Category: Small Family 
Price Range: £22,030 to £29,615
Agile, elegant, brilliant engines.
Poor rear leg room.
A great car to drive.
The ES specification level, which is available only with the 120d, is intended largely for business buyers, and BMW doesn't expect to sell many. Both diesels are offered in SE and M Sport spec, while the 135i is M Sport only. That involves more leather and aluminium in the cabin, sportier suspension, tweaked mechanicals and a unique bodykit. But even in basic SE spec, the 1-Series Coupe has more pronounced sills than the hatchback, giving the sides a bulging, muscular look.
Some elements of M Sport spec are different on the petrol-engined car, such as a tiny lip spoiler on the boot lid and uprated brakes with the BMW logo stamped on the calipers.
How can you tell your 1-Series Coupes apart at a glance? From the front, the SE has rectangular foglights, the M Sport has round foglights, and the 135i M Sport doesn't have room for front foglights, because the air intakes are so big. At the back, the SE versions have a chrome tail pipe, the M Sport has a black chrome oval pipe and a diffuser, and the 135i M Sport has twin round black chrome pipes.
The 120d comes with 16" wheels, the 123d with 17s and the 135 with 18-inchers. Options include the iDrive multifunction control system, a USB interface, 'favourite' buttons (for radio stations, sat nav destinations, phone numbers and climate control settings), active steering and DAB digital radio.
Like the 1-Series hatchback, the Coupe has decent-sized rear seats whose usefulness is limited by the very poor rear leg room and foot room. If there's a six-footer in the front, there won't be room for a six-footer behind him or her. The head room is good, though. There are only two seats in the back, with an oddments tray in between. They split and fold to increase the boot space.
The boot is surprisingly big - much longer than it appears from the outside, although it's fairly shallow, and the underfloor space traditionally occupied by a spare wheel is here filled by the battery (it doesn't need a spare, as the tyres are run-flats).
