2023 BMW 1 Series

With the rear seats upright the 1 Series has a boot capacity of 380L, expanding to 1200L with the rear seats folded.

ANCAP awarded the BMW 1 Series a five-star safety rating when tested in 2019.

It received 83 per cent for adult occupant protection, 89 per cent for child occupant protection, 76 per cent for vulnerable road user protection, and 73 per cent for safety assist.

All 2022 BMW 1 Series come standard with the following safety features:

• Front, front-side and curtain airbags
• Autonomous emergency braking at city speeds
• Front and rear collision warning
• Lane departure warning
• Rear cross-traffic alert
• Front and rear parking sensors
• Reversing camera

Claimed combined cycle fuel economy figures for the 2022 BMW 1 Series are as follows:

• 118i: 5.9L/100km
• 128ti: 6.8L/100km
• M135i xDrive Pure: 7.5L/100km
• M135i xDrive: 7.5L/100km

118i models require 95 RON premium unleaded petrol, whereas the rest of the range requires 98 RON.

All models have a 50L fuel tank.

BMW offers two different capped-price servicing costs on the 1 Series. A five-year, 80,000km Basic plan is $1650, while the Plus plan costs $4340.

The Plus plan includes replacement brake pads and discs, clutch discs and plates, as well as wiper blades.

The company continues to offer a three-year/unlimited kilometre warranty, whereas many rival brands have moved on to five-year warranties.

While there are plenty of motorcycles with more power straight out of the box, it would be too simple to assume the entry-level 1 Series might be underpowered. It’s categorically incorrect.

Give the throttle a solid prod from a set of traffic lights and there’s plenty of go. There’s a decent sound to it, too, as there often is with three-cylinder engines.

Once you’re off and running though, there’s a smoothness and refinement to this three-cylinder powertrain befitting its luxury positioning.

Don’t count on a whole lot of feel from the steering, which doesn’t give much back to the driver, though I do like the weighting. On the other hand braking is solid, with good feel and progression from the pedal.

It feels solid in the corners too, even travelling at the maximum legal speeds in these parts. There’s more body bracing in this new model and you can feel the extra stiffness keeping the car in check when you’re leaning on it.

In the 128ti, the 2.0-litre turbo and eight-speed auto are a good pairing, shifting snappily on the move and allowing good control via the steering-mounted paddles.

Performance from the turbo’d four is strong, and the beefy mid-range means you can ride the 128ti’s torque band (380Nm on tap from 1500-4400rpm) making it a pretty effortless everyday driver. It also means it has plenty of shove when you’re giving it a go.

What isn’t so great is the occasional low-speed behaviour of the transmission, which I’ve noted countless times with BMW’s eight-speeders. It never seems to respond how you want it to, either being too lazy or too eager.

Further, the ride is quite choppy even by hot hatch standards. You feel every road imperfection and undulation, and it’s ‘engaging’ or ‘connected’ until it becomes tiresome and annoying. It’s not completely crashy but a layer of adjustability to the M Sport suspension in the form of adaptive damping would be welcome.

In the M135i xDrive, if it wasn’t for the smattering of BMW badges and the cabin layout, which is distinctly BMW in design, I probably would have thought I was driving a Mini. Yes, they obviously share mechanical hardware, but that rear-drive BMW DNA that was so great in the previous generation has been lost, and it’s worse off for it.

There’s plenty of grip courtesy of the xDrive all-wheel drive system, but drive it hard and it doesn’t always inspire confidence.

Performance in a straight line is very muscular, as you’d expect given the outputs and all-paw running gear. However, like I mentioned earlier, there’s nothing about it that screams BMW to you.

The M135i feels marginally more comfortable than the 128ti I sampled around the same time, though it’s still quite firm for daily use in the city. You feel most imperfections in the road with the standard chassis setup, though opting for the adaptive dampers would add more adjustability.

The BMW 1 Series is available in the following exterior paint colours:

• Alpine White
• Black Sapphire (+$1308)
• Melbourne Red (+$1308)
• M Misano Blue (+$1308)
• Skyscraper Grey (+$1308)
• Storm Bay metallic (+$2000)
• Frozen Pure Grey metallic (+$3846)

The 118i Sport is only available in solid black paint.

As a daily driver, the entry-level BMW 1 Series makes a lot of sense.

The 128ti in isolation it’s a fun, sporty little hatchback, and it retains core BMW strengths like interior quality, comfort and interior technology.

However, it’s let down by somewhat expensive options, a ride that may be too firm for some in daily use, and the fact that enthusiasts like myself will always lust for a rear-drive BMW driving experience. Again, this feels more like a big Mini and less like a small BMW to drive.

With the M135i xDrive, while it looks racy inside and out, and has an engine with the outputs and exhaust note to put a smile on your face, the M Performance version of BMW’s smallest passenger model doesn’t do enough to distinguish itself from rival front-biased AWD hot hatches, and lacks the character of something like a Mini JCW Hatch or JCW Clubman.

There’s no disputing its performance or premium cabin, but the M135i doesn’t offer the tech or all-round usability of an Audi S3 or VW Golf R, nor can it blow any of its direct rivals out of the water in terms of straight-line performance or corner-carving ability.