[Pristineship]

just wanted to share my very first impressions of the car while I still have it mind

F48 X1 sDrive 20i X Line

first of all - PSA - DO NOT buy the all weather rubber floormats.
They are worthless. They sure LOOK good. Probably the nicest rubber mats I ever saw in a car. But they are flat. There are "drain lines" to collect rain water from the shoes or snow or whatever, but the borders of the mats are really low, I honestly can't see how they will hold even tiny spots of water in winter. But what is really bad is that they are flat - usually rubber mats have this kind of grid surface, so when you step on it with dirty shoes, the whole shoe is not touching the mat, but here the mats are mighty dirty after couple short rides and one rainy day. I already ordered some no-name mats, will probably swap just the driver's and keep the BMW for passengers, as I do not drive that many people around. But waste of 100 EUR , for sure.

Interior

- the seats. I know what I am getting into and I have no complaints. But the seats sure do look comically narrow. I did not find the best position yet, but that always takes days, sometimes weeks. But tody I took my father for dinner and let him drive the car and when I sat on the passenger seat it was PERFECT. I felt really comfortable, I will have to try to mimic the seat position on the driver's seat tomorrow morning .
My biggest gripe with the seating is actually the door - I find the back door pointlessly large in comparison to front doors, that I would love to have them at least 2 inches wider. I have the seat quite low and far back, so when I enter the car I have to first squeeze my ass in like when you step into a London cab .
Maybe they will offer X2 also with 3 doors, like Evoque does. That would be ideal for my next car .
The bolsters (I have sport seats) are one of the firmest I ever saw in a standard passenger car. For some that sure can be problematic. I have fat thighs that are providing enough padding .
The x-line leather-cloth trim looks good, especially the cloth part, but the "leather" feels cheap, I honestly can't tell if it is leather or sensatec, does not feel too natural to me. But I don't care about that.

The center armrest is quite comfortable, I would welcome one more step up to lock it in position, but it is still OK.

Storage - rather disappointing. The armrest and box underneath provides good amount of space, but the cupholders are a joke in this day and age. 1L bottle does not fit in, 0,5 paper cups barely fit in and I do not feel safe with one in there. Did not find yet a good place to keep sunglasses, the door bin is not easily accessible when driving (for my seating position). But I moved from an MPV to a crossover, so i expected that, maybe I just expected more clever solutions, X1 being basically the same car as 2er A/G tourer.

It is really a shame the ceiling ane make up lights are not LED and they probably keep this candy for LCI.
Because otherwise I do like the interior lights in the door panels and also in front of passenger.

I would probably be more happy with a center column that I can lean my knee on, as without it my leg above the ankle hurts a bit after longer drive, will have to figure it somehow (with a tiny pillow maybe

Sunroof - I don't know why I expected it will be a bit more to the front. But it is great. And I love the black roof liner, also when I drive the black A pillars are less distracting that white ones.

Tech

Keyless locking I would expect faster. Had it on some VW/Audi cars before, the last iteration I had on Golf mk7 - it was super reliable and fast. Unlock is fast, no complaints. But locking I have to actually press the button area, and sometimes wait up to 2 seconds to lock the car. Annoying (when you are accustomed to instant lock)

I would also expect on a car in this price range to have keyless buttons on all 4 doors....but I knew that before, but it is worth mentioning.

the key I do not like. It is too lightweight. I really do not know if it is in my pocket, and that is bad thing for me. I started to wear it in my shirt pocket, it anyway does not make a bulge and the key buttons are super sensitive. I managed to unlock and open the trunk 5 minutes I had the key during taking delivery of it at the dealership. Very, very soft buttons, will have to get a key cover.
I like it does not have the flip-out key (I do not understand why they gave me one for Golf, the only place to stick the key in is a hidden lock under the door handle in case of battery fault, for that they could just use the valet key style, not the one with a hinge), but the key is made from cheap crappy plastic.

head-up - absolutely worth every penny for the Plus satnav upgrade. For the larger screen alone and couple more functions I would not go for it, bud headup was in the package, and the standard display with those sidewalls looks horrible.

harman/kardon. The biggest disappointment. It cost 100 EUR more than a Dynaudio system I had in Golf. H/k has more speakers and really does create better soundstage. But the missing equalizer is a massive fail. I play my music through spotify, and luckil the equalizer in the app, which I used for the first time, does mitigate the situation a bit. But I was expecting the option to set profiles for different kinds of music. Knowing this, i would probably next time just go for the BMW Hi-FI.

ACC works well, I would say the logic in the software makes it a better experience than I had in Golf. But Golf has a radar, X1 does not, so I did not try it yet in dark or rain. But on a clear weather day it worked a bit smoother than the radar - if the car in front of you is driven by a gas-brake-gas-brake maniac with a radar based VW your care behaves the same - accelerates, brakes, rinse and repeat. X1 was smoother

I did not have the time to peruse the manual, did not yet find if the car as hill-hold asist (not autohold, just that it brakes for few seconds when you want to move uphill from standstill)

the LED lights are FAN--TA-STIC. Nothing more to say. Love them. I am not even mad I couldn't order "big boy" adaptive lights for this rebadged Mini, they really are great.

camera - very good picture on the Plus screen. Being able to set brigtness and contrast is great. The moving wheel trajectory lines are the best thing about the camera, because I have a very narrow space in front of my garage, so I have to back into the garage from almost 90 degree angle. With the wheel lines I can do it on 1 take, before I usually had to correct the position once or twice (I am not a good park-meister). Downside - it gets dirty instantly. I was used to my Golf where the camera pops out from underneath the badge and then crawls back in.
What I also don't like is that camera feed comes on every time you parkingt he car and moving the gear lever from D to P.

Front PDC sensors are not that good in my opinion. Stuff I was used to being picked up by 3 previous cars is ignored by X1 (even though it would scrape the shit ouf the front bumper)

I just realized I did not notice if the side mirrors auto-dim works . Which probably means they do, as nobody was xraying my head from behind.

and even the little things, as windshield washers - the best jets I ever saw on a car, miles batter than those Volvo ones that are directly on the wipers. The way how it distributes the water on the windshield is really great - fast and effective. I love it

The Ride

The transmission honestly feels a lot like double clutch DSG I had in VW. Very fast, and did not notice much "random number generator" shifting except one steep hill I have to climb when driving home - it is just few hundred meters, but there it downshifts quite a lot, where DSG was a bit less obvious about the downshifts.

I did not yet try Sport mode, will do for couple of minutes tomorrow, I just want to try some dynamic accelerations, like from 50kmh to 100kmh - not full throttle, just some "dynamic" acceleration. Because I honestly did expect it to be a tiny bit more agile, but I suspect Comfort mode is toning it down a bit.

The mileage surprised me - at first it showed 10,5l/100 for the first 120km. I was a bit surprised, I expected 8,5 maybe 9, for the engine being new, and I drove mostly on A roads. But then I realized the car was moved a lot on the dealer's lot - so I did a reset. For the last about 80km the BC shows 7.0l/100 (33.6 mpg US, 40.35 UK)
As long as it is under 10l/100km I am happy.

I do like the comfort. I was skeptical about the EDC at first, after all it is not adaptive ride or anything, just EDC. And R18 runflats - I expected a nightmare. Completely the opposite, even though those Pirelli P7 tires I do not like so far. But the comfort is very, very good.
If someone says F48 does not drive "like a BMW" then I don't know what he wants from this car, because compare it with other cars without AD, just mere EDC/DDC, and runflats - I doubt you will get much better results.

People complainted about noise - I find the car very well insulated. You can hear the engine humming when you accelerate, but especially because of the low noise in the cabin for me it was very easy to miss the speed limit and drive 150kmh on 130 limit. I really did not notice, felt like I am driving 120 tops. If I did not have a head up display I woul dnot notice it at all.

The engine from the outside on the other hand - sounds like a diesel
But it also pulls like a diesel!
I always drove my VW Golf in Sport mode, because it kept higher rpm in the city, I never felt good about the engine being suffocated in 7th gear and 1200rpm in the city. But that was 1.4 engine with 125hp.
The 192hp 2.0 engine here has absolutely zero problems driving in 1200rpm where comfort mode keeps it all the time.
It really seems to be true you can't cheat the size with turbo all the way down.

as I said, I am interested to see how the engine and transmission will behave in sport mode.

So far only one "wtf" moment, well happened twice actually - start button could not unlock the steering column. It tried 3 - 4 times, just buzzing from the steering wheel, then it said - hit Start again and rotate the steering wheel to unlock. First time it was OK and easy, like sometimes happens in every car (although never happened to me in a car with keyless entry), second time I had to use a lot of force and the sound it made was rather unhealthy). It is true the wheels were not straitght when I parked the car, but later I parked the car with front wheels even more to the side and it went OK.

But overall - Like that car very much, no buyer's remorse, there are little things like - would probably not go for harman kardon again, but I never had a car where I did not find some stuff to bitch about.
It is a very good car. But it is important to mention - you should really try to sit inside first, those seats, both standard or sport, will not be comfortable for some people. I don't mean enter the car and get out in a minute, but even if you are not able to do a longer test drive, sit inside at the dealer, read some emails on your phone and try to evaluate how do you feel about sitting 20 minutes in that seat.

[E90Fleet]

Originally Posted by Pristineship

harman/kardon. The biggest disappointment. It cost 100 EUR more than a Dynaudio system I had in Golf. H/k has more speakers and really does create better soundstage. But the missing equalizer is a massive fail. I play my music through spotify, and luckil the equalizer in the app, which I used for the first time, does mitigate the situation a bit. But I was expecting the option to set profiles for different kinds of music. Knowing this, i would probably next time just go for the BMW Hi-FI.

The HK system needs to be run in for a while before sounding its best.
Its also quite sensitive to source quality. I find streaming sources to be quite bad. Low bit rate MP3 also also bad. Higher bit rate ones much better and full quality CD's maybe slightly better.

Wire connection is also better than bluetooth connection

Originally Posted by Pristineship

So far only one "wtf" moment, well happened twice actually - start button could not unlock the steering column. It tried 3 - 4 times, just buzzing from the steering wheel, then it said - hit Start again and rotate the steering wheel to unlock. First time it was OK and easy, like sometimes happens in every car (although never happened to me in a car with keyless entry), second time I had to use a lot of force and the sound it made was rather unhealthy). It is true the wheels were not straitght when I parked the car, but later I parked the car with front wheels even more to the side and it went OK.

Straightening you wheels after parking should eliminate this.

Originally Posted by Pristineship

The engine from the outside on the other hand - sounds like a diesel
.

Yup, Direct Injection sound

[Nivarox]

Thanks for the detailed review, it's good to see happy owners

[Phaeton]

excellent review. Seats, yup. Smaller infotainment screen, terrible (my biggest pet peeve). I haven't had snow yet to test the all-weather mats, but they were free (including the cargo) so I can't complain (much).

Sure wish the X1 had a little wider tires. Looking at mine next to a colleagues Tiguan R Line and it looks anemic.

[immy786r123]

Wait till you put it into sports mode, completely changes the throttle response and makes it very aggressive. Once You start driving in sports mode, you might find it hard to go back and drive in comfort. Nevertheless, thank you for the very informative review!

[TygerBright]

Hi Pristineship

Great to read the detailed review. I'm looking to order an X1 soon so this is all really useful information.

Could you advise on the options you ordered?

Seems like you went for the tech pack? I'm sold on the reversing camera but I'm deliberating over the HK versus hifi myself and comfort access is a luxury...

Also EDC is on the maybe list. I totally get that it makes the Sport mode come to life but was wondering if it helps turn Comfort mode into ummm Comfort+

Have my first test drive soon so I should be able to nail it down!

Cheers.

[Pristineship]

as the packages differ across markets maybe I will post the equipment list from VIN

Type code HS71
Type X1 SDRIVE20I (EUR)
Dev. series F48 ()
Line X
Body type GEFZG
Steering LL
Door count 5
Engine B48M
Cubical capacity 2.00
Power 141
Transmision FRONT
Gearbox AUT
Colour ALPINWEISS 3 (300)
Upholstery STOFF/LEDER/GRANITBRAUN/SCHWARZ (CWG4)
Prod. date 2016-09-23
Order options
No. Description
1AG LARGER-CAPACITY FUEL TANK
1CA SELECTION COP RELEVANT VEHICLES
1CB CO2 CONTENT
2PA LOCKING WHEEL BOLTS
2TB SPORT AUTOMATIC TRANSMISSION
2VB TYRE PRESSURE INDICATOR
2VL VARIABLE SPORTS STEERING
223 DYNAMIC DAMPER CONTROL
230 EU SPECIFIC ADDITIONAL EQUIPMENT
248 STEERING WHEEL HEATING
249 MULTI-FUNCTION FOR STEERING WHEEL
258 RUNFLAT TYRES
28A 18"L.A WHEELS Y-SPOKE 569
3AG BACKUP CAMERA
3AT ROOF RAILS ALUMINIUM SATINATED
3L8 EXTERIOR PARTS IN ALUMINIUM SATINED
313 EXTERIOR MIRROR PACKAGE
316 AUTOMATIC TAILGATE OPERATION
320 MODEL DESIGNATION, DELETION
322 COMFORT ACCESS SYSTEM
4FD SEAT ADJUSTMENT FOR REAR SEATS
4GG INT.TR.FIN.PEARL.D.W.HI.T.F.PEARL C
4NE BLOW-BY-HEATER
402 PANORAMA GLASS ROOF
423 FLOOR MATS, VELOUR
428 WARNING TRIANGLE
430 INT/EXT RR VW MIRROR W AUT ANTI-DAZZLE
431 INTERIOR RR VW MIRROR W AUT ANTI-D
459 SEAT ADJUSTM., ELECTR. W. MEMORY
470 CHILD SEAT ISOFIX ATTACHMENT
473 ARMREST, FRONT
481 SPORT SEATS F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
488 LUMBAR SUPPORT DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
493 STORAGE COMPARTMENT PACKAGE
494 SEAT HEATING F DRIVER/FRONT PASSENGER
5AR TRAFFIC-QUEUE ASSISTANT
5AT DRIVING ASSISTANT PLUS
5A4 LED HEADLIGHTS W.EXTENDED FEATURES
5DF ACTIVE CRUISE CTRL+STOP&GO FUNCT.
5DP PARK ASSISTANT
502 HEADLIGHT WASHER SYSTEM
508 PARK DISTANCE CONTROL (PDC)
534 AUTOMATIC AIR CONDITIONING
563 LIGHTS PACKAGE
575 ADDITIONAL 12V POWER SOCKET
6AC INTELLIGENT EMERGENCY CALL
6AE TELESERVICES
6AK CONNECTEDDRIVE SERVICES
6NS ENHANCED TELEPHONY WITH EXTENDED SM
6UP NAVIGATION PLUS
610 HEAD UP DISPLAY
674 HIFI LOUDSPEAKER SYSTEM HARMAN KARDON
698 AREA-CODE 2
7HW XLINE
7LG GUIDANCE PACKAGE
7LH CONVENIENCE PACKAGE
7LM MODEL XLINE
7NH SERVICE INCLUSIVE 5/100
710 M LEATHER STEERING WHEEL
775 INDIVIDUAL ROOF-LINING ANTHRACITE
8AK SLOVAKIAN / ON-BOARD DOCUMENTATION
8AP ASSEMBLY JIG
8A5 LANGUAGE VERSION SLOWAKISCH
8KA OELSERVICE INT. 30.000 KM/24 MONTHS
8R9 REFRIGERANT
8TF ACTIVE PROTECTION FOR PEDESTRIANS
9AA EXTERNAL SKIN PROTECTION
Series options
No. Description
2VG PERFORMANCE CONTROL
548 SPEEDOMETER WITH KILOMETER READING

[The Beast]

I like the HK and think it's very well controlled, however it needs to be cranked up to appreciate it. My F10 HK is much better in terms of bass response at lower volumes but I think the tops and mids on the F48 are actually better

[Pristineship]

Originally Posted by TygerBright

Hi Pristineship

Great to read the detailed review. I'm looking to order an X1 soon so this is all really useful information.

Could you advise on the options you ordered?

Seems like you went for the tech pack? I'm sold on the reversing camera but I'm deliberating over the HK versus hifi myself and comfort access is a luxury...

Also EDC is on the maybe list. I totally get that it makes the Sport mode come to life but was wondering if it helps turn Comfort mode into ummm Comfort+

Have my first test drive soon so I should be able to nail it down!

Cheers.

I personally would not go for H/K if I would build the configuration today.
I drove company cars in the past with H/K, Burmester, Mark Levinson, Bose, SOny, - soundsystems for 500, 1000, even 2000+ upgrades, I have a good idea what to expect from a soundsystem upgrade in the sub1000 bracket. I drove the past year a VW Golf with Dynaudio sound, that on paper should be less competent than this h/k, but it really isn´t. I also tried 320kbit cbr mp3s from usb (most of the time I use the spotify extreme quality offline 320kbit as source), but I found the sound to be simply put - flat. I don´t need sound monitors, I want speakers with some bang and some juice.
On the other hand, listening to a live recording of some concert, HK wins, hands down. the sound stage is really nice. However that is not the important criteria for me.

In every car you should always buy the camera if it is an option, always. No point discussing it. It can save you from scraping the rims when parallel parking, it will help you reverse park the car more precisely, it is really a must, IMO.

Comfort access is a way to save money, for sure, but beware - you will HATE the key with burning passion. And as you wil have to actually touch it a lot, you really will feel kinda upset, that an expensive small suv has a key like Tata Nano. I honestly never held a key that felt so cheaply made.

EDC is not adaptive drive. so we can´t expect miracles. When I was ordering VW Golf last year I did not buy them, but I was taking the finance-to-own for that car,
and in VW it kinda just made the ride more stiffer in sport mode. And it was 900 EUR to buy, and replacement dampers that you ought to replace after approx 100m kilometers are 300-350 each.

I am leasing the X1 for 2 years/50000km so I do not care about the replacement EDC bill and therefore I ordered it.
I drove shortly also car without EDC on non-runflats and honestly I would probably not feel the difference. All I can say it is very comfortable , which I did not expect on R18 rft tires. But I do not feel competent to give advice whether to order it or not, after all I have the car 3rd day today.
I tried briefly the sport mode today and there I maybe expected the ride to go even more stiff, but it was not as a stiff as I would expect.

[The Beast]

Originally Posted by TygerBright

Hi Pristineship

Great to read the detailed review. I'm looking to order an X1 soon so this is all really useful information.

Could you advise on the options you ordered?

Seems like you went for the tech pack? I'm sold on the reversing camera but I'm deliberating over the HK versus hifi myself and comfort access is a luxury...

Also EDC is on the maybe list. I totally get that it makes the Sport mode come to life but was wondering if it helps turn Comfort mode into ummm Comfort+

Have my first test drive soon so I should be able to nail it down!

Cheers.

I'd have EDC and comfort access. If you're going for M Sport trim EDC more or less reverts you to standard suspension with the option of making it firmer. Comfort access is just great, no searching around for keys

[The Beast]

Try putting in sport mode and then also putting the gear lever into the sport setting. Cranks up the gearbox sensitivity even further than sport mode alone

[Pristineship]

will do, thanks for tips, I really did not even open the user manual yet, and I seem to struggle to even save my seat settings in the memory , never had it in my car and wanted to save my and dad´s settings as sometimes we switch cars if I am taking his to the car wash or swap tyres or whatever and after 5 minutes I gave up
But hopefully this weekend there will be time for some joy ride. I usually do not want to baby the car to the extreme that I will not hit the gas once or twice , I think couple minutes of more dynamic driving will not harm the engine in break-in period, keeping it below 1500rpm all the time like COmfort mode does is sure not ideal, too.

[The Beast]

I don't baby my cars during break in, I like to use a mixture of driving methods. I personally think some people are too cautious with breaking in a car. I keep the revs at the recommended maximum stated limit but make sure that I 'load' the engine at times. By this I mean giving it some throttle to get it moving but not red lining it...

[TygerBright]

Originally Posted by The Beast

I'd have EDC and comfort access. If you're going for M Sport trim EDC more or less reverts you to standard suspension with the option of making it firmer. Comfort access is just great, no searching around for keys

My predicament is that I'll be going for a Sport trim not the M Sport - i.e. does not come with the sport suspension. Seems like most people here that have commented on how great EDC is have M Sport I think - not the standard suspension.

So I understand that EDC gives me some 'oomph' with that car in Sport mode and that is all good ...

BUT will EDC also enhance when driving in Comfort mode? .... that's what I'm trying to get my head around.

!

[Pristineship]

Originally Posted by TygerBright

BUT will EDC also enhance when driving in Comfort mode? .... that's what I'm trying to get my head around.

!

http://www.bmw.com/com/en/insights/t...r_control.html

this should answer your questions

Yes, it enhances the driving in Comfort mode as it can set the dampers individually to keep the car more balanced. But not as the "big boy" BMWs with adaptive drive.

If you order EDC in M Sport you have simply EDC, no sport or M suspension. And here in Slovakia (and Germany as well, and I think UK too) you can also order M Sport with normal suspension if you are not going for EDC.

as I said before - if you are planning to own the car for a long time and put a bit of miles on it, and want to keep maintenance costs low - then EDC can save you maybe a grand, maybe 1500 in 2-4 years depending on how many miles you do. But then I would go with standard tires (and unless you can order a car without RF, (somethin you can't do in most EU countries) you will have to buy new tires too and the saving will be low.