600bhp 1 Series
Discussion
stewies_minion said:
In the non service and mpg related section of this thread, I'd very much like to call out how nice the interior colour is.
Works a treat.
Mine is an orange car with black leather and the interior is somehat drab.
Thanks, that's kind of you to say. I've got a right thing for cream leather which none of my friends gets, but I think a two-tone interior just breaks everything up a little. Works a treat.
Mine is an orange car with black leather and the interior is somehat drab.
I'm off work tomorrow and I'm going to fiddle a bit, so I'll get some actual decent photo's and have a bit of an update on how I'm finding the car.
D4MJT said:
The BMW diff is around £2,500 plus fitting.
I did toy with the idea of fitting one to mine, but I figured it was largely pointless being that I drive an auto and I never drive it with the traction control off.However if I do start using more for track days I might consider it, but the car needs another set of wheels and tyres if I am serious about that first.
EnthusiastOwned said:
The run in period isn't just for the engine either way - it's all components, brakes, gearbox etc.
That's true to a point, but you certainly don't need 1200 miles to run in the brakes - 40-50 miles should be enough.Running in is highly debatable and I like to give mechanical sympathy for 500-600 miles and then steadily increase power / revs etc. I've had a stack of new cars with no issues to date.
A few days late. That can only be a good sign, I've been far too busy enjoying the car!
A few milestones. I've now covered 610 miles in the car, so half the run in period. I've also carried out a few modifications, and also had a chance to almost "drive it properly" a little. So, a probably rambling long and poorly structured post starts here.
May as well cover modifications first. I'm a bit of a tinkerer and I like to put my own stamp on things I guess, so I had these few mods planned already. Truth be told, now I've done them, I've mixed feelings, however they're all easily reversible.
First up, I'm a fully signed up member of the //M tat apparel brigade, behold my delightful Alcantara key cover. It's sole purpose is to stop my key getting battered from my other keys, and make it needlessly complicated to get at the buttons on the fob.
Steady yourselves, it's all downhill from here I'm afraid.
The M140i comes with 'Ferric Grey' mirror caps regardless of what colour car you purchase, here they are:
I've replaced these with some contoured carbon fibre affairs from AutoID.
Now don't get me wrong, the quality of the product is brilliant. They were packaged well and fit nicely, they're by no means cheap and nasty. And half the time I do like them, however I'm not totally sold on them yet. Easily reversed though, by some miracle I managed to remove the old covers without snapping the clips.
Next up, grilles. The car comes with chrome grilles as standard, which I found odd as they're the only bit of chrome on the entire car. Pictured handily below:
So off they came, replaced with some eye-wateringly expensive for what they are genuine BMW gloss black 'Performance' grilles:
I got these because I felt it would be a bit cheap to put eBay jobs on a brand new car. To be brutally honest, the quality can't be any worse of the eBay parts, so I'd probably get them from there in future. The slats aren't even entirely glossed. Nice job BMW.
Again, I'm really not sure on these. They are growing on me as initially I didn't like them at all. I think I may have the lower fin's that surround where the foglights would be on lower models painted gloss black to match, rather than the Ferric grey they are currently, it may tie everything in. Or look horrendous.
I wanted a few subtle tweaks, however as anyone who dares modify their car will contest, it's a fine line between subtle and the winged horse of chav tat.
This brings me neatly onto my final modification. My personal favourite, however easily the most divisive from the point of view of owner feedback. I personally don't really like the //M badges on the car. I'd even go so far as to say they cheapen it a bit, which is hilarious given the modifications I've just made, but bear with me. Fundamentally it isn't an M car, and although it's nearer than a 520d in recession white with everything from the M Performance bin bolted to it, that's what it's in danger of looking like I think. So I've removed both of the //M wing badges:
and also the rear //M140i badging:
Which I may or may not have immediately replaced with an OE alternative
It's best not to take yourself too seriously, and it makes me laugh.
Modifications aside, I've given it a decent wash and clean, and layered on some Collinite 476S wax, which is phenomenal stuff for durability.
Yesterday I had a morning off so I took a drive to the Hartside Cafe with my buddy and fellow PHer MuZiZZle, and his FK2 Type-R. Photo Op!
This is a bit of a continuity nightmare as I hadn't fitted my mirrors at this point, but on the plus side it looks slightly less terrible. What it does highlight for me, is how understated the M140i is compared to the majority of the big hot hatches on sale like the FK2, Focus RS, RS3, A45 etc which are far more visually bulked out and muscular.
That's entirely subjective and will undoubtedly be a negative for some people, but I really like how much of a Q-car it is compared to it's rivals.
Power wise I'm still in the run-in period so nothing worth talking about in comparative terms between the two as of yet. I did find that when pushing on a little, I felt that the BMW was tending to understeer in corners and push out a bit. That could well be my appalling driving, and most likely is, but the other issue could be tyre pressures. Having come down the hill mine appear to be a bit all over, with the front up to 41psi, when the recommended pressure I believe is 32psi, so I'm going to look at reducing those to start with and see what it's like then.
I'll do another post shortly around my thoughts on the car as it stands, and not the rubbish I've bolted to it.
A few milestones. I've now covered 610 miles in the car, so half the run in period. I've also carried out a few modifications, and also had a chance to almost "drive it properly" a little. So, a probably rambling long and poorly structured post starts here.
May as well cover modifications first. I'm a bit of a tinkerer and I like to put my own stamp on things I guess, so I had these few mods planned already. Truth be told, now I've done them, I've mixed feelings, however they're all easily reversible.
First up, I'm a fully signed up member of the //M tat apparel brigade, behold my delightful Alcantara key cover. It's sole purpose is to stop my key getting battered from my other keys, and make it needlessly complicated to get at the buttons on the fob.
Steady yourselves, it's all downhill from here I'm afraid.
The M140i comes with 'Ferric Grey' mirror caps regardless of what colour car you purchase, here they are:
I've replaced these with some contoured carbon fibre affairs from AutoID.
Now don't get me wrong, the quality of the product is brilliant. They were packaged well and fit nicely, they're by no means cheap and nasty. And half the time I do like them, however I'm not totally sold on them yet. Easily reversed though, by some miracle I managed to remove the old covers without snapping the clips.
Next up, grilles. The car comes with chrome grilles as standard, which I found odd as they're the only bit of chrome on the entire car. Pictured handily below:
So off they came, replaced with some eye-wateringly expensive for what they are genuine BMW gloss black 'Performance' grilles:
I got these because I felt it would be a bit cheap to put eBay jobs on a brand new car. To be brutally honest, the quality can't be any worse of the eBay parts, so I'd probably get them from there in future. The slats aren't even entirely glossed. Nice job BMW.
Again, I'm really not sure on these. They are growing on me as initially I didn't like them at all. I think I may have the lower fin's that surround where the foglights would be on lower models painted gloss black to match, rather than the Ferric grey they are currently, it may tie everything in. Or look horrendous.
I wanted a few subtle tweaks, however as anyone who dares modify their car will contest, it's a fine line between subtle and the winged horse of chav tat.
This brings me neatly onto my final modification. My personal favourite, however easily the most divisive from the point of view of owner feedback. I personally don't really like the //M badges on the car. I'd even go so far as to say they cheapen it a bit, which is hilarious given the modifications I've just made, but bear with me. Fundamentally it isn't an M car, and although it's nearer than a 520d in recession white with everything from the M Performance bin bolted to it, that's what it's in danger of looking like I think. So I've removed both of the //M wing badges:
and also the rear //M140i badging:
Which I may or may not have immediately replaced with an OE alternative
It's best not to take yourself too seriously, and it makes me laugh.
Modifications aside, I've given it a decent wash and clean, and layered on some Collinite 476S wax, which is phenomenal stuff for durability.
Yesterday I had a morning off so I took a drive to the Hartside Cafe with my buddy and fellow PHer MuZiZZle, and his FK2 Type-R. Photo Op!
This is a bit of a continuity nightmare as I hadn't fitted my mirrors at this point, but on the plus side it looks slightly less terrible. What it does highlight for me, is how understated the M140i is compared to the majority of the big hot hatches on sale like the FK2, Focus RS, RS3, A45 etc which are far more visually bulked out and muscular.
That's entirely subjective and will undoubtedly be a negative for some people, but I really like how much of a Q-car it is compared to it's rivals.
Power wise I'm still in the run-in period so nothing worth talking about in comparative terms between the two as of yet. I did find that when pushing on a little, I felt that the BMW was tending to understeer in corners and push out a bit. That could well be my appalling driving, and most likely is, but the other issue could be tyre pressures. Having come down the hill mine appear to be a bit all over, with the front up to 41psi, when the recommended pressure I believe is 32psi, so I'm going to look at reducing those to start with and see what it's like then.
I'll do another post shortly around my thoughts on the car as it stands, and not the rubbish I've bolted to it.
Car stuffs: Vol 2.
Disclaimer - I've only driven 600 miles in the car, so all of this is a reflection of that. All advice and tips gratefully received, I'm likely missing tricks.
What's good:
Seating position: This works well for me. I'm 5ft 11" and the seating position is about perfect for me, I feel low enough, and central in the car longitudinally as it were. All of the controls are well laid out, and the steering wheel controls allow you to scroll through playlists in the online media catalogue, shown as a list in the screen between the dials. My car has a heated steering wheel which is delightful, toasty mitt's for me.
The engine note: This appears to be a bone of contention among owners, the majority seem to want more drama, noise and bangs. There is a distinct difference between 'eco pro' / comfort and Sport / Sport + in terms of engine note. For me the balance is about right. In comfort or eco, on the motorway the engine is near silent. The cabin insulation is pretty good, and that leaves you to enjoy your favourite S Club 7 classics you've managed to locate on your included Napster media subscription, once you've got over the shock that Napster is still even a thing.
In Sport you immediately get a deeper growl from the exhaust and engine, and dropping down the rev range from 3k with the window open you get a lovely burble. I've done a short video of the standard exhaust in an underground car park to try and illustrate the sound easily:
https://youtu.be/ws_6yNXaXhQ
You can enjoy/suffer that in glorious 1080P 60FPS should you so desire.
The gearbox: My car is the 8 speed ZF auto, a torque converter box and not a DCT. It's very smooth. In sport there are some thuds engineered in for more dramatic changes, which kind of adds to the theatre of changing gear yourself with the paddles, you get a nice tactile jolt from it. Nothing as pronounced as a hard change in an M car though. Around town it's very efficient and smooth, no complaints at all. I haven't been able to drop 2 gear by double tapping the downshift paddle, and I don't in all honesty know if that's possible. I'm aware there is a block downchange feature if you are in manual mode and sport, however due to not wanting to exceed 4K rpm I haven't tried this yet. Same goes for launch control.
The cabin: It's a lovely place to be, the seats are good and supportive, the switchgear feels nice with the possible exception of the indicator stalks which feel a bit cheap and nasty. The dash plastic is a bit cheap too in all honesty, it's a small complaint given what the car does for the money, but it's one stand out part of the interior to me that doesn't feel premium. I have gloss black trim which looks lovely and smart, but marks immediately so don't even consider touching it
The sound system: There are no shortage of complaints about the quality of the sound system on the BabyBMW forum, either standard or Harman-Kardon. I have the Harman-Kardon system in my car, and initially I wasn't really very impressed with it. However, settings is king it would appear, and with the bass cranked up, the treble at around a third, and the fade shifted heavily to the rear of the car, it's a much deeper and better sound quality, I'm really very happy with it now.
What else is stand out after a fairly short amount of miles. Hmmm.
The engine is brilliant, effortlessly torquey and it gathers pace deceptively. The tyre noise from the Michelin Pilot Super Sports is insane. They're the loudest tyres I've heard. Perhaps because the cabin insulation is good so that's all that's left for you to hear, but my god
Things I wish I'd known: Although I'll never use it, if you have a 3dr car and don't spec the 40/20/40 split folding rear seats, you still get 60/40 folding rear seats. What they don't tell you is that you don't get a rear central armrest either, and you can't later add the luggage compartment separation net that you can buy. A bit of an annoyance more than anything, as I like the look of having a rear armrest and the extra cup holder come in handy.
I think that's pretty much my initial thoughts on it! I'll report back when I've completed the run in miles and found more things to complain about.
If anyone's on InstaHamz you can follow me on there also, I'm @D4MJT
Disclaimer - I've only driven 600 miles in the car, so all of this is a reflection of that. All advice and tips gratefully received, I'm likely missing tricks.
What's good:
Seating position: This works well for me. I'm 5ft 11" and the seating position is about perfect for me, I feel low enough, and central in the car longitudinally as it were. All of the controls are well laid out, and the steering wheel controls allow you to scroll through playlists in the online media catalogue, shown as a list in the screen between the dials. My car has a heated steering wheel which is delightful, toasty mitt's for me.
The engine note: This appears to be a bone of contention among owners, the majority seem to want more drama, noise and bangs. There is a distinct difference between 'eco pro' / comfort and Sport / Sport + in terms of engine note. For me the balance is about right. In comfort or eco, on the motorway the engine is near silent. The cabin insulation is pretty good, and that leaves you to enjoy your favourite S Club 7 classics you've managed to locate on your included Napster media subscription, once you've got over the shock that Napster is still even a thing.
In Sport you immediately get a deeper growl from the exhaust and engine, and dropping down the rev range from 3k with the window open you get a lovely burble. I've done a short video of the standard exhaust in an underground car park to try and illustrate the sound easily:
https://youtu.be/ws_6yNXaXhQ
You can enjoy/suffer that in glorious 1080P 60FPS should you so desire.
The gearbox: My car is the 8 speed ZF auto, a torque converter box and not a DCT. It's very smooth. In sport there are some thuds engineered in for more dramatic changes, which kind of adds to the theatre of changing gear yourself with the paddles, you get a nice tactile jolt from it. Nothing as pronounced as a hard change in an M car though. Around town it's very efficient and smooth, no complaints at all. I haven't been able to drop 2 gear by double tapping the downshift paddle, and I don't in all honesty know if that's possible. I'm aware there is a block downchange feature if you are in manual mode and sport, however due to not wanting to exceed 4K rpm I haven't tried this yet. Same goes for launch control.
The cabin: It's a lovely place to be, the seats are good and supportive, the switchgear feels nice with the possible exception of the indicator stalks which feel a bit cheap and nasty. The dash plastic is a bit cheap too in all honesty, it's a small complaint given what the car does for the money, but it's one stand out part of the interior to me that doesn't feel premium. I have gloss black trim which looks lovely and smart, but marks immediately so don't even consider touching it
The sound system: There are no shortage of complaints about the quality of the sound system on the BabyBMW forum, either standard or Harman-Kardon. I have the Harman-Kardon system in my car, and initially I wasn't really very impressed with it. However, settings is king it would appear, and with the bass cranked up, the treble at around a third, and the fade shifted heavily to the rear of the car, it's a much deeper and better sound quality, I'm really very happy with it now.
What else is stand out after a fairly short amount of miles. Hmmm.
The engine is brilliant, effortlessly torquey and it gathers pace deceptively. The tyre noise from the Michelin Pilot Super Sports is insane. They're the loudest tyres I've heard. Perhaps because the cabin insulation is good so that's all that's left for you to hear, but my god
Things I wish I'd known: Although I'll never use it, if you have a 3dr car and don't spec the 40/20/40 split folding rear seats, you still get 60/40 folding rear seats. What they don't tell you is that you don't get a rear central armrest either, and you can't later add the luggage compartment separation net that you can buy. A bit of an annoyance more than anything, as I like the look of having a rear armrest and the extra cup holder come in handy.
I think that's pretty much my initial thoughts on it! I'll report back when I've completed the run in miles and found more things to complain about.
If anyone's on InstaHamz you can follow me on there also, I'm @D4MJT
ChocolateFrog said:
Great car and I like the comfort oriented spec.
Not sold on the mirrors if I'm honest but I like the other subtle mods.
Think I'd get the original covers body coloured if it was mine.
Yeah, this is also a consideration. I think I'll give it a week or so and see how I feel about them.Not sold on the mirrors if I'm honest but I like the other subtle mods.
Think I'd get the original covers body coloured if it was mine.
Good shout.
D4MJT said:
Car stuffs: Vol 2.
Disclaimer - I've only driven 600 miles in the car, so all of this is a reflection of that. All advice and tips gratefully received, I'm likely missing tricks.
What's good:
Seating position: This works well for me. I'm 5ft 11" and the seating position is about perfect for me, I feel low enough, and central in the car longitudinally as it were. All of the controls are well laid out, and the steering wheel controls allow you to scroll through playlists in the online media catalogue, shown as a list in the screen between the dials. My car has a heated steering wheel which is delightful, toasty mitt's for me.
The engine note: This appears to be a bone of contention among owners, the majority seem to want more drama, noise and bangs. There is a distinct difference between 'eco pro' / comfort and Sport / Sport + in terms of engine note. For me the balance is about right. In comfort or eco, on the motorway the engine is near silent. The cabin insulation is pretty good, and that leaves you to enjoy your favourite S Club 7 classics you've managed to locate on your included Napster media subscription, once you've got over the shock that Napster is still even a thing.
In Sport you immediately get a deeper growl from the exhaust and engine, and dropping down the rev range from 3k with the window open you get a lovely burble. I've done a short video of the standard exhaust in an underground car park to try and illustrate the sound easily:
https://youtu.be/ws_6yNXaXhQ
You can enjoy/suffer that in glorious 1080P 60FPS should you so desire.
The gearbox: My car is the 8 speed ZF auto, a torque converter box and not a DCT. It's very smooth. In sport there are some thuds engineered in for more dramatic changes, which kind of adds to the theatre of changing gear yourself with the paddles, you get a nice tactile jolt from it. Nothing as pronounced as a hard change in an M car though. Around town it's very efficient and smooth, no complaints at all. I haven't been able to drop 2 gear by double tapping the downshift paddle, and I don't in all honesty know if that's possible. I'm aware there is a block downchange feature if you are in manual mode and sport, however due to not wanting to exceed 4K rpm I haven't tried this yet. Same goes for launch control.
The cabin: It's a lovely place to be, the seats are good and supportive, the switchgear feels nice with the possible exception of the indicator stalks which feel a bit cheap and nasty. The dash plastic is a bit cheap too in all honesty, it's a small complaint given what the car does for the money, but it's one stand out part of the interior to me that doesn't feel premium. I have gloss black trim which looks lovely and smart, but marks immediately so don't even consider touching it
The sound system: There are no shortage of complaints about the quality of the sound system on the BabyBMW forum, either standard or Harman-Kardon. I have the Harman-Kardon system in my car, and initially I wasn't really very impressed with it. However, settings is king it would appear, and with the bass cranked up, the treble at around a third, and the fade shifted heavily to the rear of the car, it's a much deeper and better sound quality, I'm really very happy with it now.
What else is stand out after a fairly short amount of miles. Hmmm.
The engine is brilliant, effortlessly torquey and it gathers pace deceptively. The tyre noise from the Michelin Pilot Super Sports is insane. They're the loudest tyres I've heard. Perhaps because the cabin insulation is good so that's all that's left for you to hear, but my god
Things I wish I'd known: Although I'll never use it, if you have a 3dr car and don't spec the 40/20/40 split folding rear seats, you still get 60/40 folding rear seats. What they don't tell you is that you don't get a rear central armrest either, and you can't later add the luggage compartment separation net that you can buy. A bit of an annoyance more than anything, as I like the look of having a rear armrest and the extra cup holder come in handy.
I think that's pretty much my initial thoughts on it! I'll report back when I've completed the run in miles and found more things to complain about.
If anyone's on InstaHamz you can follow me on there also, I'm @D4MJT
I took one for a test drive on Thursday off the back of this thread, lovely thing and I agree with your thoughts. I'm in the camp that it could do with a bit more drama, it's nothing a good exhaust/intake wouldn't sort out though, it's the only thing that stopped me from signing on the dotted line. It really is a fantastic motor for the money.Disclaimer - I've only driven 600 miles in the car, so all of this is a reflection of that. All advice and tips gratefully received, I'm likely missing tricks.
What's good:
Seating position: This works well for me. I'm 5ft 11" and the seating position is about perfect for me, I feel low enough, and central in the car longitudinally as it were. All of the controls are well laid out, and the steering wheel controls allow you to scroll through playlists in the online media catalogue, shown as a list in the screen between the dials. My car has a heated steering wheel which is delightful, toasty mitt's for me.
The engine note: This appears to be a bone of contention among owners, the majority seem to want more drama, noise and bangs. There is a distinct difference between 'eco pro' / comfort and Sport / Sport + in terms of engine note. For me the balance is about right. In comfort or eco, on the motorway the engine is near silent. The cabin insulation is pretty good, and that leaves you to enjoy your favourite S Club 7 classics you've managed to locate on your included Napster media subscription, once you've got over the shock that Napster is still even a thing.
In Sport you immediately get a deeper growl from the exhaust and engine, and dropping down the rev range from 3k with the window open you get a lovely burble. I've done a short video of the standard exhaust in an underground car park to try and illustrate the sound easily:
https://youtu.be/ws_6yNXaXhQ
You can enjoy/suffer that in glorious 1080P 60FPS should you so desire.
The gearbox: My car is the 8 speed ZF auto, a torque converter box and not a DCT. It's very smooth. In sport there are some thuds engineered in for more dramatic changes, which kind of adds to the theatre of changing gear yourself with the paddles, you get a nice tactile jolt from it. Nothing as pronounced as a hard change in an M car though. Around town it's very efficient and smooth, no complaints at all. I haven't been able to drop 2 gear by double tapping the downshift paddle, and I don't in all honesty know if that's possible. I'm aware there is a block downchange feature if you are in manual mode and sport, however due to not wanting to exceed 4K rpm I haven't tried this yet. Same goes for launch control.
The cabin: It's a lovely place to be, the seats are good and supportive, the switchgear feels nice with the possible exception of the indicator stalks which feel a bit cheap and nasty. The dash plastic is a bit cheap too in all honesty, it's a small complaint given what the car does for the money, but it's one stand out part of the interior to me that doesn't feel premium. I have gloss black trim which looks lovely and smart, but marks immediately so don't even consider touching it
The sound system: There are no shortage of complaints about the quality of the sound system on the BabyBMW forum, either standard or Harman-Kardon. I have the Harman-Kardon system in my car, and initially I wasn't really very impressed with it. However, settings is king it would appear, and with the bass cranked up, the treble at around a third, and the fade shifted heavily to the rear of the car, it's a much deeper and better sound quality, I'm really very happy with it now.
What else is stand out after a fairly short amount of miles. Hmmm.
The engine is brilliant, effortlessly torquey and it gathers pace deceptively. The tyre noise from the Michelin Pilot Super Sports is insane. They're the loudest tyres I've heard. Perhaps because the cabin insulation is good so that's all that's left for you to hear, but my god
Things I wish I'd known: Although I'll never use it, if you have a 3dr car and don't spec the 40/20/40 split folding rear seats, you still get 60/40 folding rear seats. What they don't tell you is that you don't get a rear central armrest either, and you can't later add the luggage compartment separation net that you can buy. A bit of an annoyance more than anything, as I like the look of having a rear armrest and the extra cup holder come in handy.
I think that's pretty much my initial thoughts on it! I'll report back when I've completed the run in miles and found more things to complain about.
If anyone's on InstaHamz you can follow me on there also, I'm @D4MJT
Nice badge!
MRobbins1987 said:
I took one for a test drive on Thursday off the back of this thread, lovely thing and I agree with your thoughts. I'm in the camp that it could do with a bit more drama, it's nothing a good exhaust/intake wouldn't sort out though, it's the only thing that stopped me from signing on the dotted line. It really is a fantastic motor for the money.
Nice badge!
Thanks Nice badge!
There is the option of the M Performance back box which makes it a lot more lively without necessarily being over the top, and there's also a BCS system which transforms the car into a much louder, poppy, banging, warbly affair.
Like you say, fairly easily sorted, I suspect the thing that puts people off is warranty implications.
Glad you are enjoying your 140.
Great car and true wolf in sheeps clothes. Almost seems wrong for a car to have that much power and yet look so normal. It is a very good time in terms of hot hatch car choice where you have the full spectrum of choice available from one extreme to another but all very capable.
Keep the updates coming.
Great car and true wolf in sheeps clothes. Almost seems wrong for a car to have that much power and yet look so normal. It is a very good time in terms of hot hatch car choice where you have the full spectrum of choice available from one extreme to another but all very capable.
Keep the updates coming.
Bright Halo said:
Almost seems wrong for a car to have that much power and yet look so normal.
I know what you mean there! Growing up I always had a massive soft spot for the E39 540i, I think they still look great today. Now granted BMW's naming structure doesn't reflect engine size, and didn't then, but it's mad that you can now go and buy a 1 series 40i.If I'm correct they have some 60bhp more than the 540i did as well
It still isn't run in so I've not experienced full bore yet, but it really picks itself up and moves along quite quickly on the motorway from a roll.
D4MJT said:
MRobbins1987 said:
I took one for a test drive on Thursday off the back of this thread, lovely thing and I agree with your thoughts. I'm in the camp that it could do with a bit more drama, it's nothing a good exhaust/intake wouldn't sort out though, it's the only thing that stopped me from signing on the dotted line. It really is a fantastic motor for the money.
Nice badge!
Thanks Nice badge!
There is the option of the M Performance back box which makes it a lot more lively without necessarily being over the top, and there's also a BCS system which transforms the car into a much louder, poppy, banging, warbly affair.
Like you say, fairly easily sorted, I suspect the thing that puts people off is warranty implications.
M135i and M140i exhausts are different. The M140i has a bigger centre silencer, which makes it quieter than the M135i.
MPE back box for M135i retains the flappy valve, M140i does not. This makes the M140i one a bit louder all the tme, some suggest its a bit too loud for all of the time (YMMV).
What you can do on the M140i is buy a BCS mid pipe, this livens it right up with pops and crackles etc but isn't quite as overbearing as the MPE form what I understand. Its half the price of an MPE too.
BCS do a cat back system too.
If you want to keep the flappy valve the remus exhaust re-uses the stock one on both engine types.
Back to chrome surround kidney grilles? Unless you can de-bling the tops of the headlight units then i think the chrome actually works better- though I'm not a chrome fan either
Not sure about the 116d badging. Wouldn't dream of it on such a new & premium motor tbh- it almost seems a bit 'retro-chav' if you'll pardon the expression. A total de-badge would be ultimately stealthy if that's your bag
Not sure about the 116d badging. Wouldn't dream of it on such a new & premium motor tbh- it almost seems a bit 'retro-chav' if you'll pardon the expression. A total de-badge would be ultimately stealthy if that's your bag
chrismc1977 said:
Back to chrome surround kidney grilles? Unless you can de-bling the tops of the headlight units then i think the chrome actually works better- though I'm not a chrome fan either
Yeah I think I'm sort of with you there, it's much better head on, but if you're stood sort of on top of the car, they look a bit lost as the lights have a much lighter top edge.chrismc1977 said:
Not sure about the 116d badging. Wouldn't dream of it on such a new & premium motor tbh- it almost seems a bit 'retro-chav' if you'll pardon the expression. A total de-badge would be ultimately stealthy if that's your bag
It's definitely split opinion that's for sure I dunno tbh, the owner's group mostly hate it, I've got the option to obviously de-badge or even re-badge it as an M140i still, it's not a big thing to change. I don't really get the horror over it though I must admit, if it was a Ferrari 275 or something I'd understand, but as lovely as it is, it is at the end of the day a grey 1 series BMW.
Or maybe I'm embracing my inner hidden-chav
Lovely car, I'm a massive fan.
I know where you are coming from with the Ferric grey mirrors, but as other have said, the carbon covers look a little out of place to my eyes. As someone has said, body colour covers would be a good compromise.
Black Grilles...done to death now and although seem fitting on an...er, eastern spec E46, look out of place on anything modern IMO. Original Chrome all the way, for me, especially with the Ferric grey lower details.
Great car though, enjoy!
I know where you are coming from with the Ferric grey mirrors, but as other have said, the carbon covers look a little out of place to my eyes. As someone has said, body colour covers would be a good compromise.
Black Grilles...done to death now and although seem fitting on an...er, eastern spec E46, look out of place on anything modern IMO. Original Chrome all the way, for me, especially with the Ferric grey lower details.
Great car though, enjoy!
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