Imagine if Ford put the XR6 Turbo engine in the Focus and made it rear-wheel drive.

In 2012 BMW sort of did its version of that in creating the M135i. Not quite an M car and sort of a hot hatch, yet one with a north-south 3.0-litre turbo six sending its not insignificant grunt to a solitary rear-mounted axle.

Of course, all hot hatches before it tended to be bum-draggers or come with a driveshaft quartet, but now here was something tempting HSV customers.

But since then, quite a few rivals have popped up. HSV customers are being tempted back by the $83K, auto 400kW LSA Clubsport. Or even the $56K, 304kW auto SS-V Redline.

BMW M135i rear

And the spec sheet suggests it has been treading water. Three years on, same N55 engine (itself getting on six years old), same eight-speed torque converter auto, and more or less same outputs.

In June, BMW reheated and restyled the 1-Series range, including M135i (in what BMW calls a “Life Cycle Impulse”) and upped power by 5kW, to 240kW at 5800rpm. Torque was unchanged, 450Nm between 1300rpm to 4500rpm. With launch control, the M135i will hurl its 1450kg to 100km/h in 4.9 seconds. All the previously mentioned rivals are just as fast, or faster, to 100 clicks at least.

BMW M135i side

Today you can effectively get the same car for $62,900 – auto, dampers, and sat-nav, for $15,200 less. It has absolutely everything to do with why the facelifted M135i won this year’s $50K-$100K class at Bang For Your Bucks. And it wasn’t just the data that brought home the trophy; the M135i had the judges fawning, too.

With 22 cars to test on the day, the drive was all too brief, so we’re excited to welcome the exact Bang-winning car to the MOTOR Garage for four months. It’s done the press rounds already, so the new-car smell is on the way out and the odo on the way up, closing in on 6000km. You won’t be reading about any run-in periods here.

BMW-M135i wheels

We’ve clocked precious few kilometres on our Estoril Blue M135i this month, but much like at Bang, it didn’t take long to notice the diff, or lack of. The M135i has proper turbo six-cylinder grunt – bags of torque – and sounds snarly. But it took just one opening of the taps in first gear to encounter an angry spike of revs but no accompanying rear-end wriggle – the telltale sign of a diff wide open.

BMW-M135i -driving

We’re just starting to reacquaint ourselves with this rear-drive hot hatch thing, and it feels novel all over again. Hopefully, in the coming months, the love only blossoms.

Month: One Liked: The grunt. It’s got some Disliked: Variable steering darty off-centre, taking some getting used to Favourite Moment: Freeway on-ramp, getting reminded how much snot this thing has

Fuel This Month: 11.4L/100km Average: 11.4L/100km Distance this Month: 100KM Total: 5523km