How "sporty" is a 123d coupe??

[anonymous-user]

The ongoing quest to replace my trusty E46 tourer continues, and takes a somewhat unexpected, and frankly slighty strangely proportioned, turn towards a 1'er coupe! But how sporty is a 123d??

(heart says 135i, head says 123d )

[pilchardthecat]

Max_Torque said:

The ongoing quest to replace my trusty E46 tourer continues, and takes a somewhat unexpected, and frankly slighty strangely proportioned, turn towards a 1'er coupe! But how sporty is a 123d??

(heart says 135i, head says 123d )

Moderately sporty.

I had one for 2 years (like you i deliberated and procrastinated endlessly between it and the 135i).

To be honest i had high expectations of the 135i and found it disappointing. It's power delivery (vast mid range, flat at the top) is almost diesel-esque, although obviously it sounds much better and is smoother. You won't get more than 20-23mpg out of it either - the 30-31 combined figure they claim is miles away from reality, and if you're spending that much there are better choices available.
I had much lower expectations of the 123d, and they were exceeded. Stick a bluefin remap on it and it's very good for a diesel.

But it is still a diesel.... although being RWD it urinates upon the comparable VAG/etc products (TT/Scirocco/whatever)

[anonymous-user]

I haven't driven one yet, but is the 123d engine really obviously a 4cyl?? (my current 330d at least sounds OK once it's above 1000rpm being a 6) I assume also that the 123d will have very similar performance to my 330d in the real world.

What sort of mpg does a 123d return day to day??

[Ed5995]

It's a fair enough sound for a 4 cylinder and not too dieselish. Still, it doesn't have a 6 cylinder purr. 43.4 is what i get from my 2010 model coupe.

[pilchardthecat]

Max_Torque said:

I haven't driven one yet, but is the 123d engine really obviously a 4cyl?? (my current 330d at least sounds OK once it's above 1000rpm being a 6) I assume also that the 123d will have very similar performance to my 330d in the real world.

What sort of mpg does a 123d return day to day??

It's smoother than most 4 cylinder diesels - the sequential turbo malarkey is quite clever, but it's not as smooth as an inline 6. I had an e46 330d and the 123d is a considerably better engine in almost every way, not least because it's an ally block and weighs nowhere near as much, which really effects the balance of the car.

I got about 47mpg from mine over 2 years / 25k miles (mixed A and B roads)

Couple of things worth noting
- final drive ratio/6th gear is a bit shorter than you might expect, so mpg drops a bit after 80mph.
- 1st gear is stupidly short, like on most diesels
- remaps are good but tend to counter some of the clever work done by BMW in removing turbo lag
- get rid of the run flats if it still has them - it's a completely different car without them.

[anonymous-user]

Cool, deffinately on the shortlist for a drive then!!

(also considering a 335i tourer, but as i want a manual, and these are like rocking horse poo, then the 123d may get the nod instead!)