While North Americans can only look on in envy, BMW is already manufacturing performance variations of its new, bottom-line, affordable 1 Series. So far, we're told, BMW is not offering the 1 Series here because it's a hatchback and Americans and Canadians supposedly look on hatchbacks as some lowly form of life only found in the parking lots of defunct industrial warehouses.

Have the munchkins of Munich checked out the Audi A3 hatch, a hot item wherever enthusiasts gather to talk cars? Or the Mazda3 hatch, unanimously championed in the media as the best small car in America? Clearly this is a case where BMW's North American marketing types are not paying attention. If nothing else, they should remember their own 2002. Though a 2-door compact and not a hatch, it singlehandedly changed BMW's image from non-Entity to the car to have if you needed sedan versatility but loved the art of driving. I owned one when they first arrived in New York, took it with me when I was transferred to Europe, and look back on it with great fondness. Yes, I was a jerk for selling it.

Meanwhile, the rest of the world can now have an M version of the 1 Series, with all that implies. And in some countries, as the German Car Fans site informs us, a 1 Series 130i M Sport is available with a whopping 265 hp. Unfortunately it costs almost as much as a 330i which, as this review informs us, is "a much more complete machine." So no regrets over that monster but we in the New World deserve an opportunity to own a basic 1 Series. Unless, of course, a retro 2002 is on the way.