BMW 130i 2005 Review

What we liked
>> Performance bargain
>> Fast and civilised
>> M Sport gear

Not so much
>> Styling still debatable
>> Ride harsh for some
>> Rear room limited

BMW doesn't actually use the "h" words to describe its new 130i, but there's no doubting the fact that an engine transplant has transformed the 1 Series into a five-door firecracker.

Although the standard 120i had the promising credentials of rear-wheel-drive and pin-shape handling when it was launched in Australia last year, apart from legroom in the rear seat the one thing it lacked was grunt. That issue has been addressed in the 130i by taking the 3 Series' new 3.0-litre straight six, fitting a new exhaust for more power and better noise, and jamming it under the 1 Series' flame-surfaced bonnet.

That gives the 130i 195kW of power and, unlike the similarly engined (and much heavier) 330i, the hatch comes with a six-speed manual gearbox. It's a fast enough car that BMW has limited top speed to 250km/h, while acceleration of zero to 100km/h in a claimed 6.1sec, is less than one second off the time achieved by the mighty M3.

CarPoint bagged a drive of the 130i near its home port of Munich as a lead up to its Australian release later this year. The short story is that, as the figures suggest, this is a quick car and bags of fun to drive with plenty of smooth, seamless power from an engine that doesn't mind revving towards its redline, and has a lovely, rasping exhaust note while getting there.

Shoehorning a large engine into a small car can be fraught with engineering headaches, but the 130i is no AMC Gremlin. Despite its length, the in-line six has most of its mass behind the car's front axle line, and because it's made from exotic alloys of aluminium and magnesium weighs less than BMW's four-cylinder diesel. The battery's in the boot where the spare wheel should be (the 130i gets Goodyear run-flats) and the weight distribution is a perfectly balanced 50/50.

The big story is of refinement, however. Not just in the 130i's solid build and relatively low noise levels, but also from an engine that's happy to pull from low to middling revs. Rather than being a highly strung small car invested with overloads of power, the 130i feels more like a larger luxury car shrunken to fit.

The same goes for the price, which by BMW standards is something of a bargain. Just $62,000 will park a 130i in your driveway, and that's for the M-Sport version that will be the only choice in Oz. Included in the price is a dress-up kit and 17-inch alloys. There will be options, of course, including $2750 for active steering taken from the 5 Series, or there's a package bundling satellite navigation and iDrive.

This is the world's only rear-drive small hatchback, and BMW has made the most of the 130i's unique configuration to imbue it with taut and entertaining handling. The 1 Series has been criticised in the past for its firm ride, and while that's easier to forgive in a performance car, the truth is the 130i felt a bit more compliant.

Comfort is certainly towards the end of the list of things worth thinking about when using the torque of the straight six to light the rear tyres up out of a tight corner. But even while tooling about at lower speeds there's enough leather, finely shaped seats and buttons on the steering wheel to indicate sheer performance isn't the end of the story.

In fact, the main thing to like about the 130i is that despite being fast, it's also civilised. The ride quality is far from unbearable, the engine is strong and flexible and BMW's manual gearbox is sweet enough you won't miss an auto.

Okay, at $62,000 it's a long way from being the cheapest hot hatch on the market; but for that sort of money, it just has to be the best BMW.