BMW 1 Series Review 2024

The BMW 1 Series is a cut above other family hatchbacks, residing in the same premium class as its Audi A3 and Mercedes-Benz A-Class rivals. If you’re looking for badge appeal without the costs of stepping up to one of BMW’s more prestigious saloons or SUVs, then the BMW 1 Series is there to serve that purpose. BMW sees it as a stepping stone into the brand, while buyers will see it as the most affordable way of putting a new BMW on their driveway.

And while a five-door, front-wheel-drive hatchback isn’t exactly BMW’s bread and butter, don’t think you’re getting a less well engineered car at this entry level. The BMW 1 Series isn’t quite as practical as some rivals, but if driving fun is a priority, then not many current hatchbacks do it better.

With just a pair of engines to choose from with the BMW 1 Series initially, the question of which is better comes down to your needs as a driver: and of course, your budget. The sporty BMW 1 Series M135 xDrive is £10,000 more expensive than the BMW 1 Series 120 in M Sport form, which may immediately rule it out for some, and naturally it uses a little more fuel, too.

Perhaps the real deciding factor is that there are better hot hatchbacks on the market than the M135, but as far as premium family cars go, the BMW 1 Series 120 is much further towards the top of its class. This makes the 120 the pick of the range for us, being swift and frugal and not notably more expensive than the equivalent Volkswagen Golf. Splash out on M Sport trim, and you get most of the M135’s look and feel, too.

Take your pick from the current crop of five-door family hatchbacks, although in ethos, the BMW 1 Series is closest to the Audi A3 and Mercedes-Benz A-Class, the premium hatches from BMW’s closest rivals. You could throw the Volkswagen Golf into the mix, too, while casting a wider net includes cars such as the Cupra Leon, Peugeot 308, Vauxhall Astra, and the Mazda 3 and Honda Civic. The latter pair may be be lacking a premium badge, but they certainly feel like a premium car for interior quality and the way they drive.

The BMW 1 Series’ latest iteration though has moved it on a few notches from its predecessor, and in 120 form at least, is among the better cars in this class to drive: surely priority number one for BMW. It’s a little cramped in the rear seats next to some of the larger models in the class, but the interior look and feel is among the best, too.

Like other recent BMWs, the 1 Series feels great inside. Almost everything that looks like leather is actually man-made (M Sport steering wheel trim aside), but you’d not know it from the soft, quality feel. The aforementioned aluminium-look trim feels like the real thing, there’s a pleasing lack of fingerprint-attracting piano-black plastic. Even the regular old textured black plastics have a soft-touch feel, but don’t yield or creak when you pry further.

The quality feel continues on the road, where we didn’t detect any rattles or groans, and everything you interact with – steering wheel, gear selector, pedals, gearshift paddles, minor switches – has a well-oiled action. Simply, the 1 Series feels like one of the best-built cars in its class.

The 1 Series’ curved screen isn’t quite as expansive as it is in some larger BMWs, but it gets BMW’s Operating System 9 software, and has all the features you’d expect. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard, you can use your phone as a digital key, there are numerous downloadable apps and connected features, and it’s capable of over-the-air software updates.

For clarity and response, the screen is pretty good, and while with any touchscreen, you do need to take your eyes off the road for most functions (and there’s no longer a physical iDrive wheel controller as an alternative), the BMW 1 Series’ relatively cosy cabin means everything on the screen is within easy finger reach. You do get a handful of physical controls, too, with audio and track-skip functions on both the steering wheel, and on the centre console.

It’s a shame most of the heating and ventilation functions are now touchscreen-only, and the latest shortcut key for turning off certain driving assistance functions is no longer as intuitive or quick as the single button in the old car: it’s now a combination of a button press on the centre console, then individually selecting features on the touchscreen to turn off. Changing driving modes is clunky, too, with another console button press, then a touchscreen press: and you then have to prod the touchscreen again to make the drive mode menu go away.

Space is one of the latest BMW 1 Series’ weaker areas. Not for front-seat passengers, who get the wide range of seat adjustment (and for the driver, steering wheel adjustment) we’ve come to expect from a BMW. But considering the 1 Series went front-wheel drive a generation ago partly to benefit cabin space, it’s a little surprising that the rear quarters still feel so cosy.

A six-foot passenger will just about be able to sit behind a driver of the same size, but there won't be any room to spare, and if either party is any taller than that, then you'll really start to struggle for both headroom and legroom. A shortage of natural light means it’s a little gloomy back there, too. The door pockets are slightly obstructed by the armrests both in the front and rear, but up front, there are a couple of cupholders and some sensible phone-shaped cubbies for both driver and passenger.

BMW gives a headline figure of 380 litres for boot space, which on the face of it, looks competitive: it's 10 litres more volume than you get in a Mercedes A-Class, it's identical to an Audi A3, and just one litre shy of a Volkswagen Golf. However, that figure includes the space you get underneath the liftable boot floor, and that space differs according to the version of the 2 Series you pick. On the M135, there's a huge underfloor space that gives you the full 380-litre capacity. However, in cars fitted with mild hybrid tech - which includes both the 120 petrol and the forthcoming 123 petrol - half that space is taken up by batteries. That brings the total volume down to 300 litres, which all of a sudden, doesn't look nearly so competitive. What's more, some rivals from non-premium marques give more space still, cars like the Civic (410 litres) or Octavia (a full 600 litres). 

Still, the versatile 40:20:40 rear seats flip down for up to 1,200 litres of loadspace (1,135 litres in the mild hybrids) when you need to carry more, though the backrests lie at an angle, leaving a slope in your extended load area.

Initially, buyers get a choice of either a 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder petrol, badged 120, or a 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol hot hatch with all-wheel drive, in the form of the M135 xDrive. Note BMW’s naming convention these days too: no more ‘i’ on the end of the variant number.

Both get a seven-speed dual-clutch automatic gearbox as standard, and of course in non-xDrive form, the BMW 1 Series remains resolutely front-wheel drive: the platform underneath is essentially similar to that of the larger modern MINIs. The 120 makes a punchy 170PS while the M135 develops a nice round 300PS, and the pair have 0-62mph times of 7.8 seconds and 4.9 seconds, respectively.

You’d expect the M135 to be fun, and it is, with that augmented four-cylinder growl we’ve become accustomed to in modern hot hatches, swift changes from the dual-clutch ‘box, and keen throttle response, plus plenty of traction.

As with the ride and handling though, the surprise is the 120, which has a characterful three-cylinder sound and plenty of urge from the bottom of the rev range, and in Dynamic mode, there’s snappy throttle response and a touch more volume, too. It works really well with the automatic gearbox, too, with the shifts staying smooth and unobtrusive at all times.

Give it a wee while, and the range will extend to include the 123 xDrive, which will have a 2.0-litre engine giving 218PS, with 0-62mph coming and going in 6.2 seconds. We'll report back on that one once we've tried it.

As well as being a bit of a hoot, the three-cylinder BMW 1 Series 120 is impressively refined. too. You can hear the offbeat note, but you really can’t feel it: there’s no sense of those three pistons thumping up and down at idle like you get in a lot of cars with a similar configuration. On a cruise, even a faster Autobahn run, it still remains impressively quiet, but select Dynamic mode, and you get to enjoy the burbly engine note whenever you like.

The M135’s four-cylinder and obviously sportier focus mean the engine is more ever-present, but it too disappears mostly into the background when you’re just ambling around. As well as benefiting the car’s ride quality, the stiff structure also helps with refinement, as road noise is fairly well isolated. Wind noise is minimal too.

Safety body Euro NCAP hasn’t yet sent the new BMW 1 Series to its doom in crash testing, but with the outgoing model achieving a full five-star rating in 2019, we’d expect more of the same when the latest car meets a deformable barrier. The tweaks BMW has made to the body structure should contribute to its performance in crashes, and the brand has kept pace with developments in crash mitigation and driver assistance functions, so the latest car comes as standard with Driving Assistant with front collision warning, Lane Departure Warning, Exit Warning and Traffic Sign Recognition, among other features. It's a bit rubbish, though, that adaptive cruise control isn't provided as standard, and you have to pay extra for it.

The process for disabling some of the assistance features is a little more long-winded than the old model’s single button press and hold. Now you need to press the relevant button on the console near the gear selector to bring up a touchscreen menu, and then disable each function (such as lane departure warning and the speed limit bing-bong sounds) individually.

The most recent HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index put BMW at 12th place out of 29 brands, conveniently beating both Audi and Mercedes-Benz, though lagging behind Porsche, and further still behind Lexus and Tesla at the top of the table. As far as individual cars are concerned, the previous-generation 3 Series came in at 18th, though the 2 Series Active Tourer to which the 1 Series is more closely related found itself in the bottom 20, which is less encouraging. We’ll have to wait and see how the new 1 Series fares reliability-wise, though BMW’s current engines at least have a pretty good reputation.

BMW hasn’t yet announced insurance group bands for the new 1 Series, but the previous-generation car could be found in groups 16 to 28 (the latter being for the previous M135i) so we’d expect the new car to be similar.

CO2 figures of as little as 121g/km for the 120 and 173g/km for the M135 xDrive translate to first-year VED costs of £220 and £1,095, respectively. From the second year onwards, the 120 will then cost £190 per year (pending further VED changes), while the M135, which has a starting price of more than £40,000, gets a higher annual figure for the next five years of £600.

In terms of Benefit-in-Kind or BIK tax for company users, for the 2024/2025 tax year the 120 is in the 29% bracket, and the M135 in the top 37% bracket. This is where the 1 Series’ limited engine range hurts it a little, as several rivals offer plug-in hybrid variants with significantly lower BIK rates.

All BMW 1 Series are well equipped, starting with the 120 Sport, which comes with 17-inch alloy wheels, LED headlights, shadowline exterior trim, ambient lighting, fabric upholstery, heated front seats, a sports steering wheel, air conditioning, ambient lighting, a rear-view camera, a 10.7-inch infotainment display and 10.25-inch instrument display, and standard Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.

Stepping up to the BMW 1 Series 120 M Sport upgrades to 18-inch alloys, M Sport exterior styling, Alcantara and Veganza upholstery, sports front seats, illuminated interior trim elements, an M Sport leather steering wheel, M adaptive suspension, and all the equipment already found on the Sport. The M135 gets a horizontal slatted grille, a quad exhaust system, rear spoiler, and M Sport brakes with blue calipers on top of the 120 M Sport’s kit list.

BMW then offers Technology, Technology Plus, and M Sport Pro packs on top of all that (the latter most notably adding M compound brakes, with pads from the M3), and individual options like dual-zone air conditioning, a heated steering wheel, M Sport seats, and Harman Kardon audio.