2010 BMW 1 Series 116d ES 2.0 diesel from UK and Ireland
Summary:
Overrated
Faults:
Clutch + flywheel (expensive).
Oil leak.
Cam sensor, ABS sensor.
Plus all the usual wear and tear. The car was looked after well, received all services.
General Comments:
A typical car from the year 2010, this 1 series tries to be cool and fails. Fairly boring little hatchback and below BMW standards in my opinion.
ES model is very basic, interior felt cheap and plasticky. Not many options.
OK to drive, handled all right and the controls were smooth. Was also comfortable enough to be in for long journeys.
Engine was nothing special - diesel engine I thought would feel powerful in a pretty small hatchback, but it could barely move, you had to use full throttle to get anywhere. Even driving carefully I barely averaged 48 mpg. Official stats are 60 mpg on average. Unrealistic I know, but most cars I have drove I always got near or achieved the average, but never in this car no matter how hard I tried.
Very dull to look at, boring 16 inch wheels and silver exterior, as 90% of cars from this time seem to be silver!
Couldn't wait to get rid of it to be honest. Don't get me wrong, it is not a really bad car, just expensive to fix and overrated. There are better options out there for the money.
Would you buy another car from this manufacturer? Don't Know
Review Date: 11th March, 2024
13th Mar 2024, 13:07
It doesn't sound THAT bad for a car that age (a clutch at 70k is FW&T).
16th Mar 2024, 16:03
I am on my original clutch and flywheel. I have owned my 2010 BMW 120D since new. I am now on 287k miles.
11th Mar 2024, 21:38
Clutches and flywheels on modern cars are not the usual $350 job anymore; definitely all diesels and most (if not all) petrol cars (like the Ford Mondeo) have dual-mass flywheels, none of which are cheap regardless of brand. What used to be a moderately-priced wear and tear item is now eye watering, that automatics are becoming more affordable to repair.
I just did some quick checks on the specs of your car and its other variants - I suppose it's how it was tuned (instead of BMW running a separate engine line to create a 1.6, cheaper to just retune the existing 2.0 down to perform like a 1.6), and it's still quite a revelation that for a 2.0 16-V car, its 0-60 is around the 10s mark, whereas the 120d with the same displacement, can do it in just over 7s.
I can see why you'd say it's overrated; at least in 116d guise. As with most cars, if you pick the variant with a mediocre engine/tune, it totally wipes out any possible brilliance that the rest of the car could've shown. Like another review for a SEAT a few weeks ago, I think the engine in the car was the 1.0 3-cylinder, which was underwhelming, but if they got the 1.4 version of the same car, they'd have been far more satisfied.