For $49,998, You Can Own This Carmax Warrantied BMW 1M

"AJ Feldman (alecmets2011)" (alecmets2011) 01/30/2015 at 20:14 • Filed to: None

1

0

Wow. Yup I just started an article with the word wow. You can tell I'm made for this writing stuff, can't you? But seriously, wow! A !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . Probably the last great pure driving experience from BMW. But this isn't just any BMW 1M, this is a 1M with a warranty. 1Ms weren't exactly known for unreliability, but you can't go wrong with a warranty for a modern German automobile.

Let's get started.

The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . That car that BMW couldn't quite figure out a name for. With the M1 supercar back in the 80s, BMW didn't want to reuse the name, so they had to come up with something different. They hired a whole team to decide what to call this car. They probably hired the BRILLIANT naming specialists over at Infiniti, whose best works include deciding to change their whole nomenclature to series of Qs and QXs. They probably also hired the specialists over at Apple, who best works include the famous iPad, then iPad 2, then back to iPad again because why the hell not. And what they came up with is truly stupid revolutionary. 1M. They literally flipped M1 backwards. So innovative and original, right?

The !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . That car BMW couldn't decide if they should make or shouldn't make. But they did, and we are all eternally grateful for it, because (in Jeremy Clarkson voice) what they came up with is absolutely astounding.

BMW decided it would be a fantastic idea to shove the twin turbo inline-six cylinder from the 335i in a car that weighs less than a college rejection letter and smaller than a portion size at that fancy shmancy restaurant in town you always go to family dinners at, and secretly hate going, but you'll never tell your mother that, will you? (Like the last thread, my jokes are usually misses)

So now you have a light car with 332 lb. ft. of toque at its disposal. What else do you need? Oh yeah, a transmission. Like I mentioned earlier, BMW wasn't exactly sure if they were actually going to put this thing into production. IF it was going into production, it would most likely make their accounts very displeased because there was no way in hell this thing was going to make money. But BMW did the right thing by putting it into production for enthusiasts like us. So, to make us even happier, they decided the car would only be available with a 6-speed manual. LONG LIVE THE STICK SHIFT!!!

Let's get to the body. Since BMW was already certain they would lose money on this project, they had no problem spending the extra cash of a special body kit. I guess if your going to make a special edition, you better make it pretty damn special. And what they came up is absolutely ludicrous.

Holy wheel arches!!! Before this car came out, my benchmark for huge wheels arches included Porsche 911s and dually trucks. But the 1M is in a whole different league. Is any part of the wheel technically still under the standard 1-series body? I don't think so. And just look at those rear air ducts. You know a car with rear air ducts means big business.

(BTW, apparently Carmax has a fascination with muscle cars. Just look at that rear shot photo. 2 Challengers. A Mustang. And a Camaro. What's up with that?)

The conclusion? A brilliant drivers car. One of the best modern drivers cars in my honest opinion. Right up there with the Noble M600. The funny thing is, this car was built without profit seemingly possible, so BMW originally limited production to just 2700 units, but demand was so high they sold over 6000 of them, and ACTUALLY MADE A PROFIT. They made a profit on a niche driver's car. So let it be known to car manufacturers: Building cars for people who actually love cars can result in a profit.

So you can buy one of the last truly great BMWs for just under !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! . You gotta love Carmax.

Special thanks to DasWauto for adding me as a writer tonight