What's the news?
BMW is giving the 1 Series family one final bit of sprucing to entice in customers, ahead of an all-new model (almost certainly front-wheel drive, as it'll share MINI and BMW X1 architecture) arriving in 2018. The updates for the current car amount to some new exterior colours, detailing and wheels, while inside there have been changes to the instrument panel.
Outside, there are two new colours called Sunset Orange and Seaside Blue, while five fresh designs of alloy wheels (17- and 18 inches in diameter) are offered. There will also be two 'Shadow' special editions, called M Sport Shadow Edition and M140i Shadow Edition, both of which essentially get some black detailing for the kidney grilles, the exhaust finishers, the door mirrors, the inserts in the now-LED headlights and darkened LED rear clusters.
More has actually happened within, where the latest generation of the iDrive infotainment comes into play, featuring the three-tile configurable home display and 8.8-inch touchscreen capability. The instrument cluster gets a black-panel design, there's special stitching for the console on top models, an additional leather upholstery finish is added, chrome lines the window switches and a new design of air vent. Snazzy. The glovebox lid and a sliding cover for the cupholders round things off.
Furthermore, the Shadow Editions get additional kit over and above the standard specification of the cars upon which they are based, and this includes goodies like cruise control, a Harman Kardon loudspeaker system and rear Park Distance Control.
There are also some upgrades for the ConnectedDrive services, but, under the bonnet, the same range of turbocharged three-, four- and six-cylinder diesel and petrol engines can be found, starting with the 109hp 116i and culminating in the mighty 340hp M140i. As before, most Ones are rear-wheel drive, but all-corners xDrive is available as a cost option on selected models.
Anything else?
Three- and five-door versions of the updated BMW 1 Series will be on sale from July 2017, with around one million models of this generation sold since 2011 around the world.