Best Value Performance Cars
Gallery 1
IF LOOKS could kill, you’d pick BMW’s unassuming M140i last from a line-up.
Maybe it’s the lack of wings, or badges, but when bets were placed on how this overall order would wash out, most went to our RS-, AMG-, and GTI-badged entries. Yet, when the starting gun fired, the BMW tore off like a rabid fox in a hen’s shed, ripping apart just about every other contestant on the drag strip and circuit tests with ease.
BMW has form in this speed-versus-cents thing. The M135i claimed last year’s $50K-$100K category win. And years ago, in 1996, BMW’s 328i pocketed the overall gong. Consider all that and suddenly our M140i rises to an odds-on favourite. Punching the numbers into the formula, though, was puzzling.
Would its absence hypothetically bump the M140i to second? Nope. Even if it topped six disciplines, the M140i would still wind back up here, with a bronze medal on its nose. Knocking a couple thousand off its price wouldn’t lift it up the charts, either – the competition’s just too stiff.
Even if it’s a little more expensive than a Volkswagen Golf R. It’s also enjoyable to drive when you’re not trying for a front-row qualifier, that supple chassis and solid interior gifting it excellent road manners.
And making it a much more obvious pick when scrambling for the keys at the end of the day.
