Yes the time has come. This is the end of the world as we know it. Because I'm driving a diesel.
It's a brand new BMW 118d 3 door which we collected yesterday. And after having done 200km or so with the car here are the first impressions.
First of all it strikes me the quietness and smothness for a diesel I found those quite amazing. Especially when all of my previous diesel experience was with pumpe duse (or however they call it) VAG diesels. However don't be fooled by those people who say "you can't tell it's a diesel!" because you can but it's true that the progress which has been made in like 10 years is amazing.
Comfort is another aspect where this car scores highly especially if you compare it to the good ol' Mini (altough probably even bed of nails would be more comfortable than it). Ride is quite more compliant and the noise is much reduced especially at motorway speeds thanks to the long gear ratios. That means sixth is only effective above 100km/h, but that's ok.
Performance is adequate not outstanding but not bad either. It's delivered very diferently from the Mini, though. In the Mini putting your foot down was an event, even in sixth, accompained by the growl of the exhaust and the whine of the superchager. In this everything is much more sedate and constant. There's no drama, you gain speed without almost noticing it. And you can't really argue with the fuel consumption. We averaged 6,2l/100km over 200km of motorway at an average speed of about 140km/h.
But it's perfect the excitement, pasion and charisma the Mini had is somewhat lacking. Yes it's very effective and efficient but it lacks that extra something makes us love cars. Oh and the start-stop system, very clever indeed but a bit annoying once the novelty has passed and not exactly smooth when starting up again.
Two things to end, first the only pic I have is that awful thing taken with my phone in which you can see almost nothing, I promise better pictures as soon as I can. And finally I haven't commented on the handling because I didn't have the opportunity to drive on twisty roads. I'll tell you what I think about it once I've had the opportunity to drive it on country roads.
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