I recently hired a BMW 1 series while visiting Austria and surprisingly liked the car. As an avid reader of anything car I had perceived it to be rubbish and badly designed. However after spending a good half an hour trying to start it (and I would consider myself somewhat of a techie so god help those who aren’t!) I found it a great car to drive. It is pretty tight inside because of the rear wheel drive packaging but I could live with that because the technical advances were very impressive. Remember this is a standard 1.8 diesel but still manages to outperform a hybrid car such as a Toyota Prius in terms of performance but also real world mpg. The whole week cost me €30 in fuel and I wasn’t hanging around.
Features such as the engine turning off when stationary, clever aerodynamics and low resistance tires help, but most advances must be accredited to the diesel engine. Ultimately I didn’t have to drive like an eco warrior, which made me happy, and it gave me confidence that cars are still going to be fun. Next time I’ll be a little bit more open-minded when reading the reviews…
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