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Noted southern gentleman and Carsguide scribbler Craig Duff is fond of things on two wheels. If he must forsake a pants-wettingly powerful sports bike for a cage, he'd rather it was one on which the rear two wheels do the driving.
This came up the other day when the Duffman was on the phone re: the new 125i hatch, the hot version of the 1 Series. This has become BMW's real driver's car since the 3 Series started relying on electronic gubbins to ensure sheer driving pleasure. This range-topper starts $100 above the dreary Audi A3. You'd gladly pay $1000.
Sure, that's $45,700 for the six-speed manual without much on it. Even decent paint adds almost two grand. And the (very good) eight-speed auto that about 95 per cent of punters will buy adds a bit over $3000. Even so - and the point of all this is looming - a new car from a marque relished by keen drivers can be got on road for less than a Golf R or a Scirocco. How did that happen?
It happened because Mercedes-Benz (with the coming A-Class) and BMW recognise the necessity of competing against badges beyond each other. It's one thing to get in an R&D appendage-waving contest ("Look at the size of our touchscreen") or trade uber-performance blows at E63 and M5 level.
But it's volume the luxury marques are after and that means going down a weight division to punch on against the nimble likes of Volkswagen and Volvo hatches. With hi-tech innovations devolving ever more quickly to affordable brands as the latter attempt to see off the incursion from above, the winners of such contests are us.
