Spies catch BMW 1-Series on US soil

Look at the rear of the 1-series and the rear of the new Scion xD.

No further questions.

— aeyjay (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 1:30:29 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -7   

this is starting to look like a P.O.N.T.I.A.BMW..... :( who are the German's trying to please??

— cl0wn (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 3:57:02 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -3   

How can mazda copy the 1-series when the mazda 3 came before the BMW.

— STJ88 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 5:59:27 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 6   

It looks, uh, bucktooth.

— senorgato (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 7:16:43 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Its more the other way around! BMW is new to this hatchback game, I dont understand how the Asians have emulated BMW with the 1 series as they have been in the game for far longer together with other Euro carmakers e.g VW & Opel!

— KeyserSoze (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 7:36:17 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Show me the whole pic, not just the butt. Why is BMW wasting everyone's time putting out those ridiculous teasers.

— EnnNorak (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 7:37:36 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

Anyway it is butt ugly compared to the GTI, A3 and Opel\Vauxhall OPC.

— KeyserSoze (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 7:39:24 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

Is this car over price? I think a Lexus IS250 is much better than this 1-series BMW. It probably has pleather in it or maybe cloth and cheap materials.

— LexusLunatic (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 9:13:26 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -10   

LOL more like Toyota is desperate to have the same halo BMW has over its brand....if that was not the case then why did they build Lexus? Out of jealousy that they could not compete in such a market.

— atomicbri (View Profile)

Posted on 5/28/2007 4:05:24 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

A midget Santa Fe. You'll look soooo cool driving around in your stripped down, overpriced shoe.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 11:27:42 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

This will only steal sales away from the 3-series.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 11:28:27 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

I have seen the 1 series all the time here in San Diego, those are Baja California Plates (Mexico).

— vcowman (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 11:29:36 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

STJ88,
Because they're Germans. They can come out with an idea second but they'll market it so much everyone will believe they were first.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 11:29:41 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2   

Yeah, regardless of that bullshit you wrote. We all know the Germans have been the pioneers of the automobile industry.

— EliteRanger (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 12:02:59 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 5   

Key words "have been". Being first doesn't mean being right. Look at the 7 Hydrogen vs the new FCX.

Unlike the Germans, the rest of the world doesn't live in the past.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 2:07:26 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -6   

Ok, so all the safety features that Mercedes were the first to integrate into their cars weren't a success? Hell, if we waited for Lexus (your favourite brand i believe, fanboy) then we wouldn't be safe in a car until 1988 lol. Anyway, the past is something you should respect. You wouldn't have the present or future without it dipshit.

— EliteRanger (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 2:44:43 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Also, that's probably why you don't respect the prestige that comes with German vehicles, and why even if going through some bad times with reliablity they still sell well. You need a past to gain prestige. Something which Lexus will need to wait along time for, well, at least until i consider them worthy of such a word being associated with them.

— EliteRanger (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 2:47:32 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Not bad but not great either. Surely nothing to spark talk of sisters or orgies in the netherworld.

It is funny how Lexus is chided for trying to move up-market, while BMW is given a free pass while moving in the opposite direction.

Guess that's Autospies users for you.

— answer (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 4:06:31 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

I live in Denmark, we have the 1 series, and it looks nice. Drives very well better than any Toyota and the A3. But you fools think you are so smart but that must be dumbsmart. It is a very good drivers car, which does not use tons of fuel like those big useless americans trucks and cars, i gues Ford and GM perhaps Chrysler should have been making better and smaller cars just like the Germans are doing.

By the way did BMW not event the Golf class`? I think they came first with their touring in the beginnig of the 70`s so i think they know about smaller cars.

— MPowerDK (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 4:42:59 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

I rather have a corolla compressor than a 1-series.

— STJ88 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 5:44:33 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1   

The 1-series looks a lot better in person but not as nice as an A3.

— MunichRob (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 7:01:29 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 3   

Ranger,
LOL, frustrated are we? Most of Germany's safety "inventions" were ripped off of other industries (none of which were German). ABS, side signal markers, air bags, the brakes copied from the USAF fly by wire system (except fly by wire works), night vision, even seatbelts. Did I miss anything?
btw, the French invented a self propelled vehicle first, but it didn't run on petrol. The Germans invented what is "considered" the first modern automobile.

This car is just for poor people who can't afford a Lexus but would rather be ripped off instead of getting value for their money (like in a Corolla or even a Golf).

Think about this.
The Cooper S is $30K in Canada, the 323i is $34,500. At most there will be a $2,000 difference once the 1 is dumped here. Either the Mini will get killed, or the 3 will get killed, or the 1 will be a flop like the 318. BMW loses whichever way. Buyers in the sub 30K market don't care about image, so there are no new customers for BMW to screw.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/27/2007 10:48:05 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: -5   

Lexus fanboys stick together!

— EliteRanger (View Profile)

Posted on 5/28/2007 10:20:28 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

This car is ugly.

— Designer1 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/28/2007 3:35:18 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Bill,
The truth sucks don't it? The Germans are just as guilty of lifting ideas as the ppl they like to deride. That's why I look down at them. Their car industry is based on hype.

Prove nightvision is German. If you can't, then you're full of it. Or maybe they just strapped flashlights to their helmets, is that what you mean?
I have never heard of anything other than V rockets and jet propulsion.

Lexus doesn't need to screw anyone, they have Toyota to rule the value market.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/28/2007 3:43:21 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

OK Bill, you got me on that one. I did find proof that they used infrared "search lights" on tanks.

Doesn't change the fact Cadillac had it first. I guess they're even then, if the US didn't invent the airplane, BMW wouldn't exist.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/28/2007 3:50:59 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Actually, it'd be interesting who invented it first. Here it says in WWII, the US army had sniper rifles with nightvision on them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_intensifier
http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=9&articleID=000E8536-3C31-1F03-BA6A80A84189EEDF

This link actually says the US and Nazi Germany had parallel development, so they tied. See generation 0.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_vision_goggles

So even when I'm wrong, the U.S. pulls my ass out of the fire.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/28/2007 3:57:13 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

WHO CARES FOLKS!!?? LOL!!! Lexus is a copy cat division of Mercedes and BMW we all know this....cause their Cressida could not be taken seriously in a luxury car market, thus Lexus was born. What I really think is funny is the fact that in Japan, BMW & Mercedes outsell Lexus....why is that I wonder?

— atomicbri (View Profile)

Posted on 5/28/2007 4:09:59 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2   

Before Lexus, Toyota's top end models outsold BMW and MB. Now that's funny.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/28/2007 4:31:08 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0   

More importantly, how come huu34 has so much time on his hands?

All this time for petty research? Who is he trying to impress? Ignorant, one-eyed yanks?

— Matthew1 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/29/2007 4:25:21 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

I'm enlightening retarded Europeans.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_28/b3942068.htm

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/29/2007 9:55:20 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Last post will probably get deleted, so here it is again.
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_28/b3942068.htm

What Europeans believe is completely different from reality.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/29/2007 9:56:35 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

And unlike the Euro fanboys who rarely ever back up any of their pathetic rants, it takes me seconds to pull up a link as proof.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/29/2007 9:58:13 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Mathew,
:) Look at the time stamps.

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/29/2007 10:07:56 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Wow i didn't know you guys were so in to the 1 series
If you want pics, there are about 10 1 series in my street and I see maybe 100 a day.
It's as common as a chevy to you guys :)

— valentino (View Profile)

Posted on 5/29/2007 4:34:57 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Is that what exclusivity is?

— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/29/2007 11:49:48 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

jesus...the amount of ignorance of history is astounding especially for these german fanboys who are actually german (i view german people as a people with good memory ;) ). lexus was created to allow toyota to import more cars into the US. there were import laws that prohibited "dumping", which would obviously hurt domestic makes. inventing a new name plate meant you could import more of the same car. this is why in essence the ES is a camry. honda and nissan followed suit. this was when small fuel saving cars were huge. nowadays its a different story. i believe the reason why lexus was so successful was because they had a philosophy and a strategy. this is something that acura and infiniti dont have and its clear they struggle in finding their direction.

oh and the 1 series is ass ugly. it looks like a bloated z3.

— gsh23 (View Profile)

Posted on 5/30/2007 12:24:19 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Huu 76 - "Is that what exclusivity is?". No, but at least BMW can shift their vehicles out the showroom.

— EliteRanger (View Profile)

Posted on 5/31/2007 5:52:45 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1   

Matthew and S4: This article is a teaser for North America and there is no point in wasting time on teasers that do not tell the whole story with a full gallery of interior and exterior pics. I have not seen a single BMW 1-Series yet and I'm probably not the only one. So, how can you say that everyone already knows what it looks like.

— EnnNorak (View Profile)

Posted on 5/31/2007 10:00:19 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1