Business Car Manager road test verdict
If this review seems a bit heavy on ‘what’s hot?’ and a bit short on ‘what’s not?’ that’s simply because the BMW M135i doesn’t do that much wrong.
This kind of performance simply isn’t available at this price. The major benefit of that is a low P11D value relative to its performance that helps to drastically cut the amount of business car tax you’ll have to pay – as little as £135 a month.
If you’re a small business owner, you might want to run it privately and then reimburse your business mileage using AMAP rates – but at £443 a month for a personal contract hire lease that’s not exorbitant either: a more sober BMW 520d EfficientDynamics would cost you £40 a month more.
It’s not as though the M135i can be marked down in the corners, either. It feels incredible agile and intuitive to drive but more than that, it’s a huge amount of fun too
You won’t have to worry about seeming too ‘flash’ either. The understated design of the M135i cuts a very different image compared with turning up somewhere in a Porsche.
In short, the M135i is one of the most versatile – and fun– performance cars you can buy, and it even makes a fair amount of sense as a business car.
BMW M135i M Performance 3dr auto – the low down
| P11D Value | £31,215 |
| Monthly business rental (ex VAT) | From £369 a month (3yrs/30,000 miles) |
| Company car tax bands 2012/13 to 2014/15 | 26%, 27%, 28% |
| BIK tax | £8,116, £8,428, £8,740 |
| Engine | 3.0-litre turbocharged six-cylinder |
| CO2 | 175g/km |
| Power/torque | 316bhp/ 450Nm |
| 0-62mph | 4.9 seconds |
| Economy | 37.7mpg |
