I have a normal 1 series, just with a slightly pimped 2 litre turbo diesel engine. Only has about 190hp but the 400 newts gives it great mid range acceleration. It is a manual, but what I like about it is that I can rev it out and give it a flogging very often, whereas when I test drove the turbo 6, I had to drive it in a restrained way as it was so powerful. Great for autobahns and on the track, but having to drive it well within it’s limits cause of Australian crappy roads and speed limits, limited it’s appeal.
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Yeah the 1s are now getting a bit old in the tooth. Nice if you have a nice clean example and looked after it.
Harder to get a good one secondhand.
BMW need to come to the party and bring another genuinely small rwd car and not a dressed up MINI(eg the 128ti hatch)
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I got my mid 2022. A 2018 model with only 24k on the clock for $32k. Still got less than 30k on it now, so plenty of kms left in it.
You are right, even if they just did a single version of the current 1 series with RWD ,not AWD or FWD, with just the 2 litre turbo petrol engine, it would be a winner. A manual would even be better. It would have a point of difference with Audi or Mercs as it’s RWD.
The 2 series 230 looks ok. But still the little baby 1 was a better model imho.
Dont mind if they don’t offer manual transmissions (auto or cvt is pretty good).
Just want a lighter more compact car.
It comes with a 240v plug that goes into your normal power point, if you were set up, and don’t travel much each day, this would be ok.
I think I’ll get a proper one installed to charge about once per week. But I don’t think there’s much difference between the prices and no ‘must have’ brand. So I’ll just go with a mob that can supply and install.
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You know what would make EVs better?
128dB external speaker for engine noise
Drag mode
Drift mode
Doughnut mode
Slam mode (not sure what this one does)
The marketing is something like ‘“the EV ‘they’ don’t want you to have”
I was picking my son up from school the other day and this bloke was parking his Tesla. It was all lowered with body kit and rims etc.
It had this artificial burble soundtrack that sounded roughly like a Focus RS. Was very, very odd/■■■■.
I thought it might be a safety feature given proximity to the school, then I realised I was walking and about 2kms from the school.
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Weird ona Tesla. But an AMG hatch will have fake exhaust sound enabled. My VW Golf R does.
But you’d absolutely expect it on a Dodge Banshee.
It’ll be interesting when these fast cars become standard, and every hook has them. 0-100 in 2 seconds off the shelf is mental, sun 5 seconds is pretty vanilla these days.
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I bought my CX-5 late 2018. Saturday night, i had my first technical mishap with it.
200m from home, showing 32km left in the tank and space between the E(mpty) and the pointer, the car just ran out of petrol.
It’s said to have a 58-litre fuel tank, and since i’ve never put more than 48 litres in, I assumed there was a reserve, so that you never risked running out. Start the warning at 60 odd km left and you’d still have range at zero.
Seems you don’t so out came the RACV roadside assist this morning, in steady rain, and put 10 litres in.
I’d never even had the bonnet up before today.
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Not sure I’d call that a technical mishap. More operator error, I would say.
But I agree, the indicator showing the range you have left should understate the range, not overstate it.
In my 2019 RAV4 Hybrid I get a warning with 50km left. I’ve had it come up a few times because the fuel gauge is quite difficult to see from the normal driving position, and I go so long between fills that I forget to look until suddenly there’s a blip and the warning light comes on. I’ve always assumed that when it says 50km left, it really means at least 50.
Pretty unusual thing to happen though.
Whenever I got a new car, I would load up a jerry can and purposely run it out of fuel to see what the gauge was doing. Always it got to zero and then I had at least 50 km left, so reckon you were unlucky.
Not game to do it with my Tesla though.
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When the technical side says you’re 30-odd km from running out?
I’m still mystified as to why you can only fit 48 litres in a 58-litre tank if it’s not a reserve.
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I just get the fuel red light come on, and know theres roughly 20kms to go.
always wondered how the cars with xx kms left went.
the cx5 fuel tank is 56 to 58L
cx3 is only 46 to 48L
maybe they gave you a cx3 tank 
EVs are heavy too.
I love instant torque and insane 0-100km tiems.
I dislike the lack of fun chuckable examples. Maybe that will change soon.
Eg a hatch or a coupe should have a high power to weight ratio and i liek em driven by low weight.
The top selling vehicles in Australia (Hilux and Ranger) weigh more than your typical electric vehicle.
The general concern about larger vehicles raised in the article is valid here, maybe more so than in the UK. Australian Standards for 85th and 99th percentile size vehicles are still based on the 2000 fleet. The two vehicles above are much longer than the 99th percentile vehicle 
This flows onto other Standards/Planning Schemes/etc: e.g. vehicles are generally much taller now so the requirements for a certain proportion of car stacker spaces to be over certain heights are very poor matches to today’s fleets.
These drivers typically park over 2 spaces, so we are probably still all good.
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2 spots side by side, plus some overhang at front and back.
But what I hate most is all the plastic all over them. Look cheap. Probably not.