BMW USED CARS

In December's Top Gear magazine, I really liked the engine in the 135i Coupe. Almost made it sound like it was the engine to have in the range. Well, now that needs a teensy bit of alteration.

Because the one to have (and this is definitive because there won't be any more variants, or at least I hope there won't) is thae 2.0-litre twin-turbo diesel in the 123d.

It used to be that the German car manufacturers' rivalries were perfectly illustrated by a desire for horsepower. And oodles of it. But now things are shifting, ever so slightly. Bhp is hardly disappearing from the agenda, but both BMW and Audi are getting into Merc's traditional territory of filling every conceivable niche with a model.

Take the BMW 1-Series. Launched with a simple five-door layout in 2004, earlier this year, it got a facelift and a three-door version. This month we've driven the new coupe style you see here, an X1 SUV is due before 2012, along with a cabrio in Spring 2008, and still they're going at it. In fact, even as I was writing this article, news came through about the hardcore tii concept you can see over the page.

The European Commission has been busy recently, getting
up the noses of German car manufacturers. You see, the EC wants all new cars sold across Europe to average 130g/km of CO2 by 2012 and the Germans, with their uber-barges, are a little bit miffed about this.

But that's not to say that they're burying their heads in the sand. BMW has just launched its 1-Series 3dr
and has taken the opportunity to introduce some new tech to all its four-cylinder engines - both petrol and diesel.