BMW has always prided itself on selling the 'Ultimate Driving Machine', and part of that has been making whatever sacrifices were necessary (within reason, of course) to give consumers a car that drives well. For example, the engine is placed as far back as possible to maintain good weight distribution, the six-cylinder engines are in-line sixes where the rest of the world has moved to the V6 configuration - and the power has always gone to the rear wheels.
That looks likely to change now, however, with the new 1-series sharing its platform with the upcoming Mini. BMW purists will be apoplectic at the thought of a front-wheel drive BMW, but the company seems convinced it is a good thing thanks to a survey they undertook of 1-series owners: over eighty per cent of them thought the 1-series already had front-wheel drive, and were finding it difficult to understand why BMW found it so hard to meet emissions targets with their current crop of cars.
