The new 3-door and 5-door BMW 1 Series
Source: BMW Group
• Sporting and agile: the BMW 1 Series now also with three doors.
• Attractive design modifications both front and rear.
• All-round re-design of the interior: high-quality materials, enhanced functions, fresh colours.
• New four-cylinder power units with direct gasoline injection, Brake Energy Regeneration, and an automatic Start/Stop function.
• New four-cylinder diesel engines with common-rail fuel injection, Brake Energy Regeneration, and an automatic Start/Stop function.
• Top engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder developing 195 kW/265 hp.
• Additional body variant with two comfortable, single seats at the rear (five-seater configuration as a no-cost option).
• Unique in the compact class: rear-wheel drive for Sheer Driving Pleasure.
Introducing the new generation of the BMW 1 Series scheduled to make its world debut at the Geneva Motor Show on 8 March 2007, BMW is once again enhancing the level of Sheer Driving Pleasure in the compact class.
This improvement is provided not only by the additional, particularly sporting three-door model, but also by the five-door version which, after sales of more than 200,000 units the world over, is being upgraded by the comprehensive refinement of all features and greater product substance in general.
Both the exterior and interior come with even more powerful and, at the same time, expressive design, particularly sophisticated materials and fresh colours serving furthermore to enhance the interior through genuine premium character and upgrade the modern flair of this compact BMW.
Over and above these substantial improvements, the new BMW 1 Series is entering the market with a wide range of newly developed power units: The line-up of gasoline engines extends from 85 kW/115 hp all the way to 195 kW/265 hp, while the two turbodiesels developing 105 kW/143 hp and, respectively, 130 kW/177 hp are perfect renditions of BMW’s Efficient Dynamics combining even more power and performance with a further reduction of fuel consumption.
As the only compact car with rear-wheel drive in the market, the BMW 1 Series therefore now offers a perfect symbiosis of supreme Sheer Driving Pleasure, on the one hand, and a level of economy quite exemplary in this segment, on the other.
New three-door model: dynamic design accentuating supreme performance.
Through its sporting proportions, the BMW 1 Series clearly stands out from the competition also in its looks. The long front end as well as the “greenhouse” of the car, that is the passenger cell moved far to the rear, are clear visual statements highlighting rear-wheel drive quite unique in this segment.
Now the new three-door model offers an even more distinctive look confirming this superior performance and temperament. For while the new body variant looks the same as the updated five-door model from the front and rear, the differences from the side are most significant and come out very clearly: The five-door model shows its superior variability at very first sight, whereas the three-door version immediately expresses its clear focus on enhanced performance. And at the same time the three-door version also stands out through its much longer doors adding a further touch of dynamism and, through the frameless windows, a symbol of elegant sportiness.
Moving to the rear, the side view of the three-door model is likewise a clear commitment to the car’s dynamic design language: Accentuated by the single-piece rear window not split into two sections as on the five-door model, the entire window area at the side is sleek and stretched-out, appearing to move the body’s centre of gravity further to the back and visibly extending the front end of the car.
This is effect is further enhanced by the design of the door cutouts directed at the same level as the shoulder-line towards the rear light clusters.
The dynamic flow of the joints around the door also moves back the position of the driver and front passenger in visual terms, the sporting and elegant sideline being emphasised even more clearly and perceived as one unit on models featuring Chrome Line as an option.
High-impact refinements front and rear.
Through the striking interplay of convex and concave surfaces, the BMW 1 Series clearly reveals its direct relationship to other particularly sporting models within the BMW range, such as the BMW Z4 Roadster.
But while the Roadster stands for the pure passion of driving in the open air, the BMW 1 Series combines sporting performance with variable flexibility.
The newly designed front end of the BMW 1 Series emphasises this relationship at an even higher level, taking up the active and agile design language of the side panels and giving the entire car an even more sophisticated, powerful and sporting look through discreet refinements.
The BMW kidney grille now even more dominant than before and highlighted by an even more distinctive chrome frame, the larger air intake in the lower section of the bumper, and the wider spoiler lip now extending much further to the front all act together to emphasise the sporting look of the car and its firm, stable roadholding.
These modifications are further enhanced and supported by newly designed clear glass headlights, rectangular foglamps, and a chrome trim bar running horizontally through the middle of the air intake.
A particularly striking point is the greater accentuation of the headlights focusing their light beams on the road ahead just like we human beings direct our eyes at a certain point. This expressive look of the dual round headlights is also a result of the darker covers surrounding the lights themselves and thus forming a greater contrast to the technically sophisticated light sources. The integration of the headlight units in the bumpers has also been enhanced to an even higher and more attractive standard, giving the entire front end of the car an even more interesting look.
The rear end of the BMW 1 Series combines its truly muscular look with a high standard of variability thanks to the car’s sports hatch in compact, refined design. Indeed, this design effect is even more convincing than before, with the rear end appearing even wider and more powerful, above all due to the more distinctive light contour in the rear air dam forming the visual counterpiece to the front spoiler also new in design.
Rear lights with the same outer contours as before.
While the rear lights come with the same contours outside, the arrangement of the various sections inside the light units themselves has been modified, the reversing lights and direction indicators now separated from one another.
A further point is that horizontal light bars have been integrated in the rear lights, featuring LEDs in combination with the optional bi- xenon headlights and thus offering a particularly homogeneous lighting effect.
On the “standard” version without this option, a similar effect is achieved by reflectors illuminated from behind. Indeed, benefiting from this design feature already to be admired on other BMW model series, the new BMW 1 Series now boasts an additional sign of distinction typical of the brand, becoming immediately recognisable as a BMW also in the dark.
