The F45 was the first front-wheel-drive BMW when it appeared in 2014. The fuss has died down; the engineering consequence has not. This car's nearest relative is not a BMW but a MINI. It sits on the UKL2 platform it shares with the Countryman F60 and Clubman F54, and for engines, suspension and underbody the trail leads there rather than to a 3 Series.
Doors, rear lights, steering columns and tailgates are most of what an F45 gives up. A compact MPV gets loaded, parked tight and used up, and the damage shows it.
With doors and tailgates, check the specification. Powered tailgate, comfort access, speakers and window motors all change the part number even where the skin is identical.
The commonest mix-up is with the F46 Gran Tourer. From the front you can barely tell them apart, but the F46 is a good twenty centimetres longer, with a different roof and different rear doors. Much interchanges at the front and almost nothing at the back.
