The F20 is the 1 Series people miss: longitudinal engine, rear-wheel drive, compact hatchback. Nobody but BMW ever built that combination, and since the F40 BMW does not either. It was paid for with a tight back seat and a boot the rear axle gets in the way of. The M140i — a straight-six in a five-door — has become a collector's subject.
Most F20s that end up stripped are N47 diesels. On that engine the timing chain sits at the back, against the gearbox: replacing it means pulling the drivetrain. On a ten-year-old car the bill routinely exceeds what the car is worth — which is exactly why so many good used panels exist for this model. The body is rarely the thing that failed; the engine is. Which is why what we hold is mostly door cards, condensers and small parts.
The 2015 facelift was not an ordinary LCI. BMW redrew the entire front, because the pre-facelift nose was the most criticised thing about the car. Headlights, bonnet, wings and bumper changed together and belong together: a post-facelift headlight in a pre-facelift wing does not make a fit, it makes a gap.
Against the F21 three-door, the nose and wings are the same and the doors and rear quarters are not. The M135i and M140i bring their own bumpers and tailpipes — in the rest of the sheet metal they are ordinary F20s.
