Senior Editor Alex Kierstein takes a spin in BMW's second-generation X1, which now shares some DNA with its Mini cousins.
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ALEX KIERSTEIN: Hey, everybody. I'm senior editor Alex Kierstein, and today, we're driving the 2016 BMW X1. So it's replacing the old X1. And the old X1 was based on BMW's traditional three-wheel drive platform. That meant the engine was positioned longitudinally-- that's north-south-- in the engine bay.
In this application, we've got a transversely mounted, turbo-charged in-line four making 228 horsepower. It displaces two liters and it's part of BMW's new modular engine family. It's a nice engine-- it's smooth, it sounds good, and it's got a lot of power.
This is a little lighter than the previous car. This one weighs 3,660 pounds versus the old X1's 3,800 and some change. So it's a little bit lighter. The dimensions aren't that much different. If you're wondering why it got smaller, that's because it's using a platform shared with a lot of BMW's MINI products. So this is really the fruition of BMW's investment in the MINI brand because now they're able to use those platforms and the engines they developed for those models in BMWs.
So this X1 has an eight speed automatic transmission. And, you know, it's really a pretty good trans. It kicks down quickly if you call for it to give you some power, and for the most part, it's smooth and kind of out of your way.
Where MINIs just sort of rock us when you really bomp on it, this is a little more restrained. It still delivers power like many of the current turbo-charged MINIs out there, but there's more refinement here.
I really like the external styling on this car. It's wearing this really lovely shade of dark blue. And BMW's current styling language lends itself really well to this shape. It looks really tidy and it's not really that complex or interesting of a shape. It's very much a traditional two box CUV kind of exterior look in profile, but it just-- the detailing is nice. It looks sharp. It looks like a premium product, and it looks like a more expensive product than a similar MINI would.
BMW used to pride themselves in having simple, uncluttered interfaces, and even the sort of trimmed down iDrive that's in this unit works pretty well. I'll admit, I was a little bit skeptical about driving a BMW based on a MINI, which is basically what this is. After driving this for a few days, I have to say I'm sold. I think this is a suitable replacement for the old car, and I think it's going to make a lot of people happy. It feels very premium, it drives really well, it looks really good, it's got good interior space, and it's relatively efficient. I mean, in this class-- the luxury small SUV-- that's sort of the total package.
Hope you've enjoyed our quick look at the BMW X1. For Autoblog, I'm Alex Kierstein.
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