BMW 116i Road Trip

The_young_once · June 30, 2008

Guys and girls, this is going to be a lengthy post so please bear with my typing, punctuation, english and all, pardon if my thoughts are presented a little disorganised, i try my best nonetheless, set? here goes nothing [;)]

Background

Im currently a student doing an overseas exchange programme in Germany, Stuttgart. The programme just ended, so i had a few days to kill in Munich (where I currently holed up at, where i got the car [sly] ) Also knowing that some stretches of the Autobahns here in Germany have no speed limits, man, i got to get in on that!

Car Pick-Up

Went down to Sixt Car Rentals at the Munich Hauptbahnhof (main train station) only with the intention of getting some wheels; only one requirement: sat nav, so i put myself down for the cheapest set of wheels i could get for 1 day, WITH sat nav, lady told me "something along the size of a VW Golf? Opel Corsa?" i thought ok, that would have to do i guess, after a check on the computer, lo and behold, "the cheapest we have readily available at the moment with sat nav is a bmw 1 series"

KICK ASS! "manual or auto?" "manual"

ok, that would have to do, since i was used to MT anyway

"petrol or diesel?" "petrol, benzin" (kanasai, i was wishing for a diesel, more economical given the prices here are roughly same, petrol or diesel also EUR 1.50, for the uninitiated, EUR 1 = SGD 2.12 thereabouts)

ok let's go!

First Impressions

The car was sweet, seeing a 1er for the first time in the flesh (metal?)

first things that i noticed, and took some time getting used to:

- keyless engine start/stop (press button)

- auto engine off!! ok, when you stop at a light or something, jam maybe? the engine shuts off, electronics and air-con stays on, the engine fires back to life again once you depress the clutch; of course there is a button to manually toggle off this feature

- usual fare, i-drive which takes care of entertainment, navigation, trip computer, the works.. (this took me awhile to figure out, first time in a bmw; but i must say the design (programming-wise) and interface is robust, though i agree with some rants about the system being too compounded, having to go through a few menus to get to what you want)

- build quality.. nuff said, bmw

- 6MT no sh!t sherlock!

moving out of the garage (essentially an mscp)

City Driving

- Besides the initial overwhelming caution of getting used to left-hand-drive, all was well;

- The clutch was very forgiving, compared to the suzuki carry van i use in sg,

- Gear shift was slick, precise, though needed a bit of effort, not as effortless as an FD civic MT i drove before

- Ratios are well spaced, not too tall, not too short, in the city you probably have to use only up to 4th;

- Torque seems to come it best (dont quote me, i didnt do any technical reading-up) between 2.5k to 4k rpm, needless to say i spent most of my time at that range, ignoring the "shift indicator" which tells you when to shift up/down [sly]

- Gunning off at the lights, not much to speak of, this being a 1.6 base model only, pick-up is so-so, but creamy smooth right up to the redline at approx 6.8k? (if i recall right) safety first, i only gunned it up to the legal limit, which meant shifting 1st (redline) - 2nd (redline) - past speed limit, slow down - 4th/5th to cruise

- oh, and NVH is 2 thumbs up, even this small baby bmw is worthy of that propellor badge!

Sat Nav

- Good, refreshed fast enough not to miss a turn, radio vol turns down whenever "sat nav lady" (to quote jeremy clarkson) wants to make an announcement

- similar to the hi-fi, volume is adjustable and speed dependent sensitivity can be toggles (enter the i-drive)

- MOST, not all, major buildings, streets, addresses are in the map

- dynamic navigation allows alternative route planning in the case of real-time updates of jams/congestion (i used this at one time, good good [thumbsup] )

- shows distance to go, distance remaining, and best, Estimated Time of Arrival (ETA), which was accurate, give-take 2 to 3 minutes, im impressed!

Highway Driving

Went on the A8 Autobahn to Stuttgart, about 200+ km from Munich,

I averaged 130-140km/h throughout, at stretches w/o limit, hit 200km/h, pliant and never straining, though slightly underpowered (mind you everyone was going at that speed, you could do 180km/h and an SLK whizzes, yes, whizzes past)

- Acceleration, as mentioned, nothing much to hoot about, 3rd-4th picks up briskly, good for the acceleration lanes leading onto the Autobahn

- Overtaking power is where the this 116i shows its shortcoming, as per above, the "power band" is about 2.5k rpm to 4k, so if you are in 6th, and wanting to overtake, and rpm is at 2.2k or so, better drop it to 5th and put your foot down--stepping more gas in 6th is not going to cut it

- 6th ratio is really very much SOLELY an overdrive ratio, for long distance cruising, approx 110km/h registers less than 2.5k rpm, good for fc perhaps? [cool]

- steering is very well weighted, feedback, and oh, adjustable for reach and rake (but of course that is expected in a car of this caliber)

fuss-free, I reached Stuttgart, after some misadventure (got lost--HA! sat nav is NOT foolproof ok!), found my way back to familiar grounds, the Universit