Distance: 2,008km
Location: Switzerland, Italy
Date: June 2-7, 2020
Up front: The space and layout of the front row is comparable to the BMW 3-series, it’s in the back where sacrifices are made. The layout is easy to understand and I appreciate the physical gear stick, but the tiptronic transmission makes it impossible to intuitively know what gear you’re in unless you look down. The brushed aluminium look makes it shiny, not reflective, but the piano black plastic on the centre armrest is.
The leatherette seating surfaces are comfortable, there’s no need to upgrade to suede if you’re not expecting to do fall-out-of-your-seat driving. I did a 10-hour stretch in the car comfortably on the highway.
In the back: Comfort in the rear seats is almost as good as in the front. The rear window belt line stints up so it’s hard to get a car view out. Otherwise, legroom, headroom, and shoulder room are all comfortable for two abreast for trips of two hours or less. The same generosity can’t be extended to the boot, which is fine for a weekend trip to the beach but won’t fare well with weeklong road trips.
Driving: The little 1.5L turbo three-cylinder engine is the smallest BMW has put into any conventionally-powered car for decades. The motor barely puts out 140hp and is just half the displacement of base 3- and 5-series models from the 1990s. Despite the rattly engine, it holds wet highways well at speed and is easy to manoeuvre in the thousand-year-old streets of Rome.
However, I had to go over the legendary St. Bernard pass to get from Switzerland to Italy. While most car buys don’t care about driving experience as much as driving dynamics, the front-wheel drive hatchback squealed and understeered around hairpin turns the old 1-series would have had no problem throwing itself around. The lack of power and uneven front-to-rear weight distribution really show as huge disadvantages on an alpine trail at 2,500m above sea level where oxygen is scarce.
