2008 BMW 135i: Get the Sport Seats

Where does it mention power seats? There's normal and Sport...

One advantage to power seats is they often include more options, front/rear height, that kind of thing.

"So let me get this straight...The 135i comes with the sport seats as standard, but you have to ditch them if you want power seats? Lame."
 
The Inside Line intro article was misleading... let me clear this up.
 
On the 135i, non-sport, 8-way manual seats are standard.
 
There is an optional sport package that gives you sport seats, but they are still 8-way manual.
 
There is an optional premium package that gives you power non-sport seats (plus 4-way power lumbar). You can also order the power non-sport seats (the IL LT car has this) as a separate option, although no lumbar.
 
Finally, you can order BOTH the sport AND premium packages and get power sport seats. OR you can get just the sport package and again separately order power seats.
 
Hopefully that clears this up.
 
"On a related note, I've never seen the point of power seats unless you have, say, an entire office-full of editors all driving a car on a regular basis. For most buyers I would imagine that the seat is set once and then largely left untouched."
 
Like texases said, the power seats give you a substantially great range of adjustments than the manual seats, plus the ability to more finitely adjust the increments. I've been in cars with manual rake adjustment that have too large of gaps in the detents (esp with a manual trans). One "clunk" was too far, the next "clunk" was too close.

We wanted to buy our car with the 8-way manual seats and the Sport Package upgrade, just like we had in our 135i full-test car. They were nothing short of outstanding. The manual seats adjust in ways the power seats don't.
 
But dealers order the cars the way they want to sell them, and apparently they all want to hawk power seats. Pity. So we had to take power seats and we didn't any with the Sport Package upgrade in our timeframe or price range.

And just to confound with additional information, the non-power sport seats actually have power adjustable side bolsters (inflatable bladders in the mid-back side bolsters).
 
Jason - You got 23.4 mpg? How often were you feeling the engine sing? Lots of speeding up and slowing down or lots of cruising and some jaunts of hooliganism?
 
Joe

No shock about the seats. BMW's non-sport seats are horrid.
 
23 mpg? Egad that's awful. Racing through germany at over an average of 100 mph I still got 27 mpg with my e90. Behaving in the US on freeways I'd see north of 30.

"One advantage to power seats is they often include more options, front/rear height, that kind of thing."
 
You would think so and 99-percent of the time, you'd be correct. However, this is not the case with the 1-Series. The 8-way manual seats actually offer a wider range of adjustment, particularly in regards to front height. In fact, our short-term 135i featured some of the best adjustment I've found in any car, period...manual or power.
 
Otherwise, bimmerjay is dead-on with his seating break-down.

Can't wait to feel those sport-non-power-air-bladder-side-bolster seats in my new 1 in 2 weeks! It will be interesting to compare/contrast with this long-termer...

BGDC - Isn't your e90 a 330i and not a 335i?
 
The n/a 3.0 liter is much less thirsty than the fi 3.0 liter :)
 
~24mpg is pretty darn good for mixed driving of a 300 hp/300 tq beastie.
 
Joe

24 is pretty good. My 335i averaged about 25 mpg over about 200 miles of autobahn, cruising around 120 mph much of the time. In the States in mostly urban driving I average about 21.5-22 mpg, with mostly highway it's more like 26-27. The 335i is notably thirstier than the 330i... but then the 330i didn't do 0-60 in 4.8 seconds. ;-)

Power seats are great when you change drivers a lot. For example, my fiance is 5'3" and likes to sit bolt upright, I'm 5'10" and like a bit of recline, so we use the power seats in her Camry every time we switch of on road trips. Likewise, while the drivers seat in my Golf never changes (she hates driving it), the passenger seat gets moved all the time between her and her desire to sit fairly upright, and my best friend who's 6'4" and likes to have the seat reclined to 40 degrees or so. Wish I had power for it, if only to nto listen to them bitching when making the adjustments.

joefrompa, it was a mix of freeway cruise (80ish), plenty of passing, a bit of city plus the spirited romps on the good roads. My driving style doesn't lend itself to high mpg numbers.

Wow, if that kind of awful mileage is considered normal then one more reason I have less interest in the twin turbo.

BGDC - Haven't I heard you complain that the 06 e90 330i doesn't really feel that powerful? (I've driven it and wasn't impressed, but I didn't drive it in anger and I had 2 passengers and the A/C on...so not exactly a good case study).
 
And now it gets 2-3 mpg worse and you don't think it's for you?
 
Jason said he got 24mpg cruising at 80mph, some city, and some full throttle runs. I consider that pretty darn good. For comparison, my 2.5 liter turbo four (legacy GT) gets about 18-20mpg in those same driving habits. My 2.0 liter Civic SI gets about 26-27mpg in those conditions.
 
I think it's pretty darn good :)
 
Joe

Blueguy: If Jason took Route 198, then this mileage is actually rather good. We're talking an elevation gain of about 7000', and at least 45 solid minutes of switchbacks; you couldn't get good mileage on this road with a moped.
 
Speaking of which, this is one of the few roads that can make me carsick WHEN DRIVING. Usually I have the "Driver's Immunity" to carsickness, but this road is just too much for me. Pity, because I LOVE Sequoia/King's Canyon.

Misterfusion -
 
You just named exactly what I experience. I never used to get car sick, but recently have been getting it more and more often when not driving. However, I never ever seen to get it when driving. I had no idea that was a commonly shared phenom.
 
One thing to note though: I've realized that cars w/ larger greenhouses keep me from getting car sick as easily. My new Legacy GT does not get me carsick, I think because it has very clear sightlines (and a good ride doesn't hurt).
 
Joe

nd now it gets 2-3 mpg worse and you don't think it's for you?
 
That's a big jump in operating costs. I'm getting 30-31 mpg with my current car. 23 on the highway, so more like 20-21 day-to-day is a 50% increase in gas costs. No thanks.
 
And yeah after my e46 ZHP, the heavier, quieter, more buicky-e90 ZSP felt like a slow, sequestered tank. It got worse mileage too. ;) I'm so happy that car is now someone else's problem.

Keeping your eyes focused on very distant objects helps with carsickness. It's even better if they're light green... something about it working well with our eyes.

BGDC -
 
You are comparing two different driving habits. For a more accurate comparator, look at the 08+ EPA estimates of the two cars you are comparing (what are you driving now if not the e90 330?).
 
If you drive 1500 miles per month and one car gets 30mpg (your car) and the other gets 27mpg (10% less) than you use 5.5 gallons more per month.
 
If gas prices are $4 for premium, then you spend $22 more per month to operate the car with significantly more power.
 
Is that a significant increase in operating cost?
 
Joe

joe,
 
Gas is over 4.30 a gallon here. And I get over 30 mpg combined ($2150 a year@15k miles) with my 07 Cooper S driven hard. In a 135 (17/25) I'd be lucky to get 22 mpg ($2930@15k miles) combined.
 
That's an increase of $780 a year, which is substantial in my eyes. Will it break me? No but it's more the idea of paying 3k a year for gas - surely to go up more - that bugs me.

misterfusion, I took the long way 'round and entered the park on Hwy 180 and exited it via Hwy 198.
 
I wouldn't use the mpg numbers garnered on this trip as a gospel for what other 135i owners will achieve on a consistent basis. Unless they drive in an a-hole-ian fashion like me.

I think it's funny that BG has a problem about spending $780/year more on gas driving the 135 vs the Mini.
If you cared about saving money , wouldn't the $15K price difference between the two matter more?

I just use the higher gas prices as an excuse to ride my Speed Triple to work more often. 40 mpg and a 0-60 time of 3.5 seconds. That's REAL hooliganistic behavior...

Joe: When I got carsick as a kid (very rarely), my parents would say, "That won't happen once you become a driver". And it's been true, 99% of the time.
 
Jason: I'll have to try that way sometime. I remember Hwy 180 not being much better, but it couldn't be as bad as 198.
 
Another road that made me queasy as a driver was Hwy 175, which runs from the 101 to Clear Lake, north of Santa Rosa. But maybe I was just having a bad day...