Buy mine for unlimited test drives
I'm a smaller bloke and sit on the floor Chris Harris style with plenty of space all around. At 6ft6 I think you'll be ok up front but there won't be much room in the back seats. For driver leg room you will have to move it back towards the centre of the car where the roof peaks so head space should be ok.
The 130s have a decent fanbase over in the UK, babybmw forum is worth a browse. The N52B30 and trans seems to be pretty bulletproof and in my research I found the common niggle to be the hydraulic valve adjuster tick.. Doesn't cause any damage to the engine just a bit of an annoyance. Being NA helps with the reliability.
In my bias opinion you would be mad to get the Axela instead. Nothing against the Mazda but the 130 is all-round cracking to drive.. b roads, plenty of grunt for the open road and great as a daily. Would love to get into a 335i wagon.
Any particular reason for looking at the facelift model?
