Plug-in to BMW's latest models

By ALASTAIR SLOANE, motoring editor

A professor at America's Stanford University goes between lectures with one hooked on his belt. Students reckon he's cool. Passengers on planes choose them over in-flight entertainment.

Photographers use them to download pictures from digital cameras. You see them in courtrooms as notetakers, in homes as mini-stereo systems - and in cars, using after-market connections to plug into the audio system.

It's the iPod, Apple computer's battery-powered mini music player, a portable hard drive that can hold 10,000 songs, hundreds of pictures or millions of words. It's become a fashion statement and a cultural icon all at once. Someone said it's the reason pockets were invented. A student in Japan said she bought an iPod because, "I only want something I can believe in."

Luxury German carmaker BMW believes in the future of iPod, too, because it is the first carmaker to provide a factory-built integrated connection to the audio system. It is under the centre armrest in BMW's latest model, the entry-level five-door 1-Series hatchback. It's not just for iPod and will accept rival mini-players. It isn't compatible with software in the car's multi-function steering wheel, in that you can't use the audio dials on the spokes to scroll through the iPod menu. Not until BMW updates the software. For now, you have to choose from the iPod itself.

The dedicated input for iPod and MP3 systems in the BMW is just one of the advances in improving in-car entertainment. It won't be long before drivers in New Zealand will be able to download songs from the internet.

BMW has equipped the 1-Series with the iPod link to lure younger buyers, 80 per cent of whom it believes will be first-time BMW owners.

These buyers will get a treat, because the car is a driver's delight, thanks to a torsionally strong body, a MacPherson strut front/multi-link rear suspension, a 50:50 weight split and the dynamic advantages of drive going to the rear wheels.

It launched its first offering, the 2-litre 120i, the other day on roads south of Auckland and on the racetrack at Pukekohe.

Why the track? It wanted to show how its first entry in the compact segment behaved at speeds considerably faster than the law will allow.

Australian Geoff Brabham, son of Formula One great Jack, ran the track tests, which included high-speed circuits and slalom-type manoeuvres. That's what he does for a job, see, teaching driver skills for BMW in Australia.

Brabham finished the track session saying: "I hope this showed just how well balanced this car is." He knows that the 1-Series might just be BMW's best all-rounder.

So does new BMW New Zealand managing director Mark Gilbert: "It puts a premium performance edge into a segment which we don't think is there."

The 1-Series range starts with the 85kW 1.6-litre model, priced at $38,900 and mated to a five-speed manual gearbox. It arrives in November.

The 110kW 120i is on sale from next month, starting at $54,900. So, too, is the 120kW 2-litre turbodiesel 120d, also priced from $54,900. Both come with the choice of six-speed manual or six-speed automatic gearboxes.

The 95kW 118i, using a less powerful version of the 2-litre 120i unit, is priced from $40,900 and arrives in February. The base models get a five-speed manual transmission. Better equipped units get six-speed manual and automatic gearboxes. Bigger 17-inch wheels and suspension enhancements can push the price of the 120i up to about $63,000. This is fringing on the entry-level 3-Series sedan, the 320d turbodiesel, BMW's best value-for-money car by a country mile.

A nifty feature in the 1-Series is the stop-start ignition button, armed by a key fob that slots into the dash. The GT Bentley has something similar.

The five-door hatchback is the first of the 1-Series range. BMW expect a coupe and sedan to be available in 2006-2007.