But this version is on petrol and only has one turbo.
The well-known 3 litre turbo engine.
320 bhp and 450 Nm of torque.
That is quite a lot for a small car as the 1-series.
This is the 3-door version.
Which looks much nicer than the sedate 5-door version.
But unfortunately they didn't change the front, which isn't the strongest point the 1-series has.
Of course it's a M performance, so it has the M sporting package.
Meaning bigger bumpers and some black gloss accents.
18" rims, which aren't the most beautiful on the market.
And something that's quite nice.
The front tires are smaller than the rear tires.
225 in the front and 245 on the rear, resulting in a better balance.
It's like a canon.
Although it's a bit of a smasher, I can't think of any other word for it.
It simply is a very fast car.
With a manual transmission it does 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 5.1 seconds.
We've got the eight-stage automatic which does 0-100 km/h (0-62 mph) in 4.9 seconds.
This simply is very fast.
You wouldn't have imagined with a BMW.
But it's become a nice cruiser.
Of course it's got a button to go to comfort or eco-pro mode.
A mode you basically won't use in this car.
But also a sport and sport+ mode.
With sport+; the chassis, steering, throttle response and the transmission are just a tad more aggressive.
ESP has been reduced a bit.
Which is nice because you can really drive this car at its limits.
The car's balance is phenomenal.
And it has tons of grip, really a lot of grip.
But if you want to, you can lose the grip of course.
This isn't the greatest car to drift with.
This mainly has to do with the missing of one thing.
A mechanical differential lock.
It has a electronic thingy that slows down the inner wheel.
I don't know if it has to do with this that the drifting doesn't go smoothly.
But you can feel that at some point it regains its traction.
This despite me wanting that both wheels loose grip at the same time...
... so the drift can go all the way around the corner.
So it's the perfect car?
Of course it isn't.
It hasn't got a diff., the front is ugly, although it has become a bit bigger it's still small.
Sitting behind somebody my height isn't possible at all.
It has got enough room for luggage.
If you have children you can put them on the backseat.
But then you might want to order the 5-door version.
Which brings us to the best part: the price.
It is quite a bit of money, but still reasonably priced compared to the competition.
The M135i starts at 53 grand.
But then what's the alternative?
There are lots of hot hatches without RWD but with 4WD.
Scirocco R for instance.
A Golf R or Astra OPC.
But these are less powerful and less premium.
The Mercedes Class-A is being released as an A45 AMG.
This sounds very hopeful.
But the best competitors are other BMW's.
You can also buy a BMW 3-series.
Probably not a 335i with all sort of M equipment.
But a 328i is fun too, although it isn't as fast.
What's really cool with this car is that you can hear the 6-cylinder roar.
Also when it's starting or revving.
Honestly, this car is the most fun of all "M products" of the last few years.
Because it has the best sound.
Better than the M5 and X5M.
This car might be just as much as fun the 1M, the previous version.
This one did had a diff., but was priced much higher.
And was limited too.
This version you can keep on ordering.
You can even get it with X-drive.
This, in case you enjoy going to the mountains and are afraid you get stuck in the snow.
The only thing you need to do...
... is installing a mechanical differential lock.
Then this car is done.