Brisbane show: BMW’s premium One

BMW has announced a $54,400 starting price for its new 1 Series Coupe, which made its Australian debut appearance at the Brisbane motor show opening on Friday and arrives in showrooms in May.

The price, which applies to the entry-level 125i with six-speed manual transmission, makes the least-expensive 1 Series Coupe $3400 more expensive than the base 3 Series sedan, the 320i manual ($51,000).

While the 125i will be powered by a new version of BMW’s 3.0-litre Valvetronic inline six-cylinder engine, which has been detuned to 160kW/270Nm (instead of the correctly named 130i hatchback’s 195kW/315Nm iteration), the hero of the 1 Series Coupe range will be the 135i Sport, which also arrives in May and comes with the 335i’s acclaimed twin-turbocharged 3.0-litre straight six.

With 225kW and 400Nm of torque available (the latter between 1300rpm and 5000rpm), the manual 135i Sport manual sprints to 100km/h in a claimed 5.3 seconds and is priced at $71,400 – more than $33,000 less than the cheapest 3 Series fitted with the same engine, the 335i sedan. The manual 125i coupe completes the sprint in 6.4 seconds.

A six-speed Steptronic automatic transmission adds $2800 to the price of both variants. Full Australian specifications for the 1 Series Coupe are yet to be revealed. Meantime, BMW has also announced two no-cost limited-edition packages for its Z4 convertible and coupe models, which went on sale here in 2003 and 2006 respectively.

Dubbed Z4 Edition Exclusive and Z4 Edition Sport, the two trim packages are available at no extra cost on the Z4 2.5si and 3.0si convertible and the Z4 3.0si coupe.

Both packs come with BMW Individual leather upholstery, BMW Individual trim and standard metallic paint, while the Edition Sport adds an M Sport steering wheel and M Sport seats, trimmed in BMW Individual Bi-colour New England leather. The Sport also offers a number of interior colour combinations: Estoril Blue Dark/Anthracite/Black, Phoenix Yellow/Anthracite/Black, Silverstone/Anthracite/Black and Imola Red/Anthracite/Black.

Outside, the Edition Sport offers a choice between Titanium Silver, Black Sapphire, Montego Blue, Space Grey and the previously unreleased Carbon Black paint colours.

The Edition Exclusive comes with BMW Individual upholstery in full soft Nappa leather in combinations including Champagne/Black, Caramel/Black, Amarone/Black and Syrah Blue/Black. Inside, a choice of BMW Individual leather or BMW Individual Piano finish trim strips is available, along with standard floor mats with Individual leather binding.

BMW 1 Series Coupe range pricing:
125i	$54,400
125i (a)	$57,200
135i Sport	$71,400
135i Sport (a)	$74,200

BMW Z4 range pricing:
2.5si Roadster	$78,200
2.5si Roadster (a)	$80,800
3.0si Coupe	$88,100
3.0si Coupe (a)	$90,700
3.0si Roadster	$91,400
3.0si Roadster (a)	$94,000

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