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The new BMW 1-series coupé is a hugely significant car. Forget the paltry projected sales figures (BMW GB expects to sell no more than 3600 a year of all variants), and forget the, er, challenging visual detailing. In fact, you can even forget about the mouthwateringly powerful 135i that we drove last week.

Why? Because I would bet several of my limbs that history will record the 1-series coupé as important for one reason. And that reason is the 123d or, more sp...Read the full article

I've always thought that the 1-series BMW looked ghastly and that it was pretty pointless with such an impractical interior, but I rather like this coupe's looks and if the 123D version is really this good, it would be the first BMW I'd consider buying for a long time, despite the rather high cost.

In which case, ordinary Bloke, the designers and engineers have hit the nail on the head. Read the full road test on 14 Nov to find out whether i've been too praiseworthy…

I have the big brother of the 123D, in the form of a 335D coupe and am impressed by its engine and power on a daily basis. However if they put the twin turbo 2 litre in the bigger coupe I may just be persuaded to go to the smaller engine given the improvement in economy and emissions.

Or maybe i'll just be selfish and buy the smaller coupe and let those in the back worry about themselves.

BMW are definately developing diesels along the right lines as far as I am concerned.

I've always thought the same as Ordinary Bloke - the 1-Series wasn't such a hot looking car.

 However..... I've just got rid of a Prodrive Impreza Spec D (had to get it out of my system), and am coming to the end of my first week with a 5-door 123d M Sport hatch.

 It's in Sapphire Black, with Privacy Glass and decent 18" alloys, which seems to help the looks, but the engine really is remarkable! It's obviously not as quick, ultimately, as the Impreza but its so smooth, suffers negligible turbo-lag and still averages over 45mpg on a run.

 I thought I'd really miss the grunt of the last car, but the 123d is every bit as quick as my old Leon Cupra and the running cost are great!

I am beginning to wonder about the press BMW continues to recieve. I see in your stats that this car averages 33 mpg which whilst it includes performance testing is probably a fair reflection of what a typical urbanised UK owner can expect. Whilst good, this is not an earth shattering outcome for a cramped two door "coupe" and hardly constitutes a revolution. All the top end performance is of course largely wasted in the UK. It just seems to be that another vacant price point has been filled by a car which pretty much repeats the formula BMW has been churning out for the last 40 years .

There also seems to be a considerable re-writing of history as far as BMW is concerned. The 1602/2002 series was never available as a coupe or even designed as a sports saloon. BMWs of that generation where heavily criticsed for snap oversteer and the standard models "sports" saloon credentials where easily overshadowed by twin cammed, disc braked and decently suspended italians of the era. It was a conservatively engineered rival to the Fords and Opels of the time. It was very basic but just cost a lot in the UK, something at least that seems to have persisted till today.

  

I was in the fortunate position to see a cabriolet version of this car today.

Whilst I don't care much for the "dodgy" proportions of the coupe I really loved the ca's lines and it really is a beautiful car with the roof down.

rosstopher:

and it really is a beautiful car with the roof down.

where abouts did you see it?  it was close to freezing in London!

 

I was on a training course at the BMW Academy in Reading.

 We saw it inside and got to have a good play with it, we were told about all the options etc and if it were my money i'd rather have one than a 3 series cab TBH.

BMW academy?  What does that entail? Are you getting/ have a job there?  Are customers allowed to go?

More details would be most enlightning.

I work as a salesman for MINI and I was there for a training course, It's not open to the public unfortunatley.

I only got to see the car as they were doing technical training for it so it was just luck i'm afraid.

nice one.

do you get much feedback on quality of service?  if you scour this forum a little, you'll find plenty of feedback...