Skip to main content

Why I Idolise Rear-Wheel-Drive

If I could buy any car as daily personal transport for my current routine, it would be a BMW 135i coupe. Yes, I know the 1-Series M is nearly here, but I fear it will be just a little too pure to be an ideal daily drive. I have never driven a 135i, yet its combination of that beautiful inline turbo six driving the rear wheels with a six-speed manual transmission in between is just about as close to perfection in my mind as any car could get. And all this while maintaining useable boot space and practicality, as well as a degree of anonymity.  My assumption in choosing an ideal daily driver is that I could own more than one car, as the 1-Series coupe is not practical on all fronts. It is I believe however, a beautiful compromise.

I was trying to explain this choice to a friend recently, who could not understand why the BMW would be my first choice in the premium compact segment, let alone as an ideal daily drive. My primary reason for choosing the 135i over similarly sized and equally powerful rivals is the car's rear-drive layout, unique in its segment. Yet, apart from having read positive reviews on the 1-Series itself, my sole basis for wanting a small car driven by the rear wheels stems from a bias towards rear-drive based on digesting two decades of automotive journalism. What is even more interesting is the fact that the best balanced and handling cars I've driven were front-wheel-drive, and the rear-drive cars I've driven have ranged from ordinary through to rubbish. Admittedly my own experience is skewed, and contains some of the better front drive cars driven by ordinary people, and not a single performance-oriented vehicle.

I've come to ponder this issue at a time when the large Australian rear-drive sedan may be nearing extinction. I have only driven previous generation examples of both the Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon, and no doubt the current models are better, but both had a few things in common. Good engines, disappointing auto transmissions and average handling. I believe that if built well, both could drive better with front-drive. However, before I am lynched by the rear-drive-loving traditionalists, I'm also pretty certain that if Ford and GM were serious about building high-quality large sedans then they could build better Falcons and Commodores that drove well and would sell. 

At the end of the day, there is no one-size-fits-all solution. Even BMW is moving to front-drive for its small cars. And yet in my biased, theoretical shopping list in my head there is nothing quite as appealing as a small rear-drive coupe with six ratios and 225kw to play with.

(Note: Yes, the picture above is actually the upcoming entry-level 120i coupe. Could this maybe make a good compromise to my 135i aspirations?)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Car Lust: Audi A1 Sportback

It has been quite a while since I last posted anything here. To be precise (I do like to be), it has been exactly 284 days since my last post.  Since then many things have kept me from posting, and with every week that passes it has only become harder to give any attention to HaveCar WillDrive. But this week I have come down with such a terrible bout of car lust that I couldn't help but share it here. Yes, I am lusting badly for an Audi A1 Sportback. You may be asking yourself "what could be so exciting about a tarted-up overpriced Volkswagen Polo?" At first glance you may have a point, but let me explain.

When Is A Diesel Not A Diesel? When It's A Fiat...

Like most small cars, the Fiat 500 is sold with an optional diesel engine in Europe. To date Australia has only had the choice of petrol-engined Fiat 500s, so when I heard that Fiat had announced the Fiat 500 Diesel for sale in Australia I was excited at the prospect of a new version of the funky Italian hatchback offering spectacular fuel efficiency while burning those long-chained hydrocarbons once reserved for trucks and tractors. Unfortunately, my hopes were soon dashed like a diesel-powered boat caught on a rocky coastline. Instead of being a diesel powered version of the miniature Italian, the Fiat 500 Diesel is a special edition of the regular petrol-powered 500 with trimmings designed by an Italian fashion house. 'Which Italian fashion house?' I hear you ask. That's right, you guessed it: Diesel.

Review: 2003 Mazda 6 Luxury

If you are looking for an unbiased review on a used family car, I suggest that you leave this page immediately. For this is a review of a car that is quite close to my heart, my dad's 2003 Mazda 6 Luxury sedan. This is the first car I ever drove, and the a car I regularly borrowed when I had just passed my license test. Even once I've had my own car, I have borrowed the Mazda on multiple occasions, either for holidays not suitable for my then current transportation or just because I wanted a spin in my first automotive love. I've been thinking about writing this review for quite some time, but I was waiting for the timing to be right. Having recently spent a whole week driving this car according to my usual routine, reminding me all of the car's joys and shortfalls alike it feels like that right time is now.