With the launch of the 1 Series Convertible this week the Munich maker has begun making small - dare we say affordable? - drop-tops after an absence of 30 years.
With a starting price of $53,000 you can even escape Wayne's Jealous Car Tax in the lower rungs of the range. BMW's larger 3 Series drop-tops, which are more common than Commodores in the richer suburbs of our cities, start $40,000 higher at $94,900.

The little open-air 1 is the third variant in a line-up which also includes a hatchback and Coupe. It's part of the trend towards taking premium cars smaller, in line with the West's concern about fuel prices and emissions. The hatch has already met a warm response here, with about 7000 sold since it was launched in late 2004.

The new variant enters a busy segment - sportscars under $80,000 - which contains more than two-dozen models, mainly small convertibles like itself. The choice has multiplied as convertibles have enjoyed a resurgence, and together they account for about 1 per cent of the total market, or more than 10,000 sales a year.

Three nameplates dominate: Volkswagen Eos, Holden Astra Twintop and Mazda MX-5.

By the time you've kitted some of these out with leather, BMW says, you're within cooee on price of its more prestigious badge. An Audi rival (see Fastlane) arrives in August with a slightly lower starting price.

However, the BMW will remain the only rear-drive four-seater in the class and if buyers find it half as palatable as its 3 Series equivalents, then it will quickly become one of the best-sellers. Among sportscars above $80,000 - where the 3 Series Convertibles play - more than 40 per cent display a blue propeller badge.

The 1 Series is based on the Coupe launched last month, which has been getting rave reviews for being the sort of car BMW used to make: light, not-too-large, rewarding to drive.

The Convertible shows many of the same traits, albeit diluted a bit by the weight and other compromises necessary to make the roof an option.

I haven't driven the Coupe and would expect it to have crisper responses, but the Convertible itself is sweet to drive. It has typical BMW chassis response and accurate, intuitive steering. Normal convertible failings are well suppressed, so the rearview mirror doesn't fizz over rough roads and the front end doesn't feel as though it's going to be shaken loose from the rest of the car.

The steering wheel will shudder over rough tarmac, but on the whole this is a tight and cohesive result. On Adelaide roads, the ride seemed fine although the car's short wheelbase can get unsettled by road bumps. The extra weight sits low and is less noticeable than in some drop-tops, if not entirely absent.

I drove the 125i with both manual and automatic transmissions. Both are excellent and the pedal and gearshift weights nicely judged.

The 125i doesn't use the 2.5-litre straight six-cylinder offered elsewhere by BMW but a detuned version of its 3.0-litre six. While it isn't especially quick it sounds good and pushes the car along with alacrity through the mid-range. It will sprint to legal-speeds-plus-some but surprisingly, with both power and torque peaks high in the rev range (6100rpm and 4850rpm) it seems to lack something at the top end. The 125i reaches 100km/h in 6.9 seconds, or 7.5 for the auto.

If speed isn't an issue, which for many buyers of this car it won't be, then there's a 2.0-litre four-cylinder that's unavailable in the more focused Coupe.

If you want to test the limits of the chassis, then there's the turbocharged 3.0-litre which has already impressed in the 3 Series Coupe/Convertible, and the smaller car is line-ball on acceleration times with its more expensive brother. One reason might be weight. The roof in the 1 Series is fabric rather than the bulkier and heavier folding metal in the 3. It packs up neatly behind the cabin, leaving respectable boot space, and doesn't dawdle going up and down.

Small four-seat drop-tops are a challenge to designers but here the rear seats are more than the token efforts you often see. However, I wouldn't want to sit in the back for long.

Up front, there are no compromises on space unless you're very broad-shouldered. The centre console is angled towards the driver, as it should be. BMW's cabins are gradually regaining their former virtues after a spell when "design" with a capital "D" took precedence over function.

The return to form will be incomplete, however, while the company retains its awful iDrive controller - to which it seems committed beyond reason.

And in the 1 Convertible's exterior there remain the signatures of designer Chris Bangle, the man responsible for BMW's recent aesthetically challenging shapes. These include the sagging sill line and overcomplex curves everywhere.

BMW claims these are the sorts of features which are being slavishly copied by other car companies after it has blazed a glorious trail. Its argument would be more persuasive if other car companies weren't using these features with so much more finesse.

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au...-13232,00.html