Road Test: BMW X1 18d Sport

Price as tested: €47,670

+ Sharp chassis, more welcoming interior, practical, plenty of poke from smaller engine
– Still looks a little awkward, pricey
= Really quite a sweet car
In just two and a half years, the BMW X1 has notched up sales of more than a quarter of a million units, and that it without it being sold in the massive US car market, a situation BMW is well on the way to rectifying. If you ever doubted the massive current global appetite for classy, compact SUVs, then doubt it no more.

There is a massive slice of my brain that rails against these cars though. Take the specific car we’re testing here; €47k’s worth of X1 18d Sport. Yes, it’s chunky, good looking (if you appreciate the current BMW design idiom) and both decently spacious and practical. But for the same money, you could be in a lower-slung, better looking, better-driving BMW 3 Series Touring, a car that I believe to be just about perfect. Yet people will continue to flock to the X1.

Which should be abhorrent to me (I just love estates) and yet, with a few days in the X1’s company it easily charmed its way into my affections.

The styling has been updated for this year, with a new bumper, front airdam, tweaked lights and some other small adjustments. Cleverly, the converging lines of the bonnet’s power bulge and the upsweep of the front bumper actually makes a subtle X-shape. Clever, that.

Inside, the quality of materials used and the fact that the centre console has been redesigned (it now faces more obviously towards the driver) is genuinely welcoming. The Sport spec helps here, with figure-hugging seats that, in spite of a distinctly offset driving position, mean long journeys are very comfy experiences. In spite of being an X1, it’s pretty close to the 3 Series in space terms, and the boot out the back is large (420-litres), deep and square. A shame that the X1 doesn’t get a separate opening glass window in the tailgate (as does the 3 Touring) but hey, you can’t have everything.

Having some cake and eating it is the very point of the newly-fitted 18d diesel engine though. In spite of the name, it’s actually a de-tuned 2.0-litre (1,995cc to be exact) and pumps out 143bhp and 320Nm of torque. Those aren’t exactly ground-shaking figures, but actually the X1 feels plenty brisk and only starts to struggle when you get into the upper reaches of the rev band. Happily, with that much low-down torque, you won’t need to do that very much, so progress is swift and relaxed.

Thanks to BMW’s clever EfficientDynamics systems (a battery of fuel-saving tech including stop-start, brake energy recovery, a low-drain air conditioning compressor and more) the X1 18d returns impressive official figures of 5.4-litres per 100km (that’s 52mpg) and 143g/km of Co2. Impressively, those figures are attained with the optional 8-speed automatic gearbox fitted, as it was to our test car. It costs a whopping €2,191 but it’s so smooth, unobtrusive and effective that it just might be worth it. An auto that genuinely calls the need for a manual into question.

BMW has also clearly been at work on its suspension setups. A few years ago, a large-wheeled (17” alloys), stiffly-sprung BMW SUV in Sport spec would have been a recipe for loosened fillings and shattered spines. This time around though, although Germanic firm-ness is still the name of the game, there is a subtle suppleness that makes everything much more relaxing. And yet the BMW traditions of sharp handling and a balanced chassis are still there in spades. Meanwhile, the X-Drive all-wheel-drive system gives you terrific confidence in changing conditions. Or just when it’s chucking it down with rain. You can get a cheaper S-Drive version with rear-wheel-drive, but if you’re buying an SUV, shouldn’t it be 4wd?

One caveat though; the steering, which although communicative and brilliant at speed just weights up too much around town and at lower speeds. It’s just too darned heavy and surely that’s not good for the likely target market for these cars.

Still, with that one small flaw in the diamond, I’ve come away from the X1 really rather liking it. No, it’s not perfect and yes, I’d still overall have a 3 Series Touring for similar money, but if you’re into the whole SUV thing (and many, many of you are) and you fancy the famed Blue and White flag of Munich on your driveway (again; many, many) then this is a good place to start.

BMW X1 X-Drive 18d Sport
Price as tested: €47,670
Price range: €35,160 to €49,010
Capacity: 1,995
Power: 143bhp
Torque: 320Nm
Top speed: 195kmh
0-100kmh: 10.1sec
Economy: 5.4l-100km (52.3mpg)
CO2 emissions: 143g/km
Road Tax Band: C. €330
Euro NCAP rating: 5-star; 87% adult, 86% child, 64% pedestrian, 71% safety assist