So, one week and 1000 km down the road, I'm really falling in love with this car. I now even think it looks good
Time for some more random ramblings:
To start off with the most controversial point: I still miss the GTI's "cheap kicks". The much louder (and better sounding) engine, bouncy ride, lack of grip and the aggressive throttle response of the GTI just made it easier to get a kick out of.
Maybe the rumoured MPP tune will help, but I to be honest I think it would take something like a 320bhp inline 6 to solve all my problems
If you're considering a 125i but can stretch your budget to the M135i I think you really should.
But.. in 125i guise there's still much to like over the GTI and I have no regrets.
For starters it might be about as fast as the GTI on paper, but having so much more grip I think it'll be much faster in a lot of circumstances. Seems to pull harder above 200 km/h too. This car can fly!
And ofcourse there's the joys of RWD! I'm still running it in, but the road is getting slippery here, and the little drifts that sport+ allows make me giggle like a girl on each roundabout
I'm getting winter tyres fitted next week, can't wait to take it out to play in the snow!
Steering, while definitely not up to E46 levels of feedback, is nice, and probably as good as it's going to get in these early EPS days. Very light though, even in Sport, I really don't understand the people complaining that it's not light enough...
As I never thought the GTI was particularly uncomfortable, I'm really surprised by how much I appreciate the extra comfort and refinement of the F21 on the daily commute. Those seats, that steering wheel, the ride.. It's just so easy and relaxing to drive. Downside of this is that it's also way too easy to drive irresponsibly, steering with one finger, playing with the iDrive while flying through traffic at highly illegal speeds...
Another surprise is the extended lighting pack. Would never have ordered it separately, but came with one of the packages and I'm surprised by how much I appreciate it. The ambient lights (the colored ones) are a bit too weak to make a real impression, but the other lighting, especially those on the doors are really nicely executed and really finish off the posh look at night. The lights on the doorhandles are even useful to judge the distance of the door to objects when getting out in small parking spaces.
Also surprised with Eco Pro mode.. it's actually quite nice in heavy traffic, as it makes it easy to drive just as slow as everyone around you.
Eco Pro also showed me how much torque this engine really has. You can drive 60 in 6th gear and when you put your foot down the car will still accelerate at an acceptable rate, no problem.
I'm not a an Eco Pro myself yet though, consumption seems to be a little better than 10l/100 km which is the same as the GTI.
ASS is not as bad as I expected it to be. Sometimes it annoys me and when it does I just turn it off.
Engine is really busy on cold start and has a rather uneven idle, but I somehow quite like it. Reminds me a bit of the E30 325i's idle that would also never really settle down. Also like that the engine really rocks the car you rev it.
Another thing that reminds me of the E30 is that you constantly see the bonnet through your windscreen
Engine bay itself is a disappointment, looks really messy and cheap with wires, hoses and gizmos randomly scattered around the unpainted insides. I'm sure this makes perfect eco(nomic) sense, but it's best left closed
Rain sensor is a bit slow but I really like the fact that unlike other cars you can manually trigger an extra wipe without quitting auto mode.
Still getting to grips with the indicator stalk. I'm frequently triple-blinking when I shouldn't, or blinking continuous when I want to triple-blink, or the indicator turns off on me on roundabouts. But I think I will eventually get it and luckily, unlike many other cars, you can quickly cancel any mistakes by tapping the stalk again.
Speed limit info... it's kind of fun to see what kind of signs it can pick up and so far I'm impressed, I'd say it's 90% accurate, if not more.
I miss the water temp meter at times. It would be nice if you could just view it in iDrive (much more useful than the stupid "sport dials" if you ask me), but to be honest I secretly hope BMW or some tuner will one day reprogram the consumption swing-o-meter below the rev counter to be an oil temperature meter in Sport like in the M cars of old
Business Nav/iDrive is a bit clumsy and quirky at times, especially the music playing part, but on the whole I think it's a nice system. I like the fact that after a while most actions will be stored in your "muscle memory" and that the screen is up high, so you don't need to take your eyes off the road that much. VW's touchscreen in the center of the dash suddenly seems a lot less safe to me. Also like the Nav instructions on the "black panel".
The Alpine retrofit sounds really nice after a few days and a play with the settings. Especially the (unchanged) rear speakers seemed to mess with the sound and moving the fader a fair bit forward cleaned things up nicely. Unfortunately the amp switches on and off automatically based on input level, which means that if you don't drive around with the stereo on, you'll miss the first words of Nav guidance or PDC beeps.. bit of an oversight. Apart from that minor annoyance I'm happy I got it and I think it's worth the money.
Still happy with the MPP exhaust, although I must warn those who are sensitive to this that it can drone a bit on the highway. When cruising it's quiet as a mouse, but with the slightest acceleration a deep bassy note fills the cabin. It's really at it's best on cold starts and cruising around town, adds a lot of bass making the car sound quite powerful. On lifting off it can pop a bit at times, which is nice. Unfortunately, at full throttle and high revs it doesn't seem to add much.. N20 still sounds like a hoover to me
Yes, I'll try to get some soundclips
Gave the car a wash and a bit of a wax in the garage the other day, must say the car is full of nice lines and details to appreciate, and the bulging rear arches just feel sexy to touch
Also noticed that the roof is much lower than the Golf, especially in the rear. Still very happy with Estoril too.
Paint and prep was quite good too, orange peel not excessive (for a modern Euro car), no swirls at all (!!), just some random scratches here and there but all easily correctable. Funnily enough they didn't seem to have put any wax or other sealant on, while I expected that to be the only thing they would do well
anyway, just as well with me.
I have a funny issue with the power window controls. As you know, they've moved from the center console to the armrest in the doors, exactly where they were in my GTI. So you would say I'd be used to that, but somehow my mind seems to detect I'm in a BMW and thus I'm instinctively looking for the switch on the center console, consistently changing the driving mode when I want to roll down the window
Perhaps this goes to show that this car, with it's funny looks, electric power steering, 4pot hoover engine, unpainted engine bay, and all other things wrong and Eco still is a real BMW. It has that same undefinable character that my E30, E46 and in fact all other BMWs I've driven have.. I just want to keep driving them. There's something about these cars and I'm a sucker for it
Sorry for the long post without pictures! Will snap some.. soon