Discussion
Considering a 135i or 125i. Will be a second car but needs to fit a baby and a bit of baby clobber in it (I'm changing from an Elise for obvious reasons...) My wife previously had a 116i Sport and we liked that except for the boingy rear end and lack of go. Had a go in a 335i to see what the engine is like, and will be tryng a demo 125i soon I hope. Have been looking around at reviews and on the BMW web site and have a few questions:
1. What is the diffreence in the brakes (135i - 6 pot calipers and 125i - 2 pot?) Is the disc size different?
2. How does the "LSD" work on the 135i? Is it effective?
3. I read that the coupe is a stiffer shell so the suspension is slightly softer and rides better than an M sport hatch - any views? What about the hatch rear boingyness - is that still there on the coupe?
4. Does the electric assist steering in the 125i have different settings to alter weight and feel?
5. How much extra bhp and torque do the BMW Performance air box and exhaust make on the 125i?
6. Is the gearing different between the two models?
7. The economy figures seem good for both - but what are people's real world experiences?
Er...that's it for now, thanks in anticipation.
1. What is the diffreence in the brakes (135i - 6 pot calipers and 125i - 2 pot?) Is the disc size different?
2. How does the "LSD" work on the 135i? Is it effective?
3. I read that the coupe is a stiffer shell so the suspension is slightly softer and rides better than an M sport hatch - any views? What about the hatch rear boingyness - is that still there on the coupe?
4. Does the electric assist steering in the 125i have different settings to alter weight and feel?
5. How much extra bhp and torque do the BMW Performance air box and exhaust make on the 125i?
6. Is the gearing different between the two models?
7. The economy figures seem good for both - but what are people's real world experiences?
Er...that's it for now, thanks in anticipation.
I came from an elise due to an increase in small people taking over my house, I went for the 135i, I didn't consider the 125i. The handling setup isnt as good as the elise but its a lot faster/comfortable.
Six Days said:
Considering a 135i or 125i. Will be a second car but needs to fit a baby and a bit of baby clobber in it (I'm changing from an Elise for obvious reasons...) My wife previously had a 116i Sport and we liked that except for the boingy rear end and lack of go. Had a go in a 335i to see what the engine is like, and will be tryng a demo 125i soon I hope. Have been looking around at reviews and on the BMW web site and have a few questions:
1. What is the diffreence in the brakes (135i - 6 pot calipers and 125i - 2 pot?) Is the disc size different?
Yes they're bigger and the six pots work well enough. 1. What is the diffreence in the brakes (135i - 6 pot calipers and 125i - 2 pot?) Is the disc size different?
Six Days said:
2. How does the "LSD" work on the 135i? Is it effective?
Ish - its not as good as a proper LSD but it does a reasonable job.Six Days said:
3. I read that the coupe is a stiffer shell so the suspension is slightly softer and rides better than an M sport hatch - any views? What about the hatch rear boingyness - is that still there on the coupe?
The suspension isn't very well damped so I'm tempted to get the Birds suspension package.Six Days said:
4. Does the electric assist steering in the 125i have different settings to alter weight and feel?
don't know but the hydraulic system in the 135 is supposed to have better feel Six Days said:
5. How much extra bhp and torque do the BMW Performance air box and exhaust make on the 125i?
not enoughSix Days said:
6. Is the gearing different between the two models?
probably other wise the 125i would be very slowSix Days said:
7. The economy figures seem good for both - but what are people's real world experiences?
depends how you drive... If you take it very easy you could see 35mpg on a run, driving at motorway speeds I get around 26-29 mpg, around town the worst I get is about 19/20mpg 
Just got my 135 last week. Who hoo! really enjoying it so far. Really strong performance, I would say easily as quick as the e46 M3 I had a few years back. fuel is not too bad thus far. sort of getting around 23-24, but it's only done 4500miles, so I eaxpect it'll get better as the miles go on it. I know my last2 car I started to see a real improvement in the mpg from about 8-9K miles.
I have covered just over 30K from new in a 135 and I love it. No problems at all so far and its only cost me £205 for a service and a couple of sets of tyres. Much much cheaper than my M3 running costs of old. My advice though, whichever you buy, get rid of the runflats immediately and replace with a decent normal tyre, I run Eagle F1s on mine. Its got loads more grip and has a much nicer ride as a result.
I wouldn't expect the fuel economy to get any better with age though. Mine lives on the motorway and I can't get mine to do any more than 24.3 average. I have heard people telling me that they can get close to 30mpg average from a 335 so either I have a duffer or they are talking out of their ar$e. I get a fairly reliable 280 miles from a £65 tank. Thats said, its not bad considering it makes peak power from 1200rpm and is pretty much always on boost. The immediate shove that it gives in high gears on the motorway never fails to impress me. TBH it needs a 7th gear for motorway cruising imo.
I wouldn't expect the fuel economy to get any better with age though. Mine lives on the motorway and I can't get mine to do any more than 24.3 average. I have heard people telling me that they can get close to 30mpg average from a 335 so either I have a duffer or they are talking out of their ar$e. I get a fairly reliable 280 miles from a £65 tank. Thats said, its not bad considering it makes peak power from 1200rpm and is pretty much always on boost. The immediate shove that it gives in high gears on the motorway never fails to impress me. TBH it needs a 7th gear for motorway cruising imo.
Fortunatly mine does have 7th gear. the added dct 'box from the new M3 is fantastic. I know what you mean about the shove , it just goes at any speed in any gear. very impressive engine.
As far as handling goes, only had it 5 days so just really getting a feel for the car. No nasties to report so far. six pot caliper up front certainly feel strong. I m definatly thinking of loosing the run flats once they wear out, shouldn't think the rears will last that long the amount of torque the engine is putting out.
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I think the main difference between the 135 and the e46 M3 is that the 135 is a MUCH nicer car to drive around at normal every day pace. The M3 had a hefty clutch, hefty gear change and the engine , whilst torquey, needed to be revved to get the performance out of it, and once you got it up on cam and going you just ended up hooning around too much. i guess what I'm saying is, the M3 is better for THOSE moments, the 135 is much better alll other times, and just about as good for THOSE moments.
As far as handling goes, only had it 5 days so just really getting a feel for the car. No nasties to report so far. six pot caliper up front certainly feel strong. I m definatly thinking of loosing the run flats once they wear out, shouldn't think the rears will last that long the amount of torque the engine is putting out.
!!
I think the main difference between the 135 and the e46 M3 is that the 135 is a MUCH nicer car to drive around at normal every day pace. The M3 had a hefty clutch, hefty gear change and the engine , whilst torquey, needed to be revved to get the performance out of it, and once you got it up on cam and going you just ended up hooning around too much. i guess what I'm saying is, the M3 is better for THOSE moments, the 135 is much better alll other times, and just about as good for THOSE moments.
RGambo said:
Fortunatly mine does have 7th gear.
The 7spd DCT gives an extra intermediate gear, not an extra gear for cruising. 7th gear in the DCT is direct 1:1 combined with a higher ratio rear diff, which gives a broadly similar mph/1000rpm figure for the DCT cars as the 6MT cars give with the overdrive 6th gear combined with a lower rear diff ratio.RGambo said:
Fortunatly mine does have 7th gear. the added dct 'box from the new M3 is fantastic. I know what you mean about the shove , it just goes at any speed in any gear. very impressive engine.
As far as handling goes, only had it 5 days so just really getting a feel for the car. No nasties to report so far. six pot caliper up front certainly feel strong. I m definatly thinking of loosing the run flats once they wear out, shouldn't think the rears will last that long the amount of torque the engine is putting out.
My advice would be to get rid of the Runflats now, if they are in newish condition you will get enough for them on ebay or a forum to pay for a set of new Eagle F1s or similar. They are almost half the price. As far as handling goes, only had it 5 days so just really getting a feel for the car. No nasties to report so far. six pot caliper up front certainly feel strong. I m definatly thinking of loosing the run flats once they wear out, shouldn't think the rears will last that long the amount of torque the engine is putting out.
I got 10K out of the rears with my RFTs and I just got 17 out of my Eagle F1 rears. I just wish I hadn't done what you have and gone through the pain of 10K on the RFTs which were totally rubbish and shouldn't be on the car. Its a performance car with safety tyres that do not give performance imo.
Steff said:
Fox- said:
Wow, that is amazingly poor. How fast do you drive it?
rather briskly I'd imagine, if you do 70 mph you'll get low to mid 30's to the gallon.I'm highjacking this thread, 'cos it's aroused my interest and this 135i is sounding better by the minute!
FamilyDub said:
I wouldn't call that 'amazingly poor' consumption. I get about the same on motorways in my car and that's 112bhp/~100lb/ft down on your 135i.
24.7mpg is indeed amazingly poor on the Motorway, there isn't really any way to put it. If it turns out he does 120mph everywhere then fair enough but at normal motorway speeds I'd be expecting mid 30's!If it only gets 24mpg you may as well just buy a V8.
Fox- said:
24.7mpg is indeed amazingly poor on the Motorway, there isn't really any way to put it.
Read his post again - it's quite contradictory, especially as the gent cites the 135 will return 'low 30's on motorways', which is what I meant when I said I don't think that is 'amazingly poor'.It's not adding up (to me) that a car that 'lives on motorways' does 24.7mpg combined... There must be some hoonage he's not telling us about...
FWIW, I don't do much miles, I don't even remotely attempt to drive economically and I get 27mpg... would I swap 3mpg for an extra 112bhp and ~100lb/ft more? Yes I would.
Anyway, surely consumption would settle down to late 20's combined, with enough mileage?
Would you honestly consider a 300+bhp car if consumption was a massive priority?!
Not the same at all but I have a 335d which also has "proper" steering. It's a lot nicer than the electrically assisted stuff on the lesser models.
135i is a cracking car but HPFP failure is common on the 35i engine. Needs to be owned under warranty IMO.
Not the same at all but I have a 335d which also has "proper" steering. It's a lot nicer than the electrically assisted stuff on the lesser models.
135i is a cracking car but HPFP failure is common on the 35i engine. Needs to be owned under warranty IMO.
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