Monday 30th September 2013

Enough on that BMW already: PH Blog

Put down the pitchforks, the PH M135i has left the building!

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Alright, so our comparisons with the BMW M135i and ... seemingly everything were inspired by the fact that we all seemed to be doing just that every time a vaguely PHey car in the £20K-£40K bracket was mentioned on the site. Number of seats, intended purpose, actual price comparisons - none seemed to put off the inevitable forum discussion.

So we've done just that, albeit in some depth. You asked for it and all that!

Hate the Beemer? We gave you alternatives!

Thing is, all these articles we've done aren't really about the M135i. Not in isolation anyway. It's just been the inspiration and anchor around which we can have a sniff about the interesting cars, new and used, that might appeal to those of a fast car persuasion in this price bracket. And if nothing else it's revealed quite how wide and diverse the market currently is.

Number of seats, driven wheels, engine size, power, transmission type, snob value, performance - turns out you can have your pick and combine in any which way that suits your tastes and needs. The BMW isn't meant to be the answer to all these questions. But it is a handy benchmark by which they can all be compared and measured, at least by the parameters that matter to us.

By all means cheer its departure from the PH Fleet. Go on, set off a firework, dance a jig on its grave, do whatever's required. And if anyone says 'ah, but what about...' you know where to point them while we all talk about something completely different.

Job done!

Dan

[QuattroDave]

I personally found most of the articles good reading. okay there were some car comparisons I wouldn't have done personally but after all it is different strokes for different folks.

Still toying with the idea of getting one as I can get the employee discount of 22% which makes the 5 door auto with business & decent paint a snip at about £27,500! But the car that's got me thinking otherwise is the 330d touring xDrive. Very different beasts I know but see the latter as a good alternative to my URQ and my octy vrs estate.

[4wdrift]

Owned one for 6 months. Good car, but not loved. Needed a little more character and steering feel. A little overhyped to me!

[QuattroDave]

Oh and my first first comment!

Also forgot to mention that 3 series specced up comes to £32kish with the discount - still a lot for a 3 series though!

[weez123]

About time

[MarJay]

Closest thing to my car in the current BMW range. Will be sad to see it go.

[Zammy]

Nice pic of it leaving the building! Bye byeeeee

[X5TUU]

thank the lord lol

[nickfrog]

Thanks Dan for all those comparos. I found them all very relevant indeed. I might be alone but when I choose a car I more or less do the same exact exercise without prejudice, by comparing old and new, cheaper and more expensive, more practical and less practical etc etc, so well done and looking forward to the same exercise applied to another car, even if it doesn't look as good

[Garlick]

Zammy said:

Nice pic of it leaving the building! Bye byeeeee

On a forecourt near you soon.

[ant leigh]

Really, another thread just to say we won't be doing any more threads as it's gone (apart from a few other comparisons we have saved up)

and I thought the GT86 had been over hyped...

[Wolands Advocate]

As an owner of said machine, I've obviously read all the comparisons with interest. Thanks for them.

[Tomatogti]

Wolands Advocate said:

As an owner of said machine, I've obviously read all the comparisons with interest. Thanks for them.

Ditto. Thank you PH. Some good tests, others more questionable. But that's why we have forums: to question and challenge and clearly this has happened so good work!

[4a4]

I quite liked the comparisons.

I still don't know who told BMW styling that the 1 series facelift looks better than the outgoing model though...

[ode]

Got to say I'll miss it, there can't be many cars that could take on such a wide variety of PH-worthy vehicles, yet at the same time be perfect for the day to day normal stuff.

I was always quite interested to see what unlikely thing it'd be bloodying the nose of next.

[nickfrog]

4a4 said:

1 series facelift

What facelift? Still about 18 months away or so I think.

[MiseryStreak]

Well, I would say 'I hate to see you go but I love to watch you leave', but I don't, so I won't.

[JB!]

Don't understand what the moaning was about. Good benchmark for those looking to spend £25-30k.

can we have one at say 15-20k? and then a used benchmark at 5k???

[chelme]

ant leigh said:

Really, another thread just to say we won't be doing any more threads as it's gone (apart from a few other comparisons we have saved up)

and I thought the GT86 had been over hyped...

LOL +1.

Its just an ugly car with average dynamics. Granted, it has a nice six pot with good performance figures, but really if its not much to look at and the chassis fails to match the engine, it can't be as good as it has been made out.

[Roma101]

Oh dear. Those who mistake opinion for fact are appearing again.

Anyway, back to the article, I would like to say "well done" to PH for the series of articles. It offered something different than the mainstream stuff we get from car mags and websites.

[russy01]

Interesting articles, although via your tone it sounds like PH aren't so keen anymore? Any final words on the car?