1 Series buying advice

[RM10]

Looking for a bit of help from those of you who own and know the 1 Series. I'm looking to buy one for my other half for her 30th birthday - here's my criteria.

Circa £10k
M Sport trim ideally
5 doors
5-6 years old max
50-60k miles max
Automatic

I'm getting a lot of 116ds and 116is come up but my concern is that they'll feel a little underpowered. Now she's coming from a 15 year old 1.2 VW Polo so it will probably feel like a rocket regardless, but nevertheless I had my heart set on a 118i or 120d. Can I ask people's opinions on the different engines and which would be the sweet spot in the range to go for?

[RS93]

RM10 said:

Looking for a bit of help from those of you who own and know the 1 Series. I'm looking to buy one for my other half for her 30th birthday - here's my criteria.

Circa £10k
M Sport trim ideally
5 doors
5-6 years old max
50-60k miles max
Automatic

I'm getting a lot of 116ds and 116is come up but my concern is that they'll feel a little underpowered. Now she's coming from a 15 year old 1.2 VW Polo so it will probably feel like a rocket regardless, but nevertheless I had my heart set on a 118i or 120d. Can I ask people's opinions on the different engines and which would be the sweet spot in the range to go for?

If you can stretch to a facelift version I’d go for one of them personally, I recently sold mine which was a 125d m sport. Really regret selling as it was the perfect balance between economy (usually hitting 45-50mpg and really good performance too. You may have to spend more than 10k to tick all the boxes, mine sold for 14k with 50k miles, 2016 plate automatic but the 125d do go for a little extra usually as they are quite rare,

Really depends if you want a petrol or a diesel ? What sort of miles per year will your OH do?

[RM10]

RS93 said:

RM10 said:

Looking for a bit of help from those of you who own and know the 1 Series. I'm looking to buy one for my other half for her 30th birthday - here's my criteria.

Circa £10k
M Sport trim ideally
5 doors
5-6 years old max
50-60k miles max
Automatic

I'm getting a lot of 116ds and 116is come up but my concern is that they'll feel a little underpowered. Now she's coming from a 15 year old 1.2 VW Polo so it will probably feel like a rocket regardless, but nevertheless I had my heart set on a 118i or 120d. Can I ask people's opinions on the different engines and which would be the sweet spot in the range to go for?

If you can stretch to a facelift version I’d go for one of them personally, I recently sold mine which was a 125d m sport. Really regret selling as it was the perfect balance between economy (usually hitting 45-50mpg and really good performance too. You may have to spend more than 10k to tick all the boxes, mine sold for 14k with 50k miles, 2016 plate automatic but the 125d do go for a little extra usually as they are quite rare,

Really depends if you want a petrol or a diesel ? What sort of miles per year will your OH do?

No preference for petrol or diesel tbh, she only does about 5k miles per year and any long journeys we usually take my car.

[Mr Tidy]

5,000 miles a year suggests not many longer motorway trips which is where diesels tend to be much more economical.

On shorter stop/start runs in traffic they aren't necessarily any better than petrols, and diesel DPFs can suffer unless they get a decent run now and again, but only you know if that would be the case.

The last time I had my E87 123d serviced by BMW I managed to get an F20 118i Sport as a courtesy car and really liked it. And I remember the average mpg on the trip computer was over 35, which surprised me given how courtesy cars tend to get used!

[RM10]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Will have a look at these, thanks. Appreciate you searching!

[911_owner]

I would opt for a diesel rather than the petrol versions if you are looking at a 116 or 118.
My wife drives a 2016 116dM (1.5 liter 3 cyl) and has never complained about the performance. Her last car was a Nissan Qashqai 2.0i.

But I would still go for a 118dM if I could.

[Mr Tidy]

For 10K miles a year I'd stick with petrol.

Then maybe google BMW N47 cam-chain...……….!

[Wombat3]

Msport means stiffer suspension. Not always nice unless you do a lot of "hooning". Also consider a Sport spec IMO

Look up 116i & 118i engines on Wiki. A 2014/15 116i has 135 hp.....(N13 4cyl)

...and so does a 2015-18 118i. (B38 3cyl)

A 2012-15 118i is about 180hp. If you want that much after 2015 you have to go to a 120i

All these engines are pretty easily remapped .

As someone mentioned a lot of the diesels use the N47 "grenade" To be avoided if possible IMO!

The B38 is the same basic 3Cyl as in the i8. The N13 is the Prince engine platform shared with Mini, Developed by PSA. I have one in a 116i, it seems a good little motor.

Edited by Wombat3 on Monday 22 June 00:49

[BFleming]

Mr Tidy said:

Then maybe google BMW N47 cam-chain...……….!

If you're in the mood for googling, and believe every hit you read (as some people do) try googling N13 excessive oil consumption, N13 timing chain wear, N13 coolant leaks, N13 exhaust heat shield. The worst mistake I made when buying our F20 was going for petrol instead of diesel. For all the doom-mongering, the N47 is a pretty reliable engine (as yours was Mr Tidy), failures are rare but expensive when they do fail. I personally don't believe the B47 that replaced it is any more or less reliable, just newer.
The 118i went from 170bhp to 136bhp when it went from 4 cylinders (aforementioned N13) to 3 cylinders (B38). Again, the 3 cylinder B38 is relatively new.
I replaced the F20 with a Golf. I really wish I'd done that sooner, much better car in every regard.

[Touring442]

The 116i 316i N13 is the same useless boat anchor used in Minis and is absolute rubbish. It's also used in assorted Peugeot Citroen crap. Timing chains, oil consumption (the bores go oval) brake vac pumps as well as a delightful coolant leak that requires the gearbox to be removed to access the 50 pence plastic elbow that fails.

I'd only consider a B47 diesel tbh. Budget £1000 to replace the chain when it gets to 100k but otherwise forget about it. The B47 is more reliable. Plenty have done 150-200k now without disaster, the culmination of a lot of head scratching and component revision. The 118d with the 8 speed auto is a superb drive.

[RM10]

This is all super helpful - thank you everyone!

I'm leaning towards a 118d then from what I can see from weighing up the discussions. Would that be most people's recommendation for that price point? I'm aiming to acquire one around 50k miles, so I'll happily get the timing chain replaced as it nears 80k.

Edit: Sorry I should add that going off recommendations for a B47 powered unit, that would be a 118d from 2015 onwards according to Wikipedia. Is that correct?

Edited by RM10 on Friday 26th June 17:11

Edited by RM10 on Friday 26th June 19:15

[BFleming]

RM10 said:

I'm aiming to acquire one around 50k miles, so I'll happily get the timing belt replaced as it nears 80k.

It's a timing chain. The B47 is allegedly more reliable than the N47 it replaced, but the later N47 was allegedly more reliable than the earlier ones. Who knows!

[Mr Tidy]

BFleming said:

Mr Tidy said:

Then maybe google BMW N47 cam-chain...……….!

If you're in the mood for googling, and believe every hit you read (as some people do) try googling N13 excessive oil consumption, N13 timing chain wear, N13 coolant leaks, N13 exhaust heat shield. The worst mistake I made when buying our F20 was going for petrol instead of diesel. For all the doom-mongering, the N47 is a pretty reliable engine (as yours was Mr Tidy), failures are rare but expensive when they do fail. I personally don't believe the B47 that replaced it is any more or less reliable, just newer.
The 118i went from 170bhp to 136bhp when it went from 4 cylinders (aforementioned N13) to 3 cylinders (B38). Again, the 3 cylinder B38 is relatively new.
I replaced the F20 with a Golf. I really wish I'd done that sooner, much better car in every regard.

I suppose the problem was the N47 was released in early 2007 and the 123d in September 2007 so when I bought mine in January 2008 nobody knew about those issues!

When I first read about N47 cam-chain problems BMW weren't interested and I'm sure someone on here scrapped a 120d because it wasn't economic to repair.

Then after I had sold my 123d BMW invented the "Quality Enhancement" programme (as in picking up the tab to fix the results of their cr*p design) for cars with full BMW SH which mine had, but it was too late!

Based on the recommendations of my BMW Indy I have stuck to 6 cylinder petrols since then and have had one M54 and four N52s with no issues! (Much better option than a Golf for me).