BMW 118d - opinions and advice
Discussion
I'm thinking a nearly-new 118d looks like an appealing replacement for the Fiat 500. Cheap to run, good to drive, quick enough to be interesting etc etc. It will be a work hack / daily driver / city runabout etc. I've considered various alternatives, particularly Golf and A3, but keep coming back to the BMW.
So...
There doesn't seem to be much difference in appearance / spec between the Sport and the M Sport versions, yet the Sport can be picked up for approx £3k less. What have I missed? Is the M Sport worth the difference?
They seem to be fitted with 17 inch wheels as standard, but quite a few have 18s. Is the ride too firm on 18s? Or do the RFTs mean there is very little difference in ride?
And if I wanted a remap, the Superchips Bluefin upgrade seems to offer good gains (an extra 40 bhp and 80 Nm) for about £500. Are they a good bet? Should I be looking elsewhere? I want reliability, refinement and a bit more go - but not at the expense of a knackered engine or much lower mpg.
Any opinions / experiences?
So...
There doesn't seem to be much difference in appearance / spec between the Sport and the M Sport versions, yet the Sport can be picked up for approx £3k less. What have I missed? Is the M Sport worth the difference?
They seem to be fitted with 17 inch wheels as standard, but quite a few have 18s. Is the ride too firm on 18s? Or do the RFTs mean there is very little difference in ride?
And if I wanted a remap, the Superchips Bluefin upgrade seems to offer good gains (an extra 40 bhp and 80 Nm) for about £500. Are they a good bet? Should I be looking elsewhere? I want reliability, refinement and a bit more go - but not at the expense of a knackered engine or much lower mpg.
Any opinions / experiences?
Edited by Gruber on Thursday 6th January 12:16
M Sport is the top spec with different front and rear bumpers, different wheels, different suspension, more "options" as standard and some differences to interior trim. The current Sport model is basically a fairly base ES spec car with sports seats and a couple of options I think, so might have basic air con rather than dual zone climate control, manual rear windows etc, but best check on the BMW site. Compared to an ES I had as a courtesy car the cabin in my M Sport is a lot nicer place to be so definitely sit in both before deciding which way you want, but whether it's worth £3k on top I don't know.
18s on runflats is a bit on the firm side but many cope just fine, and seeing as you've had a Z4 in the past you should know what to expect, although a friend of mine has just swapped from a Z4 3L with 18s on to a 135 with 18s and he says the 135 rides much better. 18s with non runflats is about as comfortable as 16" wheels and runflats, and for that reason along with cost and performance reasons, many people like myself ditch the runflats.
Superchips are a good option especally if you want to switch it on/off yourself and don't want to visit the tuner for the remap, others regularly recommended/used seem to be Evolve and P-Torque.
Not sure if you've found it or not but www.babybmw.net is another great resource for answering those kind of questions
Just had a thought, if you're using it as a city runabout and are looking for a manual gearbox car, make sure you check for clutch judder, especially when pulling away on a slope as it's a fairly common issue on 1 Series and currently there's no permanent fix, BMW warranty just run round the houses updating engine mapping software and in some cases replace clutch and flywheel, but it invariably comes back. Mine does it a bit but it's entirely livable with and only occasionally happens, but perhaps if I did a lot of stop/start traffic it might occur more often and be more of a nuisance.
Overall though they're great cars, not the biggest inside compared to Golfs etc so get some unfair criticism from some, but certainly useable and way bigger than what you've got now.
18s on runflats is a bit on the firm side but many cope just fine, and seeing as you've had a Z4 in the past you should know what to expect, although a friend of mine has just swapped from a Z4 3L with 18s on to a 135 with 18s and he says the 135 rides much better. 18s with non runflats is about as comfortable as 16" wheels and runflats, and for that reason along with cost and performance reasons, many people like myself ditch the runflats.
Superchips are a good option especally if you want to switch it on/off yourself and don't want to visit the tuner for the remap, others regularly recommended/used seem to be Evolve and P-Torque.
Not sure if you've found it or not but www.babybmw.net is another great resource for answering those kind of questions
Just had a thought, if you're using it as a city runabout and are looking for a manual gearbox car, make sure you check for clutch judder, especially when pulling away on a slope as it's a fairly common issue on 1 Series and currently there's no permanent fix, BMW warranty just run round the houses updating engine mapping software and in some cases replace clutch and flywheel, but it invariably comes back. Mine does it a bit but it's entirely livable with and only occasionally happens, but perhaps if I did a lot of stop/start traffic it might occur more often and be more of a nuisance.
Overall though they're great cars, not the biggest inside compared to Golfs etc so get some unfair criticism from some, but certainly useable and way bigger than what you've got now.
Edited by LocoBlade on Thursday 6th January 13:11
As mentioned above the M-sports has better 'IMO' exterior and interior styling over the other 1 series models and although a little more costly I would presume you'd see a similar trend when re-selling so worth while.
I've had my 118d in M-sport dress for some 2.5 years now and covered 60k miles, the only issue I had was the clutch judder, BMW kindly agreed to give me a courtesy car for about 5 months while waiting for the modified fix which was greatly appreciated, and probably saved me putting an additional 15+k miles on her. Otherwise no issues.
She was remapped by Simon @ e-maps during 2009 and has maintained high MPG, reliability whilst having the extra go I wanted, definately worth the £300 ish (plus he comes to you to carry out the work).
My main gripe would probably be the cost & availability of tyres (run flats on 18") and servicing costs. Stupidly I did not opt for the 'service pack' when purchasing, learnt for next time.
I've had my 118d in M-sport dress for some 2.5 years now and covered 60k miles, the only issue I had was the clutch judder, BMW kindly agreed to give me a courtesy car for about 5 months while waiting for the modified fix which was greatly appreciated, and probably saved me putting an additional 15+k miles on her. Otherwise no issues.
She was remapped by Simon @ e-maps during 2009 and has maintained high MPG, reliability whilst having the extra go I wanted, definately worth the £300 ish (plus he comes to you to carry out the work).
My main gripe would probably be the cost & availability of tyres (run flats on 18") and servicing costs. Stupidly I did not opt for the 'service pack' when purchasing, learnt for next time.
recently got the missus a new 116i sport in Montego blue - she had the choice and said she didn't like the grey inserts of the M sport as it made it look cheap! (her choice not mine, not arguing for sanity!)
as said earlier, comes with normal aircon, but she specced it up with full leather (front sports seats) and auto box, pdc and a couple of other bits - it came out better than the SE spec and most importantly exactly as she wanted it.
Its got the optional Y spoke 17's on RFT's which is firm but not bone shaking.
She loves it although not overly impressed with fuel consumption averaging about 25mpg - but guess thats a combination of small engine, auto and mainly town trips (although BMW quoted nearer 40mpg!)
Have you looked at a BMW PCP on a new one? they did have some really good deals on recently - I think sports were around 199/mth?
as said earlier, comes with normal aircon, but she specced it up with full leather (front sports seats) and auto box, pdc and a couple of other bits - it came out better than the SE spec and most importantly exactly as she wanted it.
Its got the optional Y spoke 17's on RFT's which is firm but not bone shaking.
She loves it although not overly impressed with fuel consumption averaging about 25mpg - but guess thats a combination of small engine, auto and mainly town trips (although BMW quoted nearer 40mpg!)
Have you looked at a BMW PCP on a new one? they did have some really good deals on recently - I think sports were around 199/mth?
Thanks guys - useful stuff.
M Sport sounds like it might be worth the extra - the combination of better looks, better suspension and better residuals probably justifies the cost.
And I've just spotted a rather nice looking 123d on the AUC website, so I might have to take a closer look at those. D'oh! I'd pursuaded myself that a 118d and a remap meant a 120d wasn't worth looking at, and hadn't really considered the 123d as I assumed they'd be substantially more expensive to buy and insure. But a spot of research makes me think they're worth a second look.
But... the clutch judder problem is a real concern. There seem to be lots of reports of it on BabyBmw.net. Just how prevalent is this? Obviously, only those with problems will complain, but the sheer number of complaints gives the impression that judder is inevitable. Is this just internet doom-mongering, or is the problem really that endemic?
M Sport sounds like it might be worth the extra - the combination of better looks, better suspension and better residuals probably justifies the cost.
And I've just spotted a rather nice looking 123d on the AUC website, so I might have to take a closer look at those. D'oh! I'd pursuaded myself that a 118d and a remap meant a 120d wasn't worth looking at, and hadn't really considered the 123d as I assumed they'd be substantially more expensive to buy and insure. But a spot of research makes me think they're worth a second look.
But... the clutch judder problem is a real concern. There seem to be lots of reports of it on BabyBmw.net. Just how prevalent is this? Obviously, only those with problems will complain, but the sheer number of complaints gives the impression that judder is inevitable. Is this just internet doom-mongering, or is the problem really that endemic?
Gruber said:
Thank you! Very helpful.
Out of interest, how are you finding your 123d? And what sort of mpg are you getting from it "real world"?
Had it for 2 years now and love it, quicker than the (old shape) Leon Cupra 1.8T petrol it replaced, it handles much better, it pulls hard to the red line in a very un-diesel like manner with a power delivery that's as good as most turbo petrols, and and it does a genuine 43-45mpg on 20 mile each way rural A/B road commutes whilst not hanging around, which is pretty damn impressive for the performance. Size hasnt been an issue despite our first addition to the family 18 months ago, it's not the main baby transporter but it does the job when required, can get the pushchair/luggage in the boot and car seat in fine. My only issue really has been the clutch judder but for me it's not a major problem, other than that it's been great.Out of interest, how are you finding your 123d? And what sort of mpg are you getting from it "real world"?
edition said:
My 130i doesn't have clutch judder (yet!) so it's no all of them!
They don't all do it but yours almost certainly won't cos it's not a diesel Gruber said:
But... the clutch judder problem is a real concern. There seem to be lots of reports of it on BabyBmw.net. Just how prevalent is this? Obviously, only those with problems will complain, but the sheer number of complaints gives the impression that judder is inevitable. Is this just internet doom-mongering, or is the problem really that endemic?
I wouldn't say it's inevitable but I'd wager there's a fair proportion of cars that suffer from one degree or other. Some are certainly worse than others though, and once it occurs it doesn't really seem to get any worse and I suspect some owners have it but don't notice or just put it down as an accasional trait and think nothing of it. Mine does it perhaps 2-3 times per week, most often when cold although it can also happen when sat in slow traffic for a while, its also dependent to some degree on weather conditions and temperature etc, as mine shows up more in winter than summer. If it was every time I pulled away it would be very annoying, but at this frequency I can live with it as in the past the workarounds BMW dream up have sometimes been worse than the problem, about a year ago BMW released a software update for the engine that raised revs as you lifted the clutch to "fix" the issue, but all it was doing was trying to mask the problem by forcing you to slip the clutch at a different RPM, but most found it rather disconcerting and made for unpredictable pull-aways so I didn't bother taking mine in for that!
Edited by LocoBlade on Thursday 6th January 20:25
Gruber said:
But... the clutch judder problem is a real concern. There seem to be lots of reports of it on BabyBmw.net. Just how prevalent is this? Obviously, only those with problems will complain, but the sheer number of complaints gives the impression that judder is inevitable. Is this just internet doom-mongering, or is the problem really that endemic?
As said it's not a real concern now, just a little pain from time to time. The first instance on mine I have to say it was bad / getting on dangerous, a real problem which was constant but the replacement clutch has been going for some 50k miles, although it still has the occasional very minor judder, it's otherwise fine, I wouldn't let it put you off.
Thanks for all the comments guys.
Just thought I'd let you know that I have done a deal for a "59" plate 3 door 118d M Sport in Le Mans Blue with black leather. Lovely car. Drove really well and I was very impressed by the eagerness of the engine. And to my relief, the clutch seemed fine.
Picking it up next weekend!
So thanks, all, for the helpful feedback.
Here's a picture:
Just thought I'd let you know that I have done a deal for a "59" plate 3 door 118d M Sport in Le Mans Blue with black leather. Lovely car. Drove really well and I was very impressed by the eagerness of the engine. And to my relief, the clutch seemed fine.
Picking it up next weekend!
So thanks, all, for the helpful feedback.
Here's a picture:
Edited by Gruber on Saturday 8th January 15:20
Edited by Gruber on Saturday 8th January 15:20
Good choice. I have a black M-Sport and they are certainly nicer to look at/be in than an SE. The engine is smooth, free-revving if mapped and should return decent mpg.
The gearing is far longer on the 118d than the 120/23 to make it more economical which can be a little tiring at around 25mph when you are often in third but to make decent progress you need to change down to second. 6th is very long and only truly pulls above 90. 4th or 5th are your best bets for swift motorway acceleration.
Shall you be disabling the start/stop function or leaving it to do its enviro-work?
By the way, to turn DTC off properly you need to hold the button down for about 5 seconds. A single push and release only reduces its interference.
Be sure to let us know what you think.
The gearing is far longer on the 118d than the 120/23 to make it more economical which can be a little tiring at around 25mph when you are often in third but to make decent progress you need to change down to second. 6th is very long and only truly pulls above 90. 4th or 5th are your best bets for swift motorway acceleration.
Shall you be disabling the start/stop function or leaving it to do its enviro-work?
By the way, to turn DTC off properly you need to hold the button down for about 5 seconds. A single push and release only reduces its interference.
Be sure to let us know what you think.
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