I’m Clifford Atiyeh with CarGurus, and this is the 2016 BMW X1.
It’s the smallest BMW SUV in the lineup, and it’s all new for 2016.
What’s big, though, this year is that it’s based on a front-wheel-drive platform
shared with the MINI Cooper Clubman, and that means it’s packaged different,
it drives different, and it handles a bit different. So what exactly does that mean?
Come with us – let’s take a ride.
To be honest, I like the way the X1 I’m driving looks.
It has the Luxury package, so you have the contrasting black fenders and a
silver sort of running boards–they’re not really running boards–but it’s a nice
little decorative touch. The M Sport package basically fills all that with
the body color. Definitely looks nicer with the contrast, though, so I would say stick
with the Luxury package. Our car also has a lot more leather than you normally
would see in most X1s. This one has more stitching – you see that it’s white contrast
stitching.
Our car has a brown leather with this matte wood that some people think
looks a little fake.
Maybe it does, but it’s definitely a cut above the wood in your
standard Chevrolet Malibu, let's say.
Definitely, though, a step up from the last X1. There’s a lot more rubber
surfaces that are just softer. Before, you had a lot of harder plastics, especially in
the lower part of the dash trim. A lot of manufacturers, even BMW, tended to
cheap out doing that.
This car doesn’t have that, thankfully.
The steering wheel itself is really not all that nice in this car.
If it’s leather, it really doesn’t feel that nice – it really kind of feels more like
vinyl. And there’s no paddle shifters on here. If you swap for that for the M
Sport package, you do get the nicer steering wheel.
The instrumentation’s been really easy to use –
it’s got an LCD display here that is basically mimicking part of the
tachometer. When you have the steering wheel column adjusted as high as it
can go–that’s kind of how I usually drive; it’s easier for me–
it blocks about half the screen.
So that’s quite annoying. That means you can’t see navigation turn-by-turn directions.
You won’t even see some of the warning messages that are on there.
BMWs have had this classic 2-gauge analog cluster for a long time – you still
have the amber instrument lighting. The climate controls are very simple, as are
the radio – they’re all physical buttons, so not everything is buried in that
infotainment system.
You also have the head-up display here – that’s another option, of course.
Everything is just very logical and pretty simple.
It’s not as expressive as some of the other designs now we’re seeing from
Mercedes-Benz, but it’s definitely more practical – I find it a lot easier to use
in everyday driving.
So on the long list of options that this car has, it has forward-
collision alert with pedestrian detection. Now, this only works in the
daytime. More expensive BMWs, like the 7 Series, have Night Vision that let the
cameras actually spot pedestrians at night – but this won’t do that. So you’ll have to
definitely do your due diligence – be like everybody else and pay attention. At
night though, you have LED headlamps – that’s another option. But they’re really a
really nice bluish white. It mimics the color temperature more of daylight than
even the Xenon HID lamps that you’ve seen elsewhere. But
they’re, again, a very expensive option, so most of the X1s that’ll be on the
road will probably just have the standard halogens, which are okay, but
they’re not quite as effective. The X5 and some of the larger SUVs from BMW in
that category are definitely quieter, but you pay much more money for them to
start. This car starts just under $35,000 base,
so we’re talking a different price category altogether. Sometimes the
suspension is just a little stiff.
There’s not too much give with these tires, but for most roads they’re
actually pretty good.
Obviously if you’re out in California, you probably never have to swap these summer
tires out.
I would usually hasten to get toward the
18-inch standard tires, but I do like the way they look so much. They’re nice two-
tone wheels; they’re a very pretty open-spoke design. The brake-pedal feel in the X1 is
nice and firm,
just like what you’d expect from a BMW. Not a lot of pedal travel, and it’s
pretty reassuring – the brake discs are quite good.
So this engine makes 228 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque –
that’s down about 13 horsepower from the previous-generation X1. It’s a 2.0-liter
turbocharged 4-cylinder engine with Automatic Start Stop, so it’ll shut
off the engine when you’re at Stop lights or braking for a while.
It’s got an 8-speed automatic transmission. There’s plenty of power in
this engine, to be honest; you really don’t need anything bigger.
The previous X1 had an optional twin-turbo 6-cylinder that had 300
horsepower – lot of fun, but it was really too much for that size vehicle. This car
gets a lot better fuel economy.
It’s rated at 32 miles per gallon highway and 22 city.
Right now I've been getting about 25 or 26 in our testing,
so that’s not too bad. If you want to take it up a notch, you have a couple
driving modes – you can hit it up to Sport; it firms up the steering, and it
sharpens the throttle response a bit. But in most normal driving–this is the Normal
mode–it works really well.
So if we throw this into Sport,
immediately the transmission will kick down, the steering weight gets a little
heavier, and overall the car just wants to move a little bit more. If you throw the
transmission into Sport, now you’re kind of really cooking with it. And now
the speed limit here has just changed back to 30.
I can see that, but I can also see that in my heads-up display. This car has a
camera –
it’s called Traffic Sign Recognition. It’ll look at every single speed-limit
sign in sight and do it on the spot. Right after you pass that speed-limit
sign, you will see that not only on the head-up display, but also right on the
instrument cluster in that digital display.
Sometimes it’s not always accurate.
There’s a place where I live called “Route 10.” You know, it knows the route signs in
America look very similar to speed-limit signs, so sometimes it will either
underestimate or overestimate the speed depending on the number that it sees in that
white sign. But for the most part, it’s pretty good, and it does help you when things
change, especially when you’re going through towns.
It kind of handles more of like that go-kart
feeling like you get in the MINI Cooper, which, like again,
it shouldn’t be a surprise if it’s on the same chassis, but to be honest it’s just –
it’s actually pretty rewarding to drive, certainly more so than some of the
bigger BMWs I’ve been in.
Now, would you believe it, a backup camera is still not
standard in 2016. It will be in 2018 –
that’s when the federal government is mandating that all cars have it as
standard equipment.
But for now, BMW still charges you a couple hundred dollars extra for
that backup camera and also for parking sensors, so if you want that nice camera
on this widescreen display,
you will pay for that. It’s weird to say this, but BMW’s iDrive system is
really easy to use, especially in comparison to a lot of other systems out there.
Mercedes, for example, has the COMAND system, and it’s very complex now that they have
a touch-sensitive pad
in addition to the rotary controller. This system does also have a touchpad – it
has handwriting recognition, and you can swipe and zoom with the
navigation when it’s in map mode. But it’s actually, with a lot of the hard
buttons that are on this controller, I can switch between navigation and radio
and other settings without actually having to take my eyes off the road.
As with any system, you really do have to get used to it, but BMW’s is really fast
and easy to use in comparison to a lot of the competition.
The only funny thing about a BMW is all the equipment that you think should be
standard that isn’t. Like, for example,
push-button start with keyless entry. Like push-button start is standard, but
the keyless entry part is not. You want reclining rear seats –
that’s not standard. It’s things like that that BMW nickels-and-dimes you on.
I really liked driving this new X1, and I really didn’t expect it to drive like an
old-school BMW did, especially with the steering – feels really natural. Lot of
low-end torque from that 4-cylinder engine and better fuel economy than the
previous generation.
Plus, it looks a lot better, and it’s more practical. But if you’re going to spend
all this money on a car, you’re probably not going to spend
$48,000 like the car I have here.
You’ll probably get into a larger X3 or even a loaded Jeep Grand Cherokee for that
type of money. If you keep those options down, you have a much more reasonable contender
in this field. If you want to know more about the new X1, read my full review at
CarGurus.com. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and leave a comment below. And
thanks for watching.
