I can 100% see where people are coming from on that thread.
Now I'll admit I've never even seen (or noticed) an M135i in the flesh and the pics do nothing for me. The look is irrelevant to me though as it's a case of function over form to me where cars are concerned. I've been in a few pig ugly cars that are an absolute hoot to drive.
If the car has a 5 second 0-60 time then that's very quick. However if the 'Green scene' Nazis have insisted BMW dull the engine and exhaust noise to meet regulations, then make sure that the power delivery is flat as a fart to meet emissions regulations and to cap it all the power doesn't let the car thrust you back in your seat just in case you crash it into a tree in surprise and then sue BMW.
Now that just sums up most modern cars.
The people in white shirts and boring ties in Brussels or wherever decree that the car must conform to certain regulations that they're ever tightening. The engineers look at those bits of paper thrust in front of them and say "F**K YOU" to the white shirts then just go off and design something that meets those regulations but is twice as powerful as the one before as a gesture of defiance. The marketing guys love this as they have big figures to dangle in front of the press and customers. Then the accountants and legal team arrive on scene and make sure nobody will be in the slightest bit upset by anything the engineers have worked hard to come up with and insist it's all dulled down.
Take my mk6 GTI. Well ok, take my previous one. It arrived and was as dull as ditchwater to drive. The throttle response was worse than my 16 year old Ibiza with half the power. The torque was flat and although it went fast enough it was dull as hell to drive.
So I wandered over to the REVO stand at a show and asked them to wake the car up a bit. And they did. And some.
I drove it home and decided that the throttle response was still lacking.
So I phoned REVO and asked if they could map the throttle via the ECU and they said they'd looked at that and had done all they could.
Next up was a Sprint Booster. The car now moved off the line like a scalded cat.
The car was now nigh perfect as a road car.
Fast, EXCITING, sharp and still did 30+ mpg. That was how it should have been from the factory. No doubt that was how the engineers would have liked it to have been from the factory.
I'll be 100% honest and say that the Caddy TDI hire vans I get in work are more rewarding to drive than my GTI at times.
So GTD owners take note, I've driven an awful lot of fast and modified VW group stuff and an awful lot of non VW group stuff too in my 27 years of driving. One of my very best mates is a manager in a big rental and lease company so he gets to drive everything going, exotica, the lot. And he will take me out in something interesting when he can.
His favourite
affordable car out of everything on the market? Previously it was the Leon FR TDI and latterly the Golf GTD DSG. And I 100% agree with him.
Those are the cars he's chosen as his own company cars and will happily shun all sorts of far more expensive machinery.
Andy why? The CR Diesel engine is as smooth as a petrol from the driving seat, does 50mpg and has masses of torque and despite the limited rev range of the Diesel engine the DSG will keep in 'in the zone' and in the power band.
As a road car it's as fast as almost anything point to point and to boot it actually feels exciting to drive (as modern cars go, my 16 year old SEAT Ibiza GTI is still more fun than my 2 year old GTI, however it's nowhere near as refined) and costs peanuts to run.
As engines go the CR 2.0 is a peach. It sounds less like a Diesel than the 2.0 TFSI GTI engine in the mk5 and although the paper 0-60 won't set your world alight the reality of the way it picks up speed is very different.
So why do I have a GTI on order and not the GTD? Most days I wonder that myself!! It's just the cachet of the GTI really and the fact the PP intrigues me added to the fact the GTI now has 258lb ft of torque from the factory. That hints at what the car 'could' become with a bit of help!!!
Anyway, back on topic, I can see why these people think the 135 dull. It has been decreed that it has to be made that way. I'm sure with a remap it would be an absolute animal and give you a trouser moment at every opportunity.
Can't comment on the steering though. Maybe that could be fine tuned with the BMW equivalent to VCDS?
Rant over.
