| Product: |
BMW 318iS |
| Date: |
14/02/08 (1072 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Comfortable, Affordable to run, Good looking, Fairly Quick
Disadvantages: Quite large, hard to park, cost of BMW servicing
The BMW 318is - Sporty yet Affordable.
I have owned my BMW 318is for around a month now, and going from a Renault Clio 1.2 i am finding the differences really vast.
Performance
The car pulls very well, i'm sure it feels gutless in light of bigger models such as the 325i or 328i, but for a heavy set 1.8 i feel it has some go in it!
The M42 engine runs smoothly, uses a sensible ammount of fuel (I drive 37 miles per day and use just 5 pounds of fuel) And it isn't overly noisy and revvy.
The M42 is the largest of the 4 cylinder engines put into the 3 series (Unless you count the revised M44 which was a 1.9 and replaces the M42 in later models)
Interior
The interior is smart, comfortable and pleasant. I remember sitting in the driving seat and feeling immediately in control, The stereo is placed high up so you can access it easily which i liked, electric windows and mirrors make things simple to set up.
Although the dash is made largely of shiny black plastic i don't think it feels cheap, it is nicely formed and is very functional.
Higher Spec Models would have climate control in place of the standard heater controls, and underneath would be an on board computer (OBC) which calculates MPG, Temperature etc.
Driving
I found immediately that rear wheel drive is something you have to treat with respect, i frequently used to drive with my foot resting above the clutch pedal, i found that if i take a corner too quickly and dip the clutch slightly the car can fishtail, which i found scary, it is easy to lose the back end in the wet also if you pull away sharply or wheelspin (boy racers) of course this could be used to enjoy the odd drift as well if you have the room to do so.
Overall
Averaging around 37 mpg on fairly quick runs around bendy country roads means i think if you were clocking up motorway and A road miles you could push more like 40 mpg out of this car, possibly more.
The cars come with fairly high mileage nowadays it would seem, engines are readily available (as well as larger engines if you planned to upgrade) but rest assured that the engines are well built, come with a cam chain rather than a cam belt so less danger of it snapping and destroying your engine.
I feel that the car is affordable (i work at mcdonalds and i can afford to run it!) fun, good looking and smart, a pleasure to drive at all times, and overall very eye catching, you could easily upgrade the looks to M3 spec with small outlay.
Summary: overall worth a shout, the good points outweigh the bad
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