It is fast. It is handles like a go kart. It has over boost. It has 2 doors instead of 4. It is compact. It is simple. It is a manual transmission. It takes sport tires. It is turbocharged. It has leather seats. The seats have bolstering. The steering wheel is weighted and it feels tight. The horn is masculine and not dinky. It has two turbochargers instead of 1. It has a sweet sounding inline 6 cylinder engine which you do not see nowadays. It is real wheel drive and has a limited slip differential. It is a BMW. It has a body kit. It has cool lights front and rear. It is not a hatchback. It looks cool. It has flared fenders. It has an aggressive exhaust note. It has quad exhaust tips. It is rigid and feels stable and glued to the ground as if it is riding on rails. It has good build quality. It has a satellite navigation system. It has a tachometer that you can watch rev to red line. You can rev up the engine to red line while the clutch is engaged while it is in neutral and while the clutch is disengaged while the car is rolling down the road. It has a form follows function German engineering/design element and language. The kidney grills look cool and are iconic.
The parts wear out faster than I expected. I mean my cheap Volkswagen cars that I had before the BMW never had an issue with the gear shift knob wearing out in terms of the plastic where you place your hands on the knob. Yeah, just bad plastic parts. I mean if they were good plastic parts then it would be okay. Or some other material that withstood the test of time. I wish it was easier to repair without losing functionality or the coolness factor. Like I wish the engineers designed it so that the average person could repair it or so that mechanics wouldn't have such a hard time repairing it. I wish the parts weren't so expensive. The parts are kind of flimsy. I mean you really have to be careful with this car. It takes a delicate touch. I wish the paint was tougher and didn't get scratched so easily. I wish it was lighter. I wish it got better gas mileage and was not so high maintenance without losing its appeal.
The 2011 BMW 1 Series has an average owner rating of 4.40 out of 5 which ranks it #10 of 18 other Luxury Small Cars.
From the Vehicle History blog