BMW's 326-hp M135i hot hatch is the best BMW you can't buy

BMW ended 2014 as the most popular luxury car brand in America, a position it's held now for three of the past four years. Much of that has come from growing into every heard-of type of vehicle and a few unheard-of ones as well; the lineup now stretches from a $30,000 X1 crossover to a $111,000 M6 sedan. The largest BMW factory in the world sits in South Carolina, and every model BMW sells in Europe it sells here as well — with one fast exception.

Today, BMW unveiled new versions of its 1-Series hatchbacks, rear-wheel-drive cars the size of the Ford Focus that serve as entry-level vehicles in Europe. BMW sold the coupe and convertible versions of the 1-Series in the United States from 2011 to 2013, but now uses the more expressive 2-Series coupe and convertibles in their place. If it tried to sell some of the lower trim levels of the new 1-Series here, like those with cloth seats and a 136-hp engine, there would be cross-shopping with cars like the $27,000 Ford Focus Titanium, and that's just not worth the tiny profit, if any, BMW could make.

The only 1-Series in the new lineup that some of us might miss? The new M135i, a five-door hatch powered by a proper 3-liter inline six churning 326 hp and 332 lb-ft of torque through either an eight-speed automatic or a six-speed manual. The trip to 62 mph takes less than 5 seconds in the automatic, and the power-to-weight ratio lies within shouting distance of Detroit muscle (especially if we take those German performance figures as conservative by their traditional amount.)

BMW has no plans to bring the 1-Series hatches here, even if some sudden secret sect of hot-hatch heathens suddenly rose up as one and demanded it. BMW already offers the M235i coupe with the same engine here, and the M135i would need to be a $45,000 car before BMW could sell it profitably, not a price Americans are used to paying for hatchbacks of any performance level. It's just that those who would want it would wear it proudly — and that's not something so easy to find anywhere in the world.