BMW 1-Series BMW 125i SE ConvertibleRating:  Convertible version of 1-series coupe debuts with 215bhp straight-sixBy Henry Catchpole | March 2008 |
There will be a 135i M Sport Convertible. It will have 302bhp, do 0-62mph in 5.6sec and cost £32,405 – a couple of grand more than the coupe. But, as Chris Tarrant used to say, we don’t want to give you that, or rather BMW don’t. Not just yet. All the cars on the 1-series Convertible launch in Spain are 125i SEs and to be honest I’m quite looking forward to driving one of the ‘lesser’ models. I drove the diesel 123 Coupe a while ago and actually preferred it in some ways to the 135i (not the engine, obviously, but the chassis balance) so I’m hoping for good things from the 125i.
The convertible 1-series is a good-looking car, with the same strong shoulder-line and stubby tail of a 3-series convertible but in a tighter overall shape. Of course it doesn’t have the 3’s folding hard-top but the powered soft-top (up or down in 22sec) does an ample job of insulating you from wind noise and, although there wasn’t a lot of it in Valencia, I suspect it will keep the rain out as well. To me there’s also something a bit more glamorous about a soft-top than a folding hard-top. After all, if it’s good enough for Bentley…
The 125i has the straight-six found in the 130i – despite the number on the bootlid it hasn’t been sleeved down to 2.5 litres – but with a bit less wellie. You get the same gloriously tight straight-six howl though, while the punch low down – helped by a throttle that’s sharp right at the top of its travel – makes it feel decently quick. It’s only at the top of the rev-range that you notice where the engineers have knocked back the power. The 3-litre still revs cleanly and willingly all the way to the heights of 7500rpm but it’s a fairly pointless exercise in terms of picking up speed after the needle has passed 6000rpm.
Smooth continental roads often disguise scuttle-shake, but the Spanish do like a speed-hump, and these, combined with the odd section of neglected tarmac, are enough to determine that the 1-series Convertible is impressively solid and unflappable. After passing through some small, traffic-calmed towns, the press launch route climbs up into the hills, following one of the most tight and twisting roads I’ve ever driven. It’s all second and third gear, and with plenty of changing between the two it’s good that the 125i gets the same fantastic gearbox as its pricier brothers.
It’s the sort of road that keeps you constantly busy and the sliding-caliper brakes wilt quickly under the weight of 1585kg (115kg heavier than the Coupe) but you soon build up an almost hypnotic rhythm. After a while, however, you begin to discover the one disappointing aspect of the 125i. It clings and clings… and then eventually it breaks traction and understeers. In the tighter corners it does so quite unremittingly and without a lot of warning (not nice when there are big ditches yawning at you from the side of the road).
Later, in the faster stuff, there’s a more neutral balance but you still find that when you turn in you’re not really thinking about adjusting the car’s line, you’re just driving up to the limit. If you try and play with the chassis you know it’ll just be messy and unsatisfying.
I’m honestly not trying to be all road-testery here – I don’t care if it doesn’t oversteer wildly out of every hairpin – I was just hoping that without the M-Sport suspension there might be a bit more subtlety and involvement to the way it corners. As it is, your neck muscles will probably cry enough before the tyres do. Perhaps if it had 16in instead of 17in wheels, and some remoulds…
I suppose I’m being a bit unfair. The 125i Convertible is very accomplished, and swanning around looking at the incredible view with the sun beating down on the clever heat-resistant leather, it’s got the glam factor that buyers want from a car like this. And the 125 is still much better to drive than, say, a V6 VW EOS or Focus CC. I just hoped that BMW might have given us more than that.
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