Overview

Two significantly similar cars, no doubt about that. Still, each one has something different to offer. While both cars belong to the Small family car segment and utilize the 5-door hatchback body style, one major difference is the fuel type they use. More specifically, 118d is a diesel car, but 116i is powered by a petrol engine. Both the engines are BMW-engineered . The first one has a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 136hp unit, while the other one gets its power and torque from a 4-cylinder, 16-valves 116hp one.

Safety

Vehicles in question are actually the same model so there's nothing here to provide an advantage to any of the two.

Reliability

Manufacturers have been building their reliability reputation for decades now and, generally speaking, it appears that BMW displays higher than average breakdown numbers, all the models observed together. That's the official data, while our visitors describe reliability of BMW with an average rating of 4.1 out of 5. That apart, owners of different cars powered by the same engine as 1 Series 118d rank it on average as 3.5, while the one under the competitor's bonnet gets 4.3 out of 5.

Performance & Fuel economy

118d is undoubtly more agile, reaching 100km/h in 2 seconds less than its competitor. In addition to that it accelerates all the way to 210 kilometers per hour, 10km/h more than the other car. When it comes to fuel economy an obvious choice would be 1 Series 118d, averaging around 4.7 liters of fuel per 100 kilometers (60 mpg), in combined cycle. That's 60% difference compared to 1 Series 116i!

Verdict

116i appears just a bit more reliable, although the difference is truly marginal. The most important thing when deciding between any two vehicles should always be safety, both passive and active. In this case though, it seems that both cars show similar levels of passenger protection all together, so that won't break a tie. But one thing that actually could is the performance, with 118d outracing its opponent in any situation possible, making it better choice for boy racers. To make things even better, it consumps less fuel! All together, there's not much more to say, in this case I wouldn't even consider anything but 118d. Nevertheless, let's not forget that people have different preferences and needs, so what really counts is your personal feel. I'm only here to help. In case you have two minutes to spare I invite you to define your needs, desires and budget and see which car would be chosen by the virtual adviser™, among more than 12.000 different ones in our database.