BMW M135i xDrive Hire Sydney: Review, Specs and What It Is Really Like

The M135i is the quick version of the current 1 Series: a 2.0-litre turbo four-cylinder, all-wheel drive, an eight-speed automatic and a body that still has five doors and a boot. It is the performance car you can use every day in Sydney without planning around it. It is also built on a front-drive platform where the old M140i was rear-drive with six cylinders, and this page says what that change means rather than pretending it did not happen. Confirmed by request: send your dates and we tell you plainly whether one can be delivered.

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Specifications

The number people ask about first is not on that table. It is the cylinder count. Four, not
six, and the drive goes to the front wheels first. Everything else about the car follows from
those two facts, so they are where this page starts.

What It Is Actually Like in Sydney

The M140i question, answered plainly

The car this replaced was rear-wheel drive with a 3.0-litre turbo six, and among people who
care about such things it has become a small legend. The F40 M135i shares nothing with it below
the badge. It sits on a platform designed around front-wheel drive, the engine is a 2.0-litre
turbo four mounted sideways, and a clutch pack behind the gearbox sends torque to the rear axle
when the front wheels begin to lose grip. Under most driving the front wheels do the work.

Whether that matters depends on what you want the car for. If the point is an engine note and
a car that will rotate on the throttle, this is not that car and the M3 Competition F80 or the
Mustang GT is the honest recommendation. If the point is covering ground quickly in a city that
rains, in a car that will not embarrass you at a set of wet lights, the M135i does the job better
than the car it replaced ever did. It is quicker across a real road, easier to drive at its
limit, and considerably more useful from Monday to Friday.

For the record, this is what changed between the two generations:

• Engine: 3.0-litre inline six became a 2.0-litre four, still turbocharged.
• Drive: rear-wheel drive became all-wheel drive on a front-drive-based platform.
• Gearbox: the eight-speed automatic stayed, and it is the best part of both cars.
• Body: the roofline rose and the cabin grew, which is why the back seat now fits adults.
• Pace: 0-100 in 4.8 seconds, which in real conditions is as quick as the old car managed.

Traction is the thing you actually get

The 4.8-second 0-100 figure is quick by any standard, but the more useful fact is that the
figure repeats on a damp road. A rear-drive car of the same power spends its first two seconds
managing wheelspin. The M135i simply leaves. Pulling out of the Harbour Tunnel onto the Warringah
Freeway in the rain, or getting across the intersection at the top of William Street before the
lights change, are the moments where the all-wheel drive stops being a specification and becomes
the reason the car is easy to live with.

On a road like the Old Pacific Highway between Mount Colah and Brooklyn, the car is quick and
tidy. It turns in sharply, it holds a line through the cambered bends, and the rear axle helps it
out of slow corners rather than pushing wide. It does not feel playful the way a rear-drive
hatch does. It feels precise and rather unflappable, which on a road with no run-off is not a
bad quality.

Wakehurst Parkway in the wet is the local test. It is narrow, it is lined with trees, and it
has a surface that goes glassy after rain. A powerful rear-drive car on that road in those
conditions is an exercise in restraint. The M135i simply drives along it at the speed the
conditions allow, with the traction control almost never interrupting, and arrives at Narrabeen
without the driver having done anything heroic. That is the whole case for the platform change
in one road.

It is a hatchback first

Five doors and five seats are the difference between a performance car you book for a
weekend and one you book for a week. The boot takes two suitcases and the back seats take two
adults for the length of a dinner run. The turning circle and the footprint are those of a
normal small car, so a Surry Hills laneway, a Paddington terrace parking space or a Coles car
park in Neutral Bay are all straightforward. The M3 sedans on the list are a size up in every
direction and it shows in the city.

The cabin is the current BMW layout with the digital instrument cluster, a central screen
that runs wireless phone mirroring, and sports seats that hold you without being hard on a long
drive. Nothing about it feels like a rental car, which is a low bar that a surprising number of
performance cars fail.

Over a week that practicality compounds. The boot swallows a supermarket shop. The back
doors mean a child seat goes in without a wrestling match. The fuel bill for a week of commuting
and one long drive is a fraction of what a V8 on this tier would cost over the same distance,
and premium unleaded is the only thing it asks for. It is the performance car that does not
need a second car alongside it.

The gearbox is good and the noise is a decision

The eight-speed automatic is a conventional torque-converter unit rather than a dual-clutch,
which means it is smooth in traffic and quick enough when you take the paddles. Left to itself
it shifts early and keeps the engine quiet, which is what most people want on Victoria Road at
eight in the morning. In the sport setting it holds gears and the exhaust opens up.

The honest part: some of that sound is played through the speakers. Every four-cylinder
performance car in this class does the same and the M135i does it better than most, but a
Mustang owner will hear it for what it is inside the first kilometre. Drive it for what it does
rather than what it sounds like and the trade is a fair one.

Things You Should Know

Quick, not dramatic

The car makes its pace look unremarkable, which is a compliment to the engineering and a
disappointment to anyone booking it for theatre. There is no launch drama, no fight for
traction, no sense of the car working hard. Passengers will notice the speed on the head-up
display before they feel it. If theatre is the brief, the two rear-drive cars shown further down
are built for exactly that and this one is not.

The ride is firm on Sydney concrete

Nineteen-inch wheels with low-profile tyres and sports suspension mean the M135i reads the
expansion joints on the M5 and the patched surface of Parramatta Road in detail. It is never
harsh, but it is not the car for a passenger who wanted a quiet ride, and the adaptive dampers
only soften so far. On a smooth road it is composed. On a broken one it is busy.

The drive modes are worth learning at handover. Comfort softens the dampers and lightens the
steering, and it is where the car should live in traffic. Sport firms everything and sharpens
the throttle, and it is the setting for the Old Pacific Highway rather than the Pacific Highway.
There is a configurable mode in between, and most people settle on soft dampers with the sharper
throttle within a day.

Wheels and kerbs

Low-profile tyres leave very little rubber between an alloy wheel and a kerb. Parallel
parking on an unfamiliar street is where these cars pick up marks, and a kerbed wheel is the
single most common item on a settlement for a car in this class. The reversing camera and the
parking sensors are good, and using them every time is the simplest way to bring the bond back
whole. Tell us straight away if it happens rather than waiting for the return inspection,
because it is a far simpler conversation on the day.

Who Books This Car

Drivers between 20 and 25 who want something genuinely quick without the running costs, the
handling caution and the age loading that come with a V8 on this tier. Visitors who need one car
for a week of Sydney that includes a commute, a run over the Blue Mountains on Bells Line of Road
and one early start on the Old Pacific Highway. Enthusiasts who want to answer the M140i question
for themselves rather than argue about it online.

It is priced from $295 a day, which makes it the least expensive way onto the Performance tier
and a long way under the Mustang GT. Longer hires taper, and a week in it is the kind of booking
the car was made for.

It is confirmed by request. Send your dates and where to bring it, we check, and we come back
with a plain answer before any money changes hands. If we cannot confirm it, we tell you, and we
offer the nearest car on the tier instead of substituting something on the day.