Vehicle Overview

The rear-wheel-drive BMW 1 Series enters its fifth year on the market with a few visual changes, as well as a new higher-performance version from BMW's M division, dubbed the 1 Series M. Above the entry-level 128i is the 135i, whose compact dimensions and two-door layout give it few genuine competitors. The car comes as a coupe or convertible; shoppers might cross-shop the 135i with the Nissan 370Z, Infiniti G37 coupe or top-end versions of Detroit's muscle cars.

The 128i is covered separately in Cars.com's Research section.

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    System limits
    Personal responsibility The high-beam assistant cannot serve as a substitute for the driver's personal judgment of when to use the high beams. Therefore, manually switch off the high beams in ...

    Switching on automatically
    Select transmission position R with the engine running. The Top View and PDC images are displayed if the system is switched on via iDrive. ...

    Performance
    For 2009, there's just one engine: a 3.0-liter six-cylinder that's good for 260 horsepower. It teams with either a six-speed manual or a six-speed automatic transmission. All X3s have all-wheel dr ...