Some vehicles are built to get you from A to B in one piece.  Others are built to carry loads and to make sure that a tradie has all the tools he/she needs for the job.  As well as these practical cars, there are others that have been designed with the pure pleasure of driving in mind. The 2017 BMW M140i is one of the latter class, being the nippiest, sportiest hatchback in BMW’s collection of five-door hatchbacks in the 1-series lineup.

This is one vehicle where you’d be more than happy to hear the equivalent of Henry Ford saying that you can have any colour you like as long as it’s black.  This is because the BMW M140i has been styled to include a lot of dark, sleek accents, such as the jet black 18-inch alloy wheels, the dark chrome (yes, this is a thing) trim on all sorts of places, including the twin exhausts and the badging. When the body is painted metallic black, the sexy styling leaves you feeling like you’re driving your very own baby Batmobile rather than a baby Beemer.  The BMW M140i does come in other colours, though: non-metallic white, metallic red, a snazzy modern sunset orange and dark grey.

The BMW M140i may not actually have the specs of a Batmobile, but it’s certainly a sporty little beast and has plenty underneath the bonnet that lives up to the promise of those wide air intakes and the M badging.  The vibrant heart of the 2017 BMW M140i is a 3.0-L M Performance TwinPower inline-6 turbo petrol unit that uses the very best that BMW’s design team can provide in order to put out all the fun that you’d expect from BMW’s M series.  To be a bit more specific, this unit is capable of putting out 250 kW of power and 500 Nm of torque: plenty for anyone to play with!  Admittedly, this engine is on the thirsty side for a smaller car, with a combined fuel economy under test conditions of 7.1 L/100 km, but that’s only to be expected from a sports hatch that can do the 0–100 km/h dash in 4.6 seconds.

Now, you can’t just rely on a great engine to make a great sports car, although every great sports car needs a great engine. A great sports car also needs the handling and the suspension to go with the raw power.  The 2017 BMW M140i certainly does have all of this in spades and BMW have certainly done a fine job of the Adaptive M suspension and the 8-speed sport automatic transmission, to say nothing of the variable sport steering.  The 2017 BMW M140i is agile and just loves to get you into and out of tight corners.  Just as well we’ve got the reassurance of the little glimpse of blue brakes behind those stylish black alloy wheels – you need to be able to check this sort of speed and power promptly when needed.  Not to worry, though: the full stability system and driving assistance package is there to help you.  To be a bit more specific, the stability system consists of dynamic stability control, ABS brakes with brake assist and cornering brake control, and dynamic traction control. In the driver assistance department, the approach control warning, the lane departure warning, the pedestrian warning and the light city braking function are all there to help you. However, the 2017 BMW M140i is going to appeal to those who love to drive and are good at it, so these aids are likely to be there only as a very handy form of backup.  You also get all the usual driver aids one would expect in a good modern hatchback, such as the rear view camera, the front and rear park distance control, the cruise control, the hard-drive navigation system and dual-zone automatic climate control.  The driver aid I find the most useful is the Speed Limit info system – no more problems with not seeing a speed limit sign you weren’t expecting in an unfamiliar town.

When it’s new, the 2017 BMW M140i comes with a 1-year subscription to BMW’s Connected + system.  This means that when you sit in the driver’s seat, you’re driving around in part of the Internet of Things.  The hatchback talks to your smartphone and your computer(s) and can communicate with others.  It’s got the very best in machine learning, which means that it picks up on how you drive so that it can send all your colleagues (or friends) information on your estimated arrival time when you set out – and recalculate this if you get stuck in gridlocked traffic. If an airbag goes off, then an emergency callout is triggered immediately from the vehicle itself, not your phone.  There’s a lot to be played with and tried out (not the safety stuff, obviously) and the BMW Connected+ app is available for Apple and for Android.

The 2017 BMW M140i seats five, with the rear seats having 60-40 split folding if needed, or they can fold flat if you want to carry a longer load or if you want to sleep in it.  If you’re trying to sleep in this hatchback, the Harman/kardon audio system with 12-speaker surround sound will give you plenty to listen to as you nod off. However, the driver’s seat is probably a lot more comfortable than trying to sleep in the cargo hatch, especially as the electric seat adjustment (with memory function) will allow you to find a comfy position better.

The 2017 BMW M140i might not be the best choice if you’ve got a large and bustling family. However, if you don’t get just a little bit excited by this hot hatch, you’re probably either too old or too young to drive.

Current model series include:

• 2017 BMW M140i

For any more information on the 2017 BMW M140i, or for that matter any other new car, contact one of our friendly consultants on 1300 303 181. If you’d like some fleet discount pricing (yes even for private buyers!), we can submit vehicle quotes requests out to our national network of BMW dealers and come back with pricing within 24 hours. Private Fleet – car buying made easy!