Motoring Discussion > BMW 1 Series E81/E87 - 116i or 118i? Buying / Selling
Thread Author: Auntie Lockbrakes Replies: 5
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New Thu 3 Jun 10 01:53 
 BMW 1 Series E81/E87 - 116i or 118i? - Auntie Lockbrakes
Got a friend of mine looking at a 2006 BMW 116i. Private seller, car looks very well cared for. But most used 1-series are the 118i, which I understand is the same engine but in a higher state of tune? Any big downsides to the 116i compared with the 118i? Is the seller trying to shift a hard-to-sell variant and can I squeeze him more on the price?!
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New Thu 3 Jun 10 09:30 
 BMW 1 Series E81/E87 - 116i or 118i? - Mike Hannon
Maybe your friend could haggle for himself? ;-)
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New Thu 3 Jun 10 16:11 
 BMW 1 Series E81/E87 - 116i or 118i? - Skoda
They seem to go through coil packs regularly. Also the first oil service is too long (same for all new BMWs) and they are commonly sludgey under the oil filler cap at 2 years old. Other than that i'm not aware of many common faults.

Rare but scary faults, there's only one i know of -- there have been a few (~3 or 4) publicised cases where an ECU in the passenger footwell get's toasted (don't know why, but it smells burnt apparently) leading to funny lighting + window wiper behaviour. The reason it's scary is because the ECU + the unit it lives in is almost £1000 to replace.

I know a few folks with 116's and the complaints are not much power and under spec'd, i'm pretty sure they're all m-sport variants too but they are spartan inside.

Hope it helps!

EDIT: and i don't fit in the passenger seat very well in the 5 door, wouldn't like to do a long journey, even with the seat right back!
Last edited by: CraigP on Thu 3 Jun 10 at 16:13
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New Thu 3 Jun 10 21:51 
 BMW 1 Series E81/E87 - 116i or 118i? - Pezzer
Might be worth a look at the CBC report in the old place. I've also got a comment about ABS issues , not necessarily 116/118, floating around in my head from somewhere. (I had an original 120d and at one point and was looking to replace it with another)
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New Thu 3 Jun 10 23:41 
 BMW 1 Series E81/E87 - 116i or 118i? - Auntie Lockbrakes
Haha Mr. Hannon you rumbled me ;-)

Thanks for input so far. The 116i in question is with a private seller who hasn't had any bites so far, so I'm going to let them sweat for a couple more weeks.

For a grand cheaper, I've since found a similar age and mileage Golf 2.0FSI Tiptronic being sold privately. Thirstier engine, but probably a better all-rounder?
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New Fri 4 Jun 10 15:22 
 BMW 1 Series E81/E87 - 116i or 118i? - Skoda
I'm not sure the difference will be more than 1 or 2 mpg. The 2.0T FSI is pretty frugal for all the power it chucks out!

I've got the updated 2.0TSi version and i don't have a bad word to say about it at all. Great power delivery (torque everywhere), great fuel economy, 34mpg with plenty of booting it about. 40mpg is achievable if you're even half sensible with it.

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