Special Contributor
How not to buy a car
Inspired by CM’s Mercedes SLK project and having recently donated my 2006 1.2 Skoda Fabia to my dad, the need to fill that empty space on the driveway was all too tantalising. I knew the replacement would have to fulfil some criteria – it must be petrol, have more than four cylinders, over 250 stallions on standby, port injection (over direct injection which has a tendency to coke up the intake), no turbos to fail or EGR to clog up, rear-wheel-drive, be easy on the eye and able to squeeze in the garage. Oh, and be less than £5000.
I then stumbled across the E87 BMW 1-series – the hatchback version with five doors. Did you know a small number of these came with the glorious N52 3.0-litre straight-six stuffed under the bonnet? One of the last normallyaspirated sixes from BMW. The 130i M-Sport then ticked all my boxes.
After a monumental eye-roll from Mrs C,
