BMW scotches front-drive 1 Series – again

The on-again, off-again saga of BMW’s front-wheel drive future continued this week, with senior BMW sources insisting the 1 Series will continue as a rear-driver until at least 2019.

BMW has let it be widely known that it will show its first front-drive “concept” car at next month’s Paris Motor Show, and BMW sources have even told journalists that it planned to sell front- and rear-drive 1 Series models concurrently, but motoring.com.au can reveal that is not the case.

Senior BMW personnel last week insisted BMW had no confirmed front-wheel drive program on the books, with the exception of a production version of the Compact Activity Tourer it will show in Paris.

That car will be a little stodgier than traditional BMW models, with a higher seating position and centre of gravity for its city-focused driving and a mega practical family-oriented cabin layout.

It will be based on the same ‘UKL’ platform as the next-generation MINI (due on sale in late 2013), but the new plan is that it won’t be sharing the 1 Series nameplate, though that may change (again) between now and its 2014 production slot.

So, not for the first time, a BMW product line-up is beginning to look a little confusing, leading motoring.com.au to sit down with BMW in Munich last week in an attempt to make it look a little simpler. This is the current platform plan, according to senior BMW sources.

If it comes, it would be as a full-cycle replacement for the current 1 Series - so no earlier than 2019, unless something drastic occurs.

It’s not known what the production version would be called, though Compact Activity Tourer (CAT) is thought to be a little clunky and a strong faction inside BMW doesn’t want it to carry a traditional numeric badge, either.

BMW plans to offer it with front-drive, all-wheel drive and hybrid drive as well, and it will lead the way with three- and four-cylinder engines in both petrol and diesel forms.

The engines will all appear in MINIs, too, though it is planned to give BMW’s versions a power advantage. The three-cylinder engines will be 1.5-litre powerplants (essentially half the inline six) and will be turbocharged.

While BMW is planning both hybrid and full electric versions of the CAT, neither will be available at the car’s launch.

What we do know is that will be based on BMW’s all-new UKL (Under Class) architecture, developed to sit beneath the next MINI. With the most expensive bit already developed, the CAT is a no-brainer in terms of cost and may provide timely help with public acceptance of front-wheel drive in mainstream BMWs.

“We have space to fit something in the same segment that the 1 Series is in. That segment gives more opportunities than the 1 Series can fill,” a source said.

It isn’t that complicated, really. At the start, at least, BMW is simply moving the 1 Series Coupe and Cabrio models across to be badged as 2 Series models. They will also score the strongest of the 1 Series engines, including the turbocharged inline six-cylinder and the 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder from the 328i.

That may be fleshed out, though, if BMW decides it could sell Gran Coupe or GT-style versions. At this stage, BMW insiders insist they’d rather put their development eggs in the 4 Series basket.

There have been ongoing discussions about a smaller, hard-core convertible, internally dubbed Z2, for three years at BMW, but no concrete program has emerged from them.

The exception might be a five-door hatchback that is, internally at least, being touted as the 3 Series GT.

In the (very near) future, the cars traditionally known as 3 Series Coupes and Convertibles will, like their 1 Series cousins, move up a digit.

All 3 Series-based coupes and convertibles will be known as 4 Series models and so, in all likelihood, will the 4 Series Gran Coupe due in 2014 (pictured).

This will give the 4 Series badge a full model line-up all its own, with the sleeker Gran Coupe leading the charge.

4 Series models will also keep the strongest engines in the 3 Series family, including the 328i’s turbocharged four-cylinder, the twin-turbo 335i straight six and the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel as well.

With the 4 Series wanting to claim the GT territory for its Convertible, look to the Z4 returning to its roots in the next generation.

X1
Regardless of whether the next all-new 1 Series becomes front-drive or not, the X1 will retain its longitudinal engine and choice of either rear-drive or all-wheel drive, even after the all-new version arrives around 2015.

Why? Well, the X1 is based around a 3 Series layout, not a 1 Series layout.

The only question mark is if, and how, a replacement for the 5 Series GT is on the horizon. BMW insists the car is a success, though it remains unloved in most showrooms. It has proven itself to be a brilliant long-distance tourer, despite its ungainly looks, and BMW sources insist the formula was right but the looks weren’t.

With Audi planning to bring its Q5-based Q6 out by 2015, expect the new BMW to land within six months of its fellow Bavarian model.

7 Series
In the midlife of its least controversial 7 Series in more than a decade, BMW has no plans to alter the style of its big limo and has not confirmed plans to offer a larger version, either.

Talk went around a year or two ago that there would be a swoopier, sexier 8 Series based on the latest Seven, but that turned out to be the 6 Series Gran Coupe.

There has been talk of an even larger SUV from BMW - something boasting an X7 or X8 nameplate - and design proposals have bounced around in Munich but there has never been a concrete program.

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