The New BMW M135i Has Already Shed £10,000 On The Used Market

This week we learned that BMW has a new front-wheel drive hot hatch in the form of the 128ti. It’s lighter and - from the sounds of early driving impressions - more interesting to drive than the M135i. The best part, however, is it’s likely to be significantly cheaper than the range-topping 1er, which has a starting price of £37,470.

Nudging £40,000 even before options are taken into account, the M135i is a hard sell. But if your hot 1-series simply has to have all-wheel drive, the good news is you don’t need to pay as much as that.

Go nearly new, and you’ll find some of the earliest examples of the F40 M135i have already shed over £10,000 from their original list price with options. Or if you want something fresher, this nearly new M135i on BuyaCar has covered just 250 miles since being registered at the beginning of the year. At £30,942, it’s over £7000 less expensive than the list price of a brand new one with the same options.

It’s wearing only a handful of modestly-priced options, the most expensive of which is the £500 adaptive dampers. This wouldn’t put us off too much, though, since the M135i is well-equipped as standard. And although the spangly, optional 19-inch wheels look lovely, they’ll only make the ride and the tyre bills more painful. The 18s on this one make a lot more sense IRL.

Unlike the F20 M135i, those two final numbers in the model name don’t refer to a 3.0-litre inline-six turbo. However, the 2.0-litre inline-four turbo you’ll instead find under the bonnet won’t leave you wanting for performance - it puts out 302bhp and 332lb ft of torque, making for a 0-62mph time of 4.8 seconds.

Tempted? Or would you rather a slightly older M140i for the full inline-six experience?