BMW M135i xDrive

THERE’S A MOMENT WITH A NEW long-termer – usually when it first shows up at an evo photoshoot – when you can gauge what you’re in for over the next few months by looking at the reactions of the assembled journalists. Back in October 2019, when I rolled into the Bedford Autodrome car park in ‘my’ new BMW M135i, I was greeted by multiple looks of bemusement and even a few smirks.

It was always going front grille, while the model’s almost sacrilegious adoption of front- and four-wheel-drive layouts in place of the traditional BMW rear-drive format had also come in for criticism. After much muttering in the group about both of these aspects, and the M135i’s rather ‘meh’ performance on the launch test (evo 265), photographer Aston Parrott piped up with a palliative: ‘You’ll enjoy it! Should be a fun car.’ And so it proved to be.