BMW 1 Series 3-door, E81
The three-door, sold only from the 2007 facelift onwards: mechanically identical to the E87, rarer, and no more practical for the compromise.
Overview
The E81 is the hatchback BMW 1 Series, built 2007–2012. 8 standard engines are documented here, each with its own issue list, inspection sequence and price band. Asking prices across the standard range run €2,500–€12,600, and 4 of the 8 carry a risk level of 4 or 5. The cheapest way in is the 116i N43B16 from €3,100, while the 130i N52 is the lowest-risk engine at €6,800, so which engine you buy matters more here than which year. Prices are illustrative placeholders rather than a sourced market sample. See the methodology.
BMW 1 Series hatchback (E81) · photo BMW E81 116i Performance by Thomas doerfer · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
| Body style | hatchback | Production | 2007–2012 |
| Platform siblings | E87 hatchback · E82 coupe · E88 convertible | Facelift (LCI) | none |
Engine matrix: pre-facelift, 2007–2012
The 8 variants sold before the 2013 facelift. Power and years come from the variant records; prices are illustrative, not sourced.
| Badge↕ | Engine | Fuel | Years↕ | Power↑ | Torque↕ | Risk↕ | Issues | Price band↕ | Good buy↕ | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 116d | N47 | diesel | 2009–2011 | 116 PS | 260 Nm | R4 | 10 | €2,900–€6,000 | €3,600 | Caution |
| 116i | N43B16 | petrol | 2007–2011 | 122 PS | 160 Nm | R3 | 8 | €2,500–€5,250 | €3,100 | Buy w/ conditions |
| 118i | N43 | petrol | 2007–2011 | 143 PS | 190 Nm | R3 | 9 | €2,800–€5,800 | €3,450 | Buy w/ conditions |
| 118d | N47 | diesel | 2007–2012 | 143 PS | 300 Nm | R4 | 10 | €3,300–€7,000 | €4,100 | Caution |
| 120i | N43 | petrol | 2007–2011 | 170 PS | 210 Nm | R3 | 9 | €3,100–€6,400 | €3,800 | Buy w/ conditions |
| 120d | N47 | diesel | 2007–2012 | 177 PS | 350 Nm | R4 | 10 | €3,700–€7,950 | €4,600 | Caution |
| 123d | N47S | diesel | 2007–2012 | 204 PS | 400 Nm | R4 | 10 | €4,650–€10,200 | €5,750 | Caution |
| 130i | N52 | petrol | 2007–2011 | 265 PS | 315 Nm | R2 | 10 | €5,350–€12,600 | €6,800 | Strong buy |
Engine matrix: facelift / LCI, 2013–2012
The 0 variants sold from the facelift on, priced at a 9% premium over the pre-facelift car.
0 variants from the facelift on, carrying a real market premium of roughly 9% over an otherwise identical pre-facelift car. Variants appearing in both tables were sold either side of the changeover, the build month decides which one you're looking at, not the model year.
Nothing matches those filters.
Market availability varied by country; check the engine code stamped on the block rather than the badge on the boot. · Compare every engine side by side →
Model-year availability
Which engines were on sale in which year, from the year ranges in the variant records. Availability varied by country.
Rating map, price against risk
Good-buy price plotted against risk level for every standard engine, so the value corner is visible at a glance.
Every standard engine in the chassis, plotted at its good-buy price against its risk level. Cheap and low-risk is the top-left; expensive and fragile is the bottom-right. M cars are excluded, they would stretch the price axis and tell you nothing about the rest.
Prices across the range
Where the money sits across the whole chassis. Every figure here is an illustrative placeholder, not a sourced market sample.
Every standard engine on one euro axis: the bar spans the 10th to 90th percentile of asking prices, the tick is the median and the green marker is the good-buy figure. M cars are excluded; they sit an order of magnitude above the rest.
Every standard engine · cheapest first · 130i N52 highlighted as best value
at or under the good buy · good buy · median · bar spans the 10th–90th percentile
Chassis-wide issues, every engine inherits these
Faults recorded against the bodyshell and running gear rather than one engine, so every variant on this page inherits them.
Written once against the chassis and shown on every variant page below, so nothing here is repeated 8 times: M cars included, since the bodyshell and electronics are shared.
Buying summary
Our read on the chassis, built on the records above rather than added to them.
Everything true of the E87 applies, and there's less choice: the three-door was never the volume car, so buy on condition and history rather than holding out for a particular colour. The engine and chain questions are the same, and every car here is a facelift car with electric steering on the fours.
Cheapest and dearest in this chassis
The ends of the range by good-buy price. Useful for sanity-checking anything you're quoted.
Lowest entry price
116i N43B16 : from €2,500, risk 3
118i N43 : from €2,800, risk 3
116d N47 : from €2,900, risk 4
Lowest risk
130i N52 : risk 2, good buy at €6,800
116i N43B16 : risk 3, good buy at €3,100
118i N43 : risk 3, good buy at €3,450