Hi BMW freaks....I really like the look of the 1 series as a learner car. I had one the other day from BMW whilst my Mini was being serviced.

It had a 1.5 litre petrol engine, as it was a courtesy car it had a few bells and whistles on it. I managed to get 52 MPG out of it driving "nicely" however my customers are normally a little more rough than me and achieve on average about 15-20 MPG less than I can

What real life MPG can I expect form a petrol? and Diesel? as fuel consumption is a big cost factor for my business where I do about 500 miles a week stop/starting around Southampton, and a wee bit of motorway/rural. The car running for around 6-8 hours a day

what sized engine is best (performance is not important....they all go to the speed limits!)

As i only did about 100 miles in it, I would like to know what it's like to spend several hours at a time in it?

How do you find it reversing? I thought it was not bad

Is the reliability good? My current Mini in 4 years of ownership some 128k has only had offside window issue (slow up and down) so for me that is very good

Does it eat tyres? what sort of miles can I expect form a set of front tyres

I prefer 4 door over two door for ease of getting in and out of them.

Is the Sat Nav any good? and updates easy to do?

Same for the DAB (radio is a companion between lessons)

Please tell me what you like dislike about them

cheers