BMW X1 xDrive23i: long-term test review

Verdict

Overall, I’m a fan of the BMW X1 so far when, initially, I feared I might be anything but. Maybe I’m growing up? Maybe a good-to-drive small SUV is just what I’ve been missing all these years? I think it’s a bit of both.

• 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.

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.