BMW 120i Cabriolet Test Drive

Our test car: BMW 120i Cabriolet
65 / 100
#

April 22nd, 2009

users' rating

53 / 100


5 votes total
rate this car: 1/100


I. History
BMW 120i Cabriolet  - History

I. History

6 / 10
share:      
text size: A- A+
As just about everybody knows, the Bavarians are excelling at a minimum of two things, rear wheel drive cars and beer. Having already established itself as premium manufacturer of sporty vehicles in the 1980s, BMW kept upping its ante to the point where it almost became unrecognizable. To be more exact, BMW cars became larger and heavier in the next two decades. Sure, they weren't the only ones whose cars kept gaining inches and pounds over the years, but until about five years ago, the Bavarians were no longer having a compact(ish) model to brag about.

Logically, the BMW E30's modern successor would be the BMW E90 3-Series. Except that it isn't. In the past two decades, the 3-Series became almost as big as a 20-year old something 5-Series, while the gap left under it remained empty. Then, 2004 came. Technically a true spiritual successor to the BMW E30, the 1-Series almost made as much sense in the Bavarian lineup as the Golf did in the Volkswagen one.

Compact in size, rear wheel drive and an almost perfect front/rear axle/weight ratio, what more could you want from an entry-level BMW? Well, some clients wanted more than a hatchback, so the 1-Coupe came three years later. And what would a coupe be without a topless sibling? Enter the 1-Series Cabriolet.

The Cabriolet version of the 1-Series Coupe, which in turn is based on the 1-Series Hatchback, which also shares some of its components with the over-inflated 3-Series... [pause for breathing]... was launched in 2007. It thus filled the 14-year old void left by the interruption of the last truly compact 3-Series E30 Cabriolet in 1993. All the BMW four-seat cabriolets which followed that one were more and more oversized therefore not qualifying as true successors.

We became acquainted with our first Cabriolet from BMW in the form of a petrol-engined 1-Series Convertible, in 120i guise. Equipped with a high-revving two-liter four-banger and a six-speed manual gearbox, we couldn't have asked for more in terms of true BMW sportiness and driving pleasure. Sure, a few more ponies and an extra couple of cylinders under the hood would have been nice, but the rest was pretty much the epitome of everything that meant BMW in the 1980s.

table of contents:

  your opinion about this car

send
comment
193,161 hits · Share · Send via email · Print

comments written so far

On 12 May 2009 at 04:25 UTC, berberio said:
je t'aime bmw mais je peux pas t'acheter tu es trop chere pour moi j'ai meme pas de quoi acheter une moto mais je t'aime qui sait peu etre dans 20ans je t'acheterai
On 19 September 2009 at 11:16 UTC, Entoxicum said:
Good car, but very very fragile...