man never thought i'd desire a newer car, but the 135i is calling my name....

[VinniE30]

I'm not saying the e30 is a better car for everyone. The 1 series might be a better car for someone like a trophy wife or a spoiled teenage girl.(I see them driving them around all the time.) The e30 is a better car for a real car enthusiast.

And yeah it's obviously not a fair comparison. A new 135i is around $40,000. A nice e30 is less than $10k. Now think of what you could do to an e30 for the price of a 135i.
S54 swapped e30 with the best of everything... Start with a nice e30, Motons, best BBK, your favorite e30 wheels, etc. And still have lots of money to spare on it.
Think about it now, what would you rather have? $40k e30 or a new, no optioned 135i. Not a very hard decision for me...

[A.J.]

For those that are critical of the 135i, go drive 1 before you say ANYTHING and then give us your opinion. I fuckiing LOVE mine, the engine is soooooo sweet and torqey!

So about the lack of LSD...it sucks, the e-diff doesn't do the trick and cooks the rear brakes on the track. I put a quaife LSD in mine. Problem solved.

You CAN turn the stability control off. It also has a middle setting that allows some sliding, but steps in when you're getting out of hand. Supposedly this setting can do the same track times as the completely off setting when driven by a pro. Who knows.

The stock suspension is sporty, but as soon as the quaife went it, the dynamics were off...it wouldn't rotate correctly. In went a BMW Performance Suspension Kit (24mm lower and 34% stiffer than stock sports suspension). Problem solved, handles like a dream.

The dealer replaced the leaky tail lights and HPFP under recall. Supposedly, per BMW the HPFP problem is fixed...but it's under an extended 10 year warranty, so no big deal.

With that said, I'm building a s54 e30 cause I love the old school feeling. Now I'm off to wash the 135.

[M3TROY]

I'm not saying the e30 is a better car for everyone. The 1 series might be a better car for someone like a trophy wife or a spoiled teenage girl.(I see them driving them around all the time.) The e30 is a better car for a real car enthusiast.

And yeah it's obviously not a fair comparison. A new 135i is around $40,000. A nice e30 is less than $10k. Now think of what you could do to an e30 for the price of a 135i.
S54 swapped e30 with the best of everything... Start with a nice e30, Motons, best BBK, your favorite e30 wheels, etc. And still have lots of money to spare on it.
Think about it now, what would you rather have? $40k e30 or a new, no optioned 135i. Not a very hard decision for me...

Who do you think was buying e30s when they where new? Car enthusiast...:giggle:
It used to be called a yuppie mobile for the very same reasons you say people buy the 135i did you know that?
Listen i get what your saying about the E30 trust me i do as i just spent almost 31k on mine and im still going but just because i love the e30 doesn't make it a better car no matter what you do to it.
Both cars come from different time periods so its really not a good comparison in that sense but if it came down to looks the e30 gets my vote hands down and twice on sunday.
If i remember correctly it was voted one of the top ten timeless designs of the 20 century if im not mistaken.
But again looks are subjective so what do i know.

my e30 literally has the best of everthing on it as u mentioned (i went with euro s50 motor instead, it looks much better and same HP as s54) and its still not my wifes car.
does that mean i like her car more? not a fucken chance, and not by a long shot. they are just two different animals.

On a side note you really shouldn't be so judgmental on people and put them into social or economical classes or think you know how and what they feel.
You have no idea how they made their money or what sacrifices they had to make for work.
The kid in Ohio working on a farm buying his first e30 loves his car just as much as the self made millionaire from Brooklyn who started with nothing and busted his ass to be able to spend 31k on his e30.

[VinniE30]

K. We're on the same page now.:up:

[Victell]

So I drove one of these recently. Someone traded in a 135i, turbo six, 7 speed auto (!). Gotta say, it was quite a drive. I really liked the size of it, the interior allowed me one of the most comfortable driving positions ive experienced - and I'm 6' 5". The size is really all you need. Anything bigger would have been just more luxurious, but not better, if you know what I mean.

And it was fast, like really fast. Everything happened in fast forward. Its abilities are quite high. High enough that your brain has to put extra concentration juice into piloting it. But pay attention and the road is yours. You can eat up road and turns with lots of confidence. The car feels good, stable and balanced. And really quick. It bangs through gears and gets up to illegal speed in no time. I tried manual shifting the 7-speed myself and it was a waste. The car is so fast and the shifts happen so quick that it requires a lot of attention. I found myself literally watching only the tach so I could shift right at redline, and I um wasnt watching the road. So I put it back in auto mode and let the puter do its thing. It is quite good, it holds gears when you want to and rev matches when braking hard. All this allows more attention on getting your braking and turn in more precise.

Braking it does really well too. Cramming the pedal just makes the car stop. You can feel and hear the abs and computer working each tire to its max. It feels really stable while doing it, not much dive either. Braking works well when diving into turns also and doesnt upset the car. And it does this, at least at the limits I was driving, without traction control. It just has good balance and setup i guess.

A few things that didnt fit so well. The really smart computer was able to sense when I was about to brake hard just before bombing into a turn and pre-pressurized the hydraulic brake system and closed the gap between the pads and rotors. This made a newly-hard and ready-for-action brake pedal. Which is awesome, but not the brake pedal my senses had become accustomed to during the rest of the drive. I repeated this on several turns and it did it each time. Who know, maybe if I owned the car I'd get used to it.

Another off-putting thing is that twice while in a hard turn the car bottomed out on the compression side over a mid-turn bump. This is probably due to the cars weight (which it masks well) and ride/handling spring/shock compromise. It only happened twice and only when driving hard, but it was still a bit unsettling for a car that does everything else so very well.

And it really does the rest well. As I guess it should for how much the thing cost. I think it would be worth it for a lease or a 2-4 year ownership experience. But after that I think you'd better have a CPO or aftermarket service contract put on it. No way would I ever even begin to think about repairing this car myself in the garage.

All in all, awesome car. If you have an opportunity to test drive one, do it. I liked the car so much from the inside and the driver experience that I didnt care as much what it looked like, a bar of Dove soap.

[dnguyen1963]

Yeah, I have always wanted the 135 convertible, but then every time I walk out to the parking lot and see my E30 vert I just have a big smile on my face. All the newer BMW cars have so much more features, but none of them can emotionally connect to you like the E30 can.

[kdkool]

The 135i is a very nice car. N54 + 6spd = perfection. Spend about another 3k on engine mods and you have a sick +400HP that can easily be daily'd.

I love mine (e92 N54).

[Mr. Tasty]

Originally Posted by deutschman
My girl friend and I have a black 135i and it ROCKS!!!!!!!
I did a BMWCCA driving school in it and it was SOOOOO much fun! With some better tires, and pads it would be retarded fun! Add an air intake some tuning and an exhaust and it would be even more fun.
I love everything about it. It feels like a more solid e36 M3 when I drive it. It is the closest to an actual BMW fanatics driving car you can get with any new BMW.

Heavy, especially for a car that small, should be way lighter, at least under 3000lbs - not bad for a car made in 2000 with modern safety gear that will save your life. With the power this thing puts down you will not feel the weight.
But it undoubtedly would be a better car in in many ways if it was lighter. Many modern cars are lighter.
Sure

Ugly - In the eye of the beholder. To each his own.
K.

Over invasive stability, traction control systems, no fun - The electronic safety aids can be turned off very easily! In day to day driving they are incredible and can also save your life.
They can't be completely disabled. It's something that can break and adds weight. I'd rather not have it.
Everything but the anti lock braking is disable when you hold the DTC button down for a few seconds. Just because you do not like the way it work does not mean it is a bad car.

No LSD because it will just take power away (but with a lag) when it detects slippage. - When the DTC is of there is no such thing.
So it's just going to spin one wheel rather than lockup as a mechanical LSD would do.
I admit I am not sure on this one, but I never felt like any any one wheel was slipping more then the other while driving slalom or skid pad. Maybe it has a kind of electron LSD system?

Over-boosted, disconnected feeling steering - I call BS. The steering is crisp and reactive. I did a BMWCCA school in this car and the steering was perfect. the instructors got to drive it and they loved it as well.
K. That's subjective, just giving my view from when I drove one. I preferred the steering feel in my e30 to it.

Unnecessarily overly complicated with electronic systems - Only if you add a bunch of options. The only fancy things our car has is heated seats (cold in SF) and the fancy door locking system. Other then that it has everything an e30 has and not much more.
Not naturally aspirated - Look at all the turbo e30's on R3V. The turbo's on the 135i are very nice and there is almost no lag in a manual (or steptronic mode).
Doesn't change the fact that it's not NA.
This is a bias opinion, is not subjective, and there for can be ignored when comparing two things to each other while trying to prove if one is better then the other.

Can't be worked on yourself must pay tons of money to do anything on it.
No dip stick, can't be self diagnosed, etc. - If you have an OBD scanner you can diagnose. If you are competent with a set of wrenches and have torx sockets you can do lot to this car.
Doesn't change the fact that an e30 is easier to do work on. And an OBD scanner gives generic codes for all cars with OBD, not BMW specific codes like the Peake reader I have for all BMW's late 80's to 2006.
Sure my 2002 is easier to work on then your e30. That does not make it a better car. The e30 will take my 2002 any day on the track in stock form and my 135i will take your e30 on the track any day in stock form.

Way more known faults and bad design issues. To name some of the recalls: HPFP, tail lights, seat belt. Rattles. - Not to bad. they have had a few recalls, but what modern BMW sins the e36 M3 has not had a few recalls? Not to many. BMW is always quick to get recalled cars fixed, and courtesy vehicles are fun.
I doubt these will stand the test of time like e30's have, they will be a nightmare to own 10 years from now. - Most people who buy new cars these days do not own their cars for 10 + years. They buy a new car, and then trade it in for an upgrade a few years later. I also think that if you buy a 1 series with as few options as possible you will not have many problems.
Then I suppose it is a good car for those people. Not me.
That statement just about sums up most of your points. You do not like modern cars, and prefer older cars due to there simplicity, and lack of safety features and comfort. You are bias against new cars.

^ Comparing an e30 to a new BMW is like comparing apples and oranges.
Agreed.
They are to different animals, and it makes no sens to compare them.
Why not? If they are so different than there is more to compare.
Ok. I should have said this differently. It does not make sens to compare them to find out which one is better. They are so vastly different!!! It makes sens to compare them for shits and giggles, but really when it comes down to it they are just worlds apart and are two different machines.
Its like comparing a 1940's 328 to a 1991 325i.
If you want a light track 135i you can strip everything you don't want out of it and it will loose a few hundred pounds very quickly! Otherwise you have a very comfortable city car, that is an absolute joy to drive during

rainbow biatcchhh

[Cliche Guevara]

I've made it a goal to one day own a 1M within the next decade. I am 100% in love with that car.

[mrsleeve]

I've made it a goal to one day own a 1M within the next decade. I am 100% in love with that car.

Wow so there is ONE thing we agree on

[craiggroves91]

It's a new car.



You're ugly.


It's a new car.


It's a new car.



That is the whole fucking point.



You sound like a fucking vagina.

I like this guy

[Silverdogz]

The 1 series is the new 3 series.

[illest318i]

The 1 series is one bad ass machine! I was just on you tube looking at videos of it before I got on here. I seriously want one too, but a lot of people say it's cute car which makes think what if?.. People might say that it's a girls car or something :/

[rThor432]

I love E30's, but.. If I had neither and had to choose one, it would absolutely be the 135i. I know you could hot-rod the hell out of an E30 with the extra money, but I personally need a car that I can drive other people around in comfortably.. As of now, everything I have is a hot-rod. I'm getting too old for that, ha. But that's my opinion.

I went to the drag strip with some co-workers tonight-- my buddy brought his 135i. Ran 12.5 with a tune and exhaust. And it's still pretty much stock otherwise. I like it.. We were all rusty though. I ran an 11.270 with a sloppy 2.3 sec 60 ft.

[Pantless Spency]

1 series is still badass.