BMW X1 xDrive23i: long-term test review

Verdict

The more time that I spend with the X1, and the more miles that I do in it, the more impressed I am by the job that BMW has done with it. Hand on heart, the latest X1 is way better than I thought it was going to be, and then some.

• Mileage: 4,525
• Economy: 35.9mpg

The things I really like about our third-generation long-term BMW X1 xDrive23i M Sport are, in no particular order: the way it looks, the combination of comfort and support on offer from its excellent sports seats, the impressive quality and fine basic design of its high-class interior, the admirable amount of space and practicality it has in its rear seats and boot, its complex-but-brilliant new central touchscreen control system and, for most of the time, the way it drives.

That’s a pretty long list of positives, and there aren’t too many negatives I’ve unearthed over the first 4,500 miles with which to ruin it, either, apart from the overly aggressive response of its brakes and the fact that the rev counter isn’t always displayed (call me old fashioned, but I quite like a rev counter). In fundamental terms, the X1 is hard to fault, easy to like. As a result, I’m getting on with it much better than I expected to be, given that it’s the entry-level point to BMW’s ever-expanding range of Sports Utility Vehicles.

I also really enjoy driving it just for the sake of driving it, and before I actually got behind the wheel that’s not something I thought I’d ever say about a BMW X1. No, it’s not a car that would ever motivate me to get up at 4.30am purely to drive it across a great road, but it was never designed by BMW to be such a vehicle in the first place.

Instead, the X1 is meant to fit right into your life with surprising ease and, for me, it achieves precisely that. How come? Because it does all the practical stuff far better than I ever imagined it might. It’s also roomier in all directions than I thought it was going to be and its cabin is far better equipped and much higher in quality than I expected from such a relatively humble member of BMW’s model range. To a point where it has a high-end identity all of its own. It doesn’t feel like a second-class citizen beside an X5, for example, whereas previously the X1 has always had the whiff of being the runt of the litter. From this specific point of view, it’s a masterstroke of design and engineering.

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Also, the tech it contains isn’t just superficially impressive; most of it simply works really well, too, even if there are some folks who will inevitably be put off by the fact there are virtually no buttons to press from behind the wheel.

Instead, pretty much everything in the car is controlled by the big central TFT screen. To begin with, you tend to think, “I hate this, where have all the switches gone?” But soon you get used to it, and a little after that you get to quite like it, and now I’m dreading the day when I no longer have everything under my control on one big touchscreen.

I still think the ride is way too stiff (because it is, especially on lumpy town roads), although I’m sure it would be a lot less neurotic if our car were fitted with smaller wheels and went without the M Sport suspension. Then again, it wouldn’t look anything like as tasty as it does if you removed the 20-inch alloys, so it’s a compromise that needs to be individually assessed.

What I’m increasingly unimpressed by (weirdly) is the fuel economy, which appears to have dropped from just over 41mpg to begin with to not a lot more than 35mpg nowadays. I’m not sure why; I still drive our X1 in Efficient mode when I’m in town, and in Personal mode on more open roads, just as I always have. Maybe my increasing enthusiasm for the way it drives means I’m driving it that bit harder nowadays without realising; who knows?

Another issue, and it’s just a minor one for now, is an interior passenger light that appears to have developed a mind of its own. It flickers on and off randomly, and if it persists I might have to head to a dealer to get it sorted.

BMW X1 xDrive23i: first report

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Marmite grilles aside, the new BMW X1 small SUV is already impressing

• Mileage: 2,189
• Economy: 41.1mpg

The third-generation BMW X1 is a Marmite kind of car if ever there was one, mostly because of the way it looks. Some hate the grilles, others think they give the new X1 serious road presence.

Either way, in Frozen Pure Grey matt paint and with enormous 20-inch M-Sport wheels at each corner, the car certainly turns heads – in a way the previous-generation model never quite managed to.

What’s more radical, arguably, is its all-new high-tech interior, in which you’ll find almost no buttons whatsoever. Instead you get screens – and lots of them, some huge, some small, but all of them designed to make your on-board experience more interactive – once you’ve learned how to interact with them in the first place. Depending how tech-savvy you are, this will either happen quite quickly, quite slowly, or possibly not at all.

I’ve spent three weeks with our xDrive23i M Sport and I’m now pretty familiar with its tech. I’ve installed the My BMW app on my phone and the car has only tried to park itself a couple of times when I’ve not asked it to, while the lane-departure system can be a bit over-zealous. Overall, though, I’d say I’m gelling with the X1’s on-board tech.

Most of it works fine, a lot of it works brilliantly, and only some of it leaves me baffled by its over-complexity. But I am no longer flummoxed by it, which is good.

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Our X1 is powered by a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder mild-hybrid engine with 215bhp and 360Nm. Mated to a snappy seven-speed auto gearbox, this is enough to send the X1 to 62mph in 7.1 seconds and on to a top speed of 145mph, so it’s not slow.

Emissions and economy are also impressive, with just 154g/km and, so far on test, an average of 41.1mpg. That’s only a touch worse than BMW’s official combined claim of 42.2mpg, and shows how frugal the combination of mild-hybrid power and an already efficient 2.0-litre petrol engine can be in the real world, even in a vehicle that weighs one-and-three-quarter tonnes.

Company car tax is rated at 36%, while over three years and 36,000 miles the trade reckons our car will lose around £18,000 of its original £41,470 asking price. Take our car’s options into consideration and the asking price rises to just over £50k.

On the move the X1 is great in some aspects, odd in others, irritating in one specific area, yet better than I thought it might be overall. Its performance is livelier and more refined than I was expecting and its gearbox works really well. The electric steering is okay but nothing more, the handing and body control decently sharp for a car with such a high driving position and centre of gravity. The ride on the 20-inch wheels is not great at all, though.

But, whisper this, I do quite like the driving position because it makes the thing so damn easy to see out of compared with my previous, low-slung, two-seat cars.

*Insurance quote from AA (0800 107 0680) for a 42-year-old in Banbury, Oxon, with three points.