Hire Car Review - BMW 118i SE MSport or something

[Maurice]

Our 420d MSport feels very vague compared to the Golf and the steering is woefully undergeared. I wouldn't bother trying to drive it at 10/10ths. Still, the wife likes it.

I find the Golf quite vague to be honest. You’ve gone and ruined the 420d MSport for me now.

[JLv3.0]

Tell you something else it's shit at - getting up a very slight incline in the snow even with winter tyres on. Had to dig two bloody tracks for it to follow.

Can I go home now please?

[McSwede]

confidence on turn in

ahh. The key concern of the 320d driver

Fair!

In all seriousness, coming from the M3, where the whole car feels planted and firm as you turn in, there’s a “roll and correct” type feel in the M Sport suspension. Once in the corner it feels absolutely fine, but i was wondering whether the bigger engined ones have the same suspension set up as our lowly 320d?.

Adaptive dampers are a must.

[McSwede]

Are you sure it was holding the revs properly? The consequence of 3 pots is usually the need for a heavier flywheel to make them run smoother at low revs and idle. A knock on of this is that they rev up and fall slower, including when changing gear...

All the petrol manual 1 series do this, even the M140i has rev match

So the auto is better, yeah?

Yes.

8th is geared for 288mph FTW

[Swervin_Mervin]

ahh. The key concern of the 320d driver

Fair!

In all seriousness, coming from the M3, where the whole car feels planted and firm as you turn in, there’s a “roll and correct” type feel in the M Sport suspension. Once in the corner it feels absolutely fine, but i was wondering whether the bigger engined ones have the same suspension set up as our lowly 320d?.

Adaptive dampers are a must.

I don'r rate them either. In fact, I've generally preferred the passive setup of all the ones I've driven vs the adaptive setup on ours. I'm sure I read that BMW are dropping adaptive for the next 3-series because it isn't often specced anyway, and so presumably with all the changes to testing more of an 4rse to accommodate as an option

[McSwede]

Fair!

In all seriousness, coming from the M3, where the whole car feels planted and firm as you turn in, there’s a “roll and correct” type feel in the M Sport suspension. Once in the corner it feels absolutely fine, but i was wondering whether the bigger engined ones have the same suspension set up as our lowly 320d?.

Adaptive dampers are a must.

I don'r rate them either. In fact, I've generally preferred the passive setup of all the ones I've driven vs the adaptive setup on ours. I'm sure I read that BMW are dropping adaptive for the next 3-series because it isn't often specced anyway, and so presumably with all the changes to testing more of an 4rse to accommodate as an option

I found passives on the M140i too firm but the adaptive are great for normal driving with the option of stiffening up for spirited driving. At £540 a bargain too

[Swervin_Mervin]

I don't know what the differences are between M-lite and MSport models when it comes to the adaptive setup, but I find ours too soft and vague in Comfort, biggest issue being that the steering is too inert and loose. I always put it in Sport mode, which is probably almost a little too firm in the chassis for normal driving but the steering's much better. Give me a well turned passive setup anyday

[GG.]

M-sport on my e90 330i was far, far too stiff, even with the run flats swapped out. I vividly remember following a Maser GT for a run along the motorway and I had to back off because it was bouncing all around the place over an uneven section. It had done 90k so perhaps needed new dampers to control the high spring rates.

The adaptive damping on the 997 stays in soft pretty much always unless I want the 'experience' of it bumping me around - even then I can't use it on a bumpy british B road as it upsets the car over crest, dips and bumps far too much. I'd be very interested to see what YK's GT3 is like by comparison. You can buy an additional module for a more sophisticated PASM set up through the aftermarket but at around a grand its not great value.

[Swervin_Mervin]

M-sport on my e90 330i was far, far too stiff, even with the run flats swapped out. I vividly remember following a Maser GT for a run along the motorway and I had to back off because it was bouncing all around the place over an uneven section. It had done 90k so perhaps needed new dampers to control the high spring rates.

Mine's not too stiff But then I had a 197 Cup chassis before so I was used to it, and new chassis 12mo ago.

[GG.]

What mileage out of interest and by "new chassis" do you mean dampers & other suspension parts replaced?

I thought it was agonising around town over speed bumps and approaching dangerous when unsettled at higher speeds, but as mentioned, that was chasing after a Granturismo so I wasn't hanging about. It was harder than the 997 in sport mode so objectively pretty hard!

[Swervin_Mervin]

Was probably on just over 100k when I had it all refreshed last year. New arms, balljoints, shocks, top and bottom mounts, track rods and "helper" dampers. Only things left to do, if I can be bothered, is subframe and ARB bushes. Yours sounds like it was fvcked as mine wasn't especially bad before I had the work done.

The 197 was a bone shaker - mate of mine that had an R26 was gobsmacked at how much harsher the ride was.

[GG.]

Possibly

That would definitely hold true for high speed stability but I would have thought not for low speed over speed bumps - I think that is primarily just a function of spring rate/stiffness is it not?

Did that also render the 197 essentially too stiff for British B roads? I would have thought not from the road tests but then maybe the ride was acceptable in a FWD hatch where it is upsettling for a RWD saloon and even more so in my 1960s layout beetle

Maybe I need a set of these https://www.ohlins.com/product/road-tra ... -2015-997/