Not Getting On With My M135i As Well As I Thought I would...

[Martin_M]

Nice vid of M135I and M3 on track:

http://f20.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=83...

[Slippydiff]

Martin_M said:

A new M3 for me was never a consideration what with the rrp north of £50k. A two year old example could have been had but I prefer to buy new for various reasons. I would be very interested to see just what the extra ££££ buy you in terms of additional performance in the real world. Not really keen on the look of the new M235i so unless BMW call me in a couple of years with some sort of amazing deal that takes my fancy, I'll probably have a look at what other manufacturers are offering at that point.

In my original post, I also never mentioned the ECO PRO mode which for me, doesn't give me any meaningful gain in terms of mpg compared to the comfort mode. I also wish that you could have the heavier steering in comfort mode but it's easy to pick faults I guess.

Right with you on this.
It's not picking fault, I think of it as an entirely logical and sensible expectation. The fact that BMW have chosen to make one switch control several very different parameters is inexcusable. It was another nail in the coffin of an F30 330D sport Auto for me.

[copperman05]

bennyboysvuk said:

This is the answer for excitement ^^^^.

Not if its the X5M X6M or even the M6 it isnt, big fat lardy cars that have more in common with a Bentley than the original 'M' cars..

[Vladimir]

copperman05 said:

Not if its the X5M X6M or even the M6 it isnt, big fat lardy cars that have more in common with a Bentley than the original 'M' cars..

Precisely. More than a few journos claim the M135i is ironically the most "M" car currently made (until the M3/4 are ready!).

[sootyvrs]

One of the M135i's appeal to most is that it doesn't draw much attention.. a little bit of a sleeper... wolf in sheeps clothing!

My personal opinion is that it's a great allrounder... It excels in some areas (drive train in particular) but arguably compromised in other areas as it's trying to hard to keep everyone happy but as we all know... that's impossible lol

It wants to be comfortable and sporting... a recipe that doesn't go hand in hand usually so you end up with a jack of all trades but master of none! Even current M cars have their compromises and why some end up modifying them to make them even more hardcore!

I love some things about mine and the other things which I think are too compromised I've made some modifications so it's now in line with what I'm wanting out of the car... I understand that many don't like to modify cars and everyones needs and wants are different but for me I wanted the car to look a little more sporting and aggressive looking so I've changed the wheels on mine which to my eyes have transformed the appearance in my opnion. The car now looks unique and not looking like every other 1er M Sport and adds some aggression to the car.. The track is increased by around 24mm with a wider stance and the car looks like it now has some purpose compared to the softer std. look.

I then went about improving the handling which I think struggles against the superb powertrain so mine is now on KW coilovers (had them on previous 130i) and it also has lowered that 4x4 stance which in my eyes is not fitting for a car of this performance! This change alone for me has givem me a lot more confidence to push the car in the corners which was lacking with std. suspension (non adaptive) which for me always seemed a little unsettled when pushing close to my limits on the road. OK it's still no match for my previous Cayman R in the handling stakes but I now enjoy driving the M135i through the corners compared to before when I had little confidence when pushing on... not helped by the lack of feel in the steering but it is quick and accurate which makes up for some of that weakness!

I have made a few other changes which inc. exhaust (more sporting sound) and JB4 piggy back map (although more power is not a neccesity IMO) and now have it the way I like it...

I suspect that many would not contemplate spending additional funds on mods but I purposely didn't load my car up at the factory (toys don't excite me) as I prefer to spend it on other things... One thing I'm still on the fence for is a LSD... I had a Quaife fitted on my previous 130i and also had LSD's on Cayman R's and previous M3's but I find that I usually press on when conditions are dry and drive quite sadately when wet and slippery (old age perhaps) so might not benefit fromt the LSD expendature as much as I should. I will probably make an informed decision when it's good weather again if the additional traction benefits are worthwhile.

I also have an auto and after always being a manual purist, I think this transmission really suits this car (due to laggy throttle response compared to a good NA car) as perfect heel/toe changes I found difficult and unsatisfying in the manual M135i I test drove! I drive this car in Sport/manual mode pretty much all the time and I find that although I miss some interaction, I have gained other things like perfect blip downshifts and also full throttle upshifts which the cracks on upshifts are quire intoxicating

To the OP... I hope you can perhaps stick with it and perhaps make the changes which you find that you are not satisfied with before making an decision to get rid or stay dissatisfied with the M135i...

Here's a couple of pictures of my car

Edited by sootyvrs on Wednesday 25th December 18:43

[shim]

''

sootyvrs said:

One of the M135i's appeal to most is that it doesn't draw much attention.. a little bit of a sleeper... wolf in sheeps clothing!

My personal opinion is that it's a great allrounder... It excels in some areas (drive train in particular) but arguably compromised in other areas as it's trying to hard to keep everyone happy but as we all know... that's impossible lol

It wants to be comfortable and sporting... a recipe that doesn't go hand in hand usually so you end up with a jack of all trades but master of none! Even current M cars have their compromises and why some end up modifying them to make them even more hardcore!

I love some things about mine and the other things which I think are too compromised I've made some modifications so it's now in line with what I'm wanting out of the car... I understand that many don't like to modify cars and everyones needs and wants are different but for me I wanted the car to look a little more sporting and aggressive looking so I've changed the wheels on mine which to my eyes have transformed the appearance in my opnion. The car now looks unique and not looking like every other 1er M Sport and adds some aggression to the car.. The track is increased by around 24mm with a wider stance and the car looks like it now has some purpose compared to the softer std. look.

I then went about improving the handling which I think struggles against the superb powertrain so mine is now on KW coilovers (had them on previous 130i) and it also has lowered that 4x4 stance which in my eyes is not fitting for a car of this performance! This change alone for me has givem me a lot more confidence to push the car in the corners which was lacking with std. suspension (non adaptive) which for me always seemed a little unsettled when pushing close to my limits on the road. OK it's still no match for my previous Cayman R in the handling stakes but I now enjoy driving the M135i through the corners compared to before when I had little confidence when pushing on... not helped by the lack of feel in the steering but it is quick and accurate which makes up for some of that weakness!

I have made a few other changes which inc. exhaust (more sporting sound) and JB4 piggy back map (although more power is not a neccesity IMO) and now have it the way I like it...

I suspect that many would not contemplate spending additional funds on mods but I purposely didn't load my car up at the factory (toys don't excite me) as I prefer to spend it on other things... One thing I'm still on the fence for is a LSD... I had a Quaife fitted on my previous 130i and also had LSD's on Cayman R's and previous M3's but I find that I usually press on when conditions are dry and drive quite sadately when wet and slippery (old age perhaps) so might not benefit fromt the LSD expendature as much as I should. I will probably make an informed decision when it's good weather again if the additional traction benefits are worthwhile.

I also have an auto and after always being a manual purist, I think this transmission really suits this car (due to laggy throttle response compared to a good NA car) as perfect heel/toe changes I found difficult and unsatisfying in the manual M135i I test drove! I drive this car in Sport/manual mode pretty much all the time and I find that although I miss some interaction, I have gained other things like perfect blip downshifts and also full throttle upshifts which the cracks on upshifts are quire intoxicating

To the OP... I hope you can perhaps stick with it and perhaps make the changes which you find that you are not satisfied with before making an decision to get rid or stay dissatisfied with the M135i...

Here's a couple of pictures of my car

Edited by sootyvrs on Wednesday 25th December 18:43

Nice post

Mine if it turns up, will be similar spec and very basic.........debadged but otherwise it will be untouched.

Got the other M in the garage for the fun runs but I hope the M135 lives up to at least a bit of the M factor day to day, even if it is not an M car

[FamilyDub]

I cannot wait for the day 'my' 5-dr Estoril w/coral leather (Superman spec ) comes into my price bracket...

I just hope the seating position (and seats for that matter) in the M-lite are better than SWMBO's F20 116d...

[JRBM5]

Sounds like you need to get the car on a trackday to really understand how the car moves about underneath you whilst pressing on. RWD cars can make you feel like they are squirming all over the road whilst actually being nowhere near their actual limits. A quick stint on a track will teach you more about how hard the car can pushed and about what happens when you cross that line.

[urquattroGus]

I have had mine for about 6 months and 10,000 miles. Best addition so far is the m performance exhaust.

I have a (cunning?!) Plan to fit some eibach anti roll bars, there is an M135i specific kit for circa 370 pounds. I think this might tighten it up nicely and reduce roll, afteral, I am sure an M version would have stiffer arb‘s.

Then maybe the LSD, but it'S not cheap.

I love my car but the hadleing feels a little loose, not helped by dead steering which doesnt help confidence. I am enjoying the RWD aspect, but I did come from a mk2 Focus RS which felt in another leauge of grip and sharpness, just a firmer car.... Anyway, one of the reasons I ditched that car was the appaling low speed ride.

So hopefully and as an interim, the arb's will add a little more precision without buggering up the ride to speak of:-)

[gizlaroc]

Martin, I reckon that when you say it is just too quick I think you may be right, but it is not really the speed it is the ease at which it gets there.

I went from an M3 CSL to a 335i, and after the initial novelty wore off of how well it shoves you down the road I was left wanting, my car was mapped and would get to 60 in 4.7 seconds every time, it was quick, but it was also a bit soul less too.
It was after I was lent a 330i for 2 days that I relaised I just din't like the turbo set up as much as I liked having to work a NA car. In the 335i it didn't really matter if you were in the right gear or not, if you were at 2000rpm instead of 3500rpm so what? It still pulled like a train and left everything for dead, where as in the 330i (and the M3) you had to be in the right gear and have the revs matched, come out of the corner doing 2000rpm in the 330i, or the M3 for that matter, and you didn't move. Get it wrong and you had failed, get it right and you were a driving god!!

There was simply never a sense of achievement with the 335i, it was all far too clinical and easy.

I sold it and bought another M3.


That was 5 years ago when I sold the 335i, and after the M3 I had an E Class estate (9 points in 3 months) and now an ML.
However with the reviews of the 135i and the silly £209 a month deal I decided to go for it, so I spoke to my man at BMW and asked if he would let me take one out, no plans on buying from him bought a few over the years and so he arranged for me to have their demo for the day. Cool!
However, an hour into it and I remebered why I had sold the 335i, it all came back, and the 135i is exactly the same, doesn't even feel any more chuckable than my old 335i, and definitely a much bigger car than my missus old 123d M-Sport.

Now don't get me wrong, as an every day car that can go up against the rest it is awesome, but I have the ML as an everyday car, and to be honest a cheap Z4 or Boxster, maybe an early 996 would scratch my fast car itch better.

It is a great car, but it is still an everyday fast 1 series, not a sports car as such. It just doesn't feel raw in the slightest, which to me is where the old E46 M3 did well, the last M Car that had any feeling of rawness at all.

Turbo's are getting better, but they are not the same as a NA for driver reward.

[Slippydiff]

gizlaroc said:

Martin, I reckon that when you say it is just too quick I think you may be right, but it is not really the speed it is the ease at which it gets there.

I went from an M3 CSL to a 335i,

It's only when your CSL has gone, that you come to realise what an almost impossibly difficult act it is to follow.

[gizlaroc]

Regretted it before it even went, all happened a bit quickly, had to replace the bumper twice in the space of a fotnight, then the warranty needed renewing and my insurance came up a week later, cost me around £7000 that month and I decided I couldn't afford it, so mentioned on bm3w.co.uk I was thinking of selling and it was gone the next day.

Having said that, the new regular SMG M3 after I needed another one was just as fun, 90% as good for 1/3 price anyway.

[Vladimir]

Sooty; great post!

The M135i is around 30% M fettled, an M3 (and most other M cars) are about 80%.

Fuel range is too small and the looks on all M cars are too shouty for me. Plus we need a hatch or estate for the dog so the little 1 suits us; or at least I hope it will!!

[gizlaroc]

Vladimir said:

Sooty; great post!

The M135i is around 30% M fettled, an M3 (and most other M cars) are about 80%.

Fuel range is too small and the looks on all M cars are too shouty for me. Plus we need a hatch or estate for the dog so the little 1 suits us; or at least I hope it will!!

I think you'll love it, if it was my main car I would have one, in fact I would now go back to a 335i touring again as a main car, just that when I bought the 335i I was looking for a cheaper alternative to the CSL, and that was the wrong approach, same with the M135i, I was looking for something for the weekends, and again, it is too much of an all round car to do that job.

[Carlton Banks]

Slippydiff said:

gizlaroc said:

Martin, I reckon that when you say it is just too quick I think you may be right, but it is not really the speed it is the ease at which it gets there.

I went from an M3 CSL to a 335i,

It's only when your CSL has gone, that you come to realise what an almost impossibly difficult act it is to follow.

Indeed, I bought an E90 M3 after and it lacked something.

I then bought a Z4M, but that wasn't quite right.

I then tried a C63, awesome car but lacked something.

Enter the 1M, love the car and its very CSLesque!

[bennyboysvuk]

copperman05 said:

bennyboysvuk said:

This is the answer for excitement ^^^^.

Not if its the X5M X6M or even the M6 it isnt, big fat lardy cars that have more in common with a Bentley than the original 'M' cars..

I've not driven the M6, but I guess it's more of a fast GT car than fun in an E46 M3 kind of way. The X5M and X6M are so un-M that it almost seems like they should have come from a different manufacturer, perhaps with 'quattro' on the back.

[Flat6]

gizlaroc said:

It is a great car, but it is still an everyday fast 1 series, not a sports car as such. It just doesn't feel raw in the slightest, which to me is where the old E46 M3 did well, the last M Car that had any feeling of rawness at all.

Turbo's are getting better, but they are not the same as a NA for driver reward.

Couldn't agree more. I've got a (manual) M135i on order and have been debating the auto/manual question since I ordered (too much hype surrounding the auto for me to ignore it) so I took an auto out for a drive yesterday and came away wondering have I made a mistake ordering one at all!

I'd previously had a short test drive but not enough time to get a good feel for the car, and after driving it for an hour yesterday I realised that it's so well rounded it's just not that rewarding for me, particularly at modest speeds (for me prob less rewarding than my old 130i)
The performance is almost too accessible and does nothing but flatter the driver. It is only a daily driver though and replacing a boring diesel company car, so in that respect it fits the bill perfectly, I just don't see myself selling my Elise any time soon and relying only on the M135i for thrills.

[TB303]

Flat6 said:

Couldn't agree more. I've got a (manual) M135i on order and have been debating the auto/manual question since I ordered (too much hype surrounding the auto for me to ignore it) so I took an auto out for a drive yesterday and came away wondering have I made a mistake ordering one at all!

I'd previously had a short test drive but not enough time to get a good feel for the car, and after driving it for an hour yesterday I realised that it's so well rounded it's just not that rewarding for me, particularly at modest speeds (for me prob less rewarding than my old 130i)
The performance is almost too accessible and does nothing but flatter the driver. It is only a daily driver though and replacing a boring diesel company car, so in that respect it fits the bill perfectly, I just don't see myself selling my Elise any time soon and relying only on the M135i for thrills.

Agree.

Those looking for a weekend petrol head car and can manage with 2 seats would do better to forgo the power of the M135i and go for a S/H 987 Boxster/Cayman or Elise IMO. Steering feel is very important for a weekend car in my opinion.

Like you, I ordered an M135i but with the auto box as it's for London, and I have a manual in my 360 spider. Good combo I hope! The attraction of the M135i is the all-rounder / have your cake and eat it factor I think.

But what do I know - I still get a heck of a lot of fun out of my '93 import MX5 which is worth about half of the deposit on the lease of the M135i!

[Wolands Advocate]

Flat6 said:

gizlaroc said:

It is a great car, but it is still an everyday fast 1 series, not a sports car as such. It just doesn't feel raw in the slightest, which to me is where the old E46 M3 did well, the last M Car that had any feeling of rawness at all.

Turbo's are getting better, but they are not the same as a NA for driver reward.

Couldn't agree more. I've got a (manual) M135i on order and have been debating the auto/manual question since I ordered (too much hype surrounding the auto for me to ignore it) so I took an auto out for a drive yesterday and came away wondering have I made a mistake ordering one at all!

I'd previously had a short test drive but not enough time to get a good feel for the car, and after driving it for an hour yesterday I realised that it's so well rounded it's just not that rewarding for me, particularly at modest speeds (for me prob less rewarding than my old 130i)
The performance is almost too accessible and does nothing but flatter the driver. It is only a daily driver though and replacing a boring diesel company car, so in that respect it fits the bill perfectly, I just don't see myself selling my Elise any time soon and relying only on the M135i for thrills.

Yes, but as you say yourself, that second test-drive was in the automatic. The manual (which you've sensibly ordered) is inevitably more interactive and a little less smooth and rounded, and that for me makes the car more engaging and fun.

I note that Henry Catchpole in Evo ran an auto M135i as his long-termer and loved it, but said that having tried both and if offered the choice, he'd have the manual version.

[Flat6]

Wolands Advocate said:

Yes, but as you say yourself, that second test-drive was in the automatic. The manual (which you've sensibly ordered) is inevitably more interactive and a little less smooth and rounded, and that for me makes the car more engaging and fun.

I note that Henry Catchpole in Evo ran an auto M135i as his long-termer and loved it, but said that having tried both and if offered the choice, he'd have the manual version.

Thanks, good to hear those comments as people only ever seem to talk about the "fantastic" auto, but for me it was missing something.. Maybe I wasn't clear, but both test drives were actually autos. I ordered manual after the first test drive (not having driven a manual) but then had a moment of "have I done the right thing", hence arranging another drive which confirmed I had!