[PrematureApex]

Originally Posted by Mtpisgah

I wanted a 3 series wagon but could not find one since they were between model years. My Saab was dying so I had to buy something and the X1 won out. I will leave it at the stock height because that is how it is designed to perform best. If you change too much on a car, you bought the wrong car. Period.

Actually, it's all E90 xdrive underneath. So it was certainly "designed" to perform "best" at a much lower height. Minus the hatch configuration, they literally just put longer springs on a 3-series unibody.

While I don't find that lowering a car a couple inches is "changing too much", when the N55 X1 came out, what was the "right car" to buy instead of lowering/cleaning up the handling of the X1?

A smaller FWD GTI or Focus ST? A more expensive, slower 328 wagon?

Our lightly modified (DP, tune, suspension) X1 gets around a 1.5 mile road course faster than my M3 did (albeit not as fun)...all while being much more practical day to day. It's a great little car made even better from a performance standpoint by a very little bit of work.

Can't find much fault in that.

I will agree that cars like the Golf R (which came years later) have made it a little harder to justify modifying an X1 (unless you really need that little bit more space the X1 offers).