BMW X1: A class on its own

MANILA, Philippines - Once upon a time, car manufacturers had it quite easy. Blame it on consumer expectations, or limited lifestyles, but so long as your car could fit 4 people and moved faster than a horse, it was a winner. By the Fifties, we started to get a little more demanding and were spoiled with the choice of either a sedan or wagon, plus the the odd two door sports coupe. By the Seventies, we were audacious enough to ask for 4x4s and exotic Italian sports cars. The eighties gave us mini vans that you didn’t need a separate license to operate, and the Nineties, well, thats when things started to get really out of control.

Today, we still expect to have all these choices, but the difference is we want it all rolled into one vehicle. After all, if we’re expected to multi-task, so should our cars. Not just does it need to have more computing power than the Apollo 11 and a 0-100 time good enough to escape getting hit by a golf club, but we also demand the handling of a car, the ruggedness of an SUV, but one with the conscience of a three door hatch built by Al Gore.

We also demand them to be individual. We want the automotive equivalent of a large Macchiato brewed with cinnamon infused rain water from the Amazon, topped off with gently steamed skimmed milk from a Tibetan Yak, two tear drops from a Buddhist monk and a pump of natural vanilla served in a recycled brown paper cup.

Cue in BMW X1. Up music, fade main lights, turn on spot, hit applause button.

This is the car for the fully evolved urban yuppy. It has all the DNA of a 3-series touring, but with the extra ground clearance needed to take on the great outdoors, which in our case can be some national highways, and the bladder of an Egyptian camel. And contrary to what its name suggests, it is not a beefed up one series but more like a 3 series wagon that failed the drug test.

Our test unit arrived fresh off the boat with 12 kilometers on the clock and was finished in a delicious Marrakesh brown. I rarely gush over colors, but this is worthy of an exception. Allow it to catch the afternoon light and you get an overwhelming urge to lick it.

Parked next to an X3, its noticeably smaller; about as wide but much lower and a good bit shorter, too. It speaks the new design language of BMW quite fluently, with considerably better headlights, fairly controversial rear taillights, a very muscular stance with oddly designed wheel arches and a much longer bonnet than we normally see on our SUVs. Funnily enough, for all the secrecy that preceded its launch, if you’ve seen the Concept X pictures from the Paris Motor show, you’ve seen this. The only difference is a conduction sticker.

I would be lying if I said I was immediately taken by its shape, though; the problem is there’s nothing in my database to draw an associated reaction from. I know what an SUV should look like, and it’s not this. It’s not ugly, its just unusual in the same way that it took me over an hour to completely warm up to Neytiri from the smash hit movie Avatar. But thanks to the flawless execution that managed to strike the delicate balance between making something sufficiently alien become somewhat familiar, by the time the love scene came up, I had completely forgotten she was a ten foot tall blue alien with a tail.

And that’s the X1. An entirely new concept for our modern lifestyles. It drives with the same confidence as the award-winning, class-leading 3-series, carving its way into corners and soaking up the Department of Public Works and Highways neglect without losing any of its composure, yet still managed to return 15 kilometers per liter at the pump after a 530 kilometer trip to Bataan and back.

The 2 liter, 177hp diesel engine may be a carry over, but it is an absolute gem. It works well in the 5-series, 3-series and 1-series, but seems born for the X1. It’s not overwhelmingly, cell-phone-flingingly powerful like the 3.0d, but it is absolutely perfectly mated to this. Fitted with a snappy six speed auto, it revs smoothly until the redline and is never overly vocal about it, either. There’s plenty of torque for overtaking and jostling through traffic and it is lively enough to keep you entertained in just about any driving condition. The only improvement I could see is adding a power chip that would make the throttle even crisper during initial acceleration. But that’s only if you absolutely, positively had to get to the next set of lights .3 seconds before the next X1.

The steering is typically BMW – sharp and precise with an even better weight to the wheel. It feels easier to maneuver through car parks, but hasn’t given up any of its accuracy or feedback on the twisty stuff. Our test unit was fitted with BMW’s intelligent X drive that throws 70 percent of its muscle at the rear wheels and 30 up front (unless there’s slippage, in which case 100% can be assigned to the offending wheels) but BMW have announced a rear wheel drive version that cuts weight, cost and fuel consumption even further.

Rear wheel drive is a first of its kind for the X segment, and quite a bold move from BMW considering it could blur the lines of its model line up even more, but is a clear sign that the company is hell bent on moving away from the stigma of the environment-vandalizing SUVs.

It lacks the space of a dedicated SUV, and is in fact a bit tighter in cargo room than the 3 series touring that its built up from, but it still managed to swallow up a growing family of five and all the paraphernalia needed to keep everyone happy for five days at the beach. Too bad the rear mounted roof spoiler with the integrated third brake light couldn’t accommodate my bike rack.

Inside, it is all very familiar. Plastics and materials are all outstanding, and nothing less than what you would expect from a 1-series, but the dashboard design isn’t as upright and formal. The rear cargo area also features some very clever and inconspicuous rubber straps that kept my camera bag completely secure during the spirited drive through the winding roads leading to the historical Mt. Samat.

Once you get past the initial, “what is it?” phase, it is pretty difficult to fault the X1. It’s different, yes, but then again, so are more and more new car buyers. BMW are zeroing in on an even younger market with this model and feel that they will be able create a whole new non-traditional BMW buyer by doing so.

It’s a big step to introduce a whole new name plate, its another thing entirely to define a new genre while doing so. The good news is that they have the segment all to themselves until Audi bring in the Q3 or Mini take a plunge and bring in the Crossman. Bad news is they’ll be doing all the groundwork for the competition. But when you consider that the Philippines is the first country in South East Asia (and most of the world for that matter) to get one, it looks like a long time before someone crashes this exclusive little party.