I'm going to craft this as an M135i review, but always referencing to the GTI, otherwise this post is on the wrong forum!
TL,DR:- The M135i is a monster of a car. Quality, super fast, doesn't even look all that bad in person.
- I started off nervous of all that rear wheel power. 30seconds in I'm
. 5 minutes in I'm 
. 30minutes in I'm 
. Wow! - But... is it worth switching from a GTI? Maybe.... maybe.
- Its a lot of cash. M135i and GTI both.
IntroductionYesterday I visited the local BMW dealer and asked what they could do to convince me to change from VW to them. I gave them the core spec of my GTI order (skipping some stuff) and the equivalent M135i comes to near enough £37k. I said I wanted to pay £30k. The dealer thought £32k might be possible. I said I'd have to drive it first whatever, so today he handed me the keys and asked how long I wanted it. 2 hours seemed reasonable. Ok its review time!
EDIT:
To be clear the car I drove is not the one I would buy. The one they can do a deal on has this spec:
5 door
8 speed auto
Black metalic
Pro Nav pack
Sun protection pack
Heated seats
Loudspeaker pack
Rear park sensors
M135i Spec (that I was driving)White
3 door
No adaptive suspension
Manual
Fancy Sat Nav and associated Jazz
Special exhausts
Special steering wheel (which had buttons that seemed to do bugger all)
Cruise control
What did I do for 2 hours?I drove home (30 seconds down the road) and immediately hit snag #1, how the hell do you put it in reverse? Wasted a few minutes trying then looked it up on my phone (forgetting the owner manual is built into the sat nav unit). You have to really force it into reverse!
I then drove on A roads to Bedford, A421 dual carriage, said hi to my folks (they think 3 litre is unnecessary overkill), drove though the town and took some windy roads back. 60mile round trip. I had to stick £10 of unleaded in.
Whats good? (i.e. better than the GTI)- The engine sounds epic. Seriously epic. Its 6 cylinder so, sorry GTI, can't compete here.
- 0-60 is under 5 seconds. I dunno if I did that but boy is it fast. Even in 5th or 6th if you put your foot down it just goes. I overtook a few cars and in seconds they hundreds of meters behind.
- The ride was smooth. No adaptive suspension but still felt good. Eco, comfort and Sport felt very different (unlike the GTI to be honest). If you go BMW then forget the adaptive suspension, you won't need it.
- It really doesn't look as bad as you'd think, and when you sit in it you can't tell anyway
- The infotainment system is awesome. Again the GTI is not competing here
- Quite a lot of space in the back, surprised me.
- The dash is very nice and it customises itself depending on what you are doing. In cruise it shows things about that. In eco mode it assesses how you drive, tells you how much fuel you are saving, shows regenerative breaking when it comes on. Stop start activates and the rev counter tells you its "ready". Modern looking dials, although the speedo is on the wrong side! I kept glancing at the rev counter, lol.
- The nav unit is clever. It can give you extra dials and charts. For example in sport it allows you to display power and torque dials (480Nm anyone?) and in ECO it charts your efficiency and average fuel consumption. I liked it.
- The iDrive (infotainment controls) are fantastic.
- The seats are very nice, very comfy, lovely leather. I wanted leather so this is a big deal to me but probably not so much to a lot of GTI lovers who like their classic tartan
- The price. Dealer I visited doesn't want to go below £32k, but I have a feeling he's gonna say "its hurting me but... £31k" £31k for an auto, metallic, pro nav, 320PS, 480Nm, leather M135i. It just makes other cars look bad.
Whats not so good? (i.e worse than the GTI)The price (yeah its a pro and a con!). Add even a couple of little options and it goes up and up ... and up! And £31k? Really? That's a lot of cash. Is it really worth spending this amount? Sure for the first month or two you'll love it, but then its just a car, and a bloody expensive one to fill up with petrol. After 30minutes I honestly was laughing at the fun I was having, but would I still be doing this after 3 months of ownership? Well... actually there is a good chance I would be.
There are a couple of big problems really:
- 3 litres drinks petrol. I got 30mpg which in fairness is pretty darn good because when not in a traffic jam I was really chucking it around. Its going to mean a lot of trips to the pump though. Effectively the GTI is giving you 33% less fuel costs and the GTD is 50% less. That might be a deal breaker for some people.
- It felt a little cramped in the 'cockpit' the driver sits in. I don't think my feet are especially large but if felt a bit like I was wearing clown shoes. No where to put your legs when in cruise and if using the peddles the next door ones catch on your shoes. The pedals are also very stiff! When I got back in my Ford it was like a breeze driving it was so light. I think I'd get tired on a long journey (so no manual, has to be auto, has to be). Might get used to it I suppose. However, the seats do have more adjustment options than the GTI, even without the electric upgrades.
- I never quite got on with the manual. I'll take the 8 speed auto no question. It was too firm and getting it into second was often difficult. I can't see myself managing fast shifts, but maybe I needed more time to get used to it. The GTI manual was a lot better I think.
And some minor stuff
- Dash had a driver assistance (ADC/lane assist thingy) that was off and I couldn't get it on. Perhaps it wasn't spec'd, but why would the display be there but greyed out?
- I sort of expected instant power, it was more of a surge. Its a real big surge but my memory of the GTI was that it was lurching forward sooner. Been a while since the VW test drive though.
Maybe good, maybe bad- I had only one person stare at it (she was a seriously hot young lady though if that makes a difference).
- Obviously the looks. Some of us hate it. I'm coming around to liking it, but this isn't its strong point.
Conclusions:Can't say it was enough to make me cancel the GTI. The main problem is the price. The GTI is a known entity (provided it doesn't feel slow now I've experienced the rocket car) so its the safe bet. The M135i does some things incredibly well, raw power and build quality stand out. This is a modern drivers car that out paces virtually everything out there and I enjoyed that feeling. 6 cylinders, rear wheel set up, proper modern computer system (I don't think the GTI is even in the same league on that front). But is that enough? At £30k I'd consider it. Less than £30k and hell yes I'm going BMW all day long, but they won't go that low so... tough one. You can get a lot of motor for £30k, do I really want to be sinking the bulk of that cash into 320 horses? Makes the cheaper 1 series cars look more tempting when I think like that.
Lastly:I will add a little paragraph on GTI vs M135i about any part of the spec anyone would like to hear more about. I could just write about everything but this will get far too long if I do, so ask if you want more info.
Bill ponders his options
And how am I supposed to reach the pedals? Seriously guys, not cool!
The nice black one in the showroom (where they have about 50 cars, mostly M or other fancy kit!):
The one I drove in her owner's drive about 2 months ago:
