BMW X1 2009 Review - International

BMW X1 xDrive 28i

Not so much
>> Poor ride quality. Again
>> Not exactly handsome. Again
>> Limited driver odds-and-sods storage

Overall rating: 3.0/5.0
Engine and Drivetrain: 4.5/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 4.0/5.0
Safety: 4.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 2.0/5.0
X-factor: 2.5/5.0

About our ratings

With a 3 Series chassis as its basic building blocks, BMW's X1 baby-SUV was never likely to want for dynamic ability. And it doesn't.

What it has lacked to date is urgency and linear power delivery. That's because when BMW launched its sub-X3 machine a few months ago in Europe, it did so only with fuel-sipping turbodiesel engines. Sure, they hauled the five-door across the Continent at high speed without stopping, but they also lacked that vital spark and intuitively linear feeling that only highly responsive petrol engines can give.

Now, finally, the X1's energy levels have taken a major pep pill with the addition of the Bavarian brand's much-praised 3.0-litre inline petrol six-cylinder engine into its engine bay.

The details of the X1 xDrive 28i's engine ought to be familiar. With most of it made from aluminium alloy or even-lighter magnesium alloy, it's been around for a generation of BMWs, powering everything from the 1 to 7 Series. BMW has kept it fresh over the years adding infinitely variable camshaft timing and variable valve lift, too, so it breaths better, gets a broader spread of torque at lower revs and keeps spinning sweetly up high.

The Australian car market has come a long way in the last few years but the 28i is still expected to be on the undercard behind the bigger-selling X1 diesels. And that's a pity because there's a lot to like about this engine in the X1. For a start it reacts more like the spritely, cleanly crisp sort of machine Australians expect from six-pot Beemers.

Lower and lighter than the X3, the X1 gathers a lot of clever components and practicality in a less-imposing machine that handles more like the BMW stereotype than its big brother.

Like the diesels, it uses BMW's electric steering and other Efficient Dynamics tweaks to help pull down fuel consumption to 9.4L/100km on the combined cycle -- good, but not brilliant.

It fires up smoothly and sweetly, settling into an impressively composed idle, then it moves off with a lovely, familiar feeling of oodles of strength in reserve. The trouble is that, even when rolling out of the driveway, we noticed vertical shocks that, disturbingly, weren't there any of the times I've arrived and left the same locale in old taxis.

In fact, such was the impression that, almost immediately, we pulled over to check. Sure, BMW fitted the test car with the larger, sexier 18-inch wheels instead of the standard 17-inch wheels and 225/50 R17 tyres, but that should not have mattered much. If it's offered with 18s, BMW should figure out a way to make it ride properly on them.

It's becoming a bugbear from Bavarian cars, and even before the 28i has hit third gear, it encroached on the rest of the driving experience, making a simple, potholed intersection feel like you're driving over a relief map of Switzerland.

This is not an impression that dissipates with speed either. As there wasn't an opportunity to try an X1 with the smaller wheel and tyre package all we can tell you at this stage is: if BMW tries to up sell you into a sportier suspension setup, just say no. The pity of it is that, with more suspension travel from what is essentially a high-rise 3 Series Touring, the X1should have far better ride quality than the big-selling sibling.

In spite of all that extra height, the 1685kg X1 doesn't suffer much by comparison to the 3 Series wagon in handling, acceleration or interior comfort.

The engine is just a dead-set sweetheart of a thing, with its tone light and friendly at low revs, deeper and gruffer when you bury the throttle and, finally, sparklingly clean as it revs to its peak power at 6600rpm. And it's fast enough, too, bursting to 100km/h in 6.8 seconds on the way to a 205km/h top speed. And it will do 205km/h, too, because we tested that on the autobahn, and it will do it with stability and assurance.

The 190kW engine thumps out 310Nm of torque at 2600rpm -- low down in the range for a petrol engine. Even though that falls well short of the 400Nm laid down as the benchmark by the X1 23d's twin-turbo four-cylinder diesel, it isn't so surging and it feels more linear and easier to live with day in and day out.

The six-speed auto works a treat, too, shuffling comfortably through the gears to prove that it's in perfect harmony with this engine. The xDrive permanent all-wheel drive set-up shuffles 60 per cent of the drive to the rear end of the car most of the time.

While electric steering hasn't developed enough to be a highlight here, it doesn't let the car down and the entire handling package is crisp and, well, easy. There just never seems to be a situation that catches it out and, even when the skid control systems are needed, they just do their job with the blink of an orange light, then disappear again quickly.

Inside, it's a familiar mix of 1 Series-style treatments across the dashboard, extremely comfortable seats, a hip point somewhere between the 3 Series and the X3 in height and lots of spaciousness and good vision everywhere you look.

The rear seats can be tight for fully fledged adults, though three kids will sit across them happily enough. The rear luggage compartment is riddled with clever touches to tie small packages down without compromising its ability to swallow surprising loads with its 1350-litre maximum capacity.

In the end, the X1 looks like the car that could finally succeed Down Under, where the X3 largely has failed. It carries the same, unfortunate body styling, but it's lower and easier to get in and out of, uses a lot of the same hardware as the sweet-handling 3 Series, doesn't suffer too much in terms of interior space and it will be cheaper, too.

And, with the addition of the 3.0-litre straight six to the diesel units, it's added the jewel in the BMW engine crown as well.

Now, if they can just give it some suspension compliance on small bumps...

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