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      10-01-2012, 03:19 PM   #1
jnm
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First US X1 European Delivery

We just picked our (well... technically it more 'hers' than 'ours' ) '13 X1 (Xdrive28, M sports package, Le Mans Blue) from the BMW Welt this morning. We were told by the person that she thought it was the first US-bound European Delivery for an X1.

It's a really cool way to get your new car if you can swing it, we spent 3/4 of the day at the welt since we also did the factory tour (which is fascinating with all the robots welding and painting) and if the Museum had been open (it's closed on mondays) probably would have spent the whole day there. Even the food at the restaurant was very good.

First impressions of the X1 are very good indeed, looks great in Le Mans Blue, and that 2 liter 4 cylinder (built right next to the welt at the factory we visited) has that easy stack of torque right down low that make the car faster than it feels. Even though because of break-in I'm hardly pressing the pedal at all (the car came with 1 Km on the clock!), within 10 minutes of leaving the welt we entered the autobahn, I barely squeezed the gas and looked at the speedo showing 80 and was like ... it does feel a bit fast for 80 Km/h ... that's when it dawned on my that I was driving a US car after all and the big 80 was for MPH! LOL, it's that smooth, quiet and effortless... honestly don't think you will miss the extra 2 cylinders and I can totally see how they put the same engine even in a 5 series. All I can say so far in terms of performance (after 150 Km of freeway) is that I can tell already this is a good handling car and that it cruises very _very_ smoothly at 150 km/h.

And yes, that's the max speed for the first 1200 miles of break-in, at the factory after they put the fluids in the car within 5 minutes they are already taking that brand new engine to 150 or so km/h, faster than most US bound cars are likely to ever go in their life... yeah it's a different world out there.

Oh, and 3/4 of a tank of gas costs more than $100 (!) over here. Good thing that engine only needs 89 octane and is promising such good gas mileage!
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      10-01-2012, 03:20 PM   #2
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Oh, and as feared it didn't come with paddle shifters... ): which really sucks because that 8 speed is very nice and really likes to switch gears all the time.
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      10-01-2012, 04:47 PM   #3
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thanks for sharing and congrats on the new ride. any photos of your euro adventure yet?
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      10-01-2012, 07:26 PM   #4
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Nice! I am scheduled for the Euro Delivery of a sDrive28i in late November. Congratulations on being the first. We just booked our airfare, but have yet to book a hotel. Any tips on a decent hotel? Looking for something affordable with parking.

Also, do they let you drop your car off at the airport? Or did you have to drop it off somewhere else and shuttle back to the airport?

Any other tips or suggestions that might make our trip more enjoyable or fun would be great, too!

Thanks!
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      10-01-2012, 07:33 PM   #5
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Congratulations. Sounds like a good time. I briefly considered ED myself, but the timing just wasn't right. Maybe someday.
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      10-02-2012, 10:17 AM   #6
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The Hotel we booked (being still oktoberfest the choices were limited) was actually not great (just ok). I would say you don't need to look for a hotel close to the BMW Welt, as there not that much going on or to do around there (except maybe talking walks around the olympic park), might as well stay in a more central part of town (like toward the train station or old town).

I would definitely recommend also doing the factory tour while you are there picking your car up. It's 2h but really fascinating, and unless it's a monday the museum as well, between all that (the restaurant at the welt was also very good) you can probably easily spend the whole day at the welt.

For returning the car, I don't know since we are not returning it in Munich.
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      10-02-2012, 10:20 AM   #7
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That N20 engine is quite something though: cruising around town and on the road (other than freeway) it just pulls along at 1200 rpm in what seems an incredibly high gear, and by the time you reach 1600 rpm it upshifts again!

I mean it almost feels like a diesel engine (almost sounds like one too) torquing away from so low in the rev range...
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      10-02-2012, 10:21 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by jnm View Post
The Hotel we booked (being still oktoberfest the choices were limited) was actually not great (just ok). I would say you don't need to look for a hotel close to the BMW Welt, as there not that much going on or to do around there (except maybe talking walks around the olympic park), might as well stay in a more central part of town (like toward the train station or old town).

I would definitely recommend also doing the factory tour while you are there picking your car up. It's 2h but really fascinating, and unless it's a monday the museum as well, between all that (the restaurant at the welt was also very good) you can probably easily spend the whole day at the welt.

For returning the car, I don't know since we are not returning it in Munich.
Thank you very much for your response. Enjoy your trip!

Also, pictures ASAP!
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      10-02-2012, 11:21 AM   #9
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Very nice. My brother and I were there last July for his 1M. (Noticed the black 1M in your avatar)

We were able to get into Mobile Tradition which was a dream. However, unable to get to tour the M-plant.

What are your stops? We went right to Munich to the Nurburgring and back.

I'm "repaying" him with my PCD on the 22nd. We are flying into SC, renting a car, driving to Petit LeMans; then picking my X1 up.
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      10-03-2012, 09:01 AM   #10
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I took my canadian x1 in euro delivery on april 15 2012 and it was amazing!!

I don't know if some canadian did a ED before me on a x1...??

The road trip we did:

Munich
Innsbruck via neuschwanstein castle
Wien
Praha
Berlin
Nurnurgring
Grop-off in Paris

I obvisously recommend this to everybody!!
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      10-06-2012, 03:07 PM   #11
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Small update from the road (where I can't really post pictures):

Today drove from Venice to Innsbruck going through the Gavia Pass (SS300) (described by my wife as "it's not a road, it's a mountain goat trail!" (not much of an exaggeration just go to youtube and search for it to get an idea). On some switchbacks I actually had to look through the glass roof in order to see if a car was coming down or not before taking the curve.

Then this was followed by going over the Stelvio Pass ... another incredible car, with more amazing scenery. Cornering heaven!

How did the X1 do? Well in terms of power I'm still in break-in but so it's inconclusive but for the following observations:

- if you press the button to turn traction control off, it's still mostly on (and pressing it for 3 seconds still does not completely disable it) ... boooooo BMW! ):

- I was soooooo missing the paddles, I did all the twisty bits in S mode but still on those hairpin switchbacks it gets confused between 1st and 2nd and it's not smooth: boooooo BMW USA for screwing me out of my steering wheel with paddle shifters!!! ):

- The car does not like it if you try to do hand-brake turns: it beeps at you to tell you you're driving with the hand brake on... really??

Now on the good side:

- the car handles very well, though it prefers medium twisty stuff and sweepers to the super-tight stuff of the mountain passes there's still not much to complain about for what the car is. The X-drive is definitely a little bit under-tired in the front (probably to make it safely under-steery at the limit)

- Thumbs up on the steering feel on the X-drive

- 4 wheel drive balance seems well judged. Couldn't have fun sliding the rear out though (traction control that can't be switched off completely)

- brakes are good with good feel, no complains here either

- Gearbox is no DSG (DCT) unfortunately but does win some points for being an 8 speed with the D and S modes pretty well judged (except in tight switchbacks).

- Engine starting to loosen up nicely (lots of engine braking going down those passes! ) and I still like it. Seems to like 100 (Euro) octane premium, builds speed pretty deceptively but still very nicely. It's not a "fast" car but it's pretty darn "quick". Engine seems also quite willing to rev (still need a few more Km of breaking in before I can explore upper rev range though).

- Superb freeway cruiser: wants to go 100 Mph in total comfort and quiet, you think you're going 80 but you look down and find yourself much closer to 100. That naughty engine and tall gearbox plot together to sneak up speed on ya!
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      10-07-2012, 03:52 PM   #12
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Ok, so mistake on my part: if you hold down the traction control button down for a few seconds and it goes to the second mode with DSC off.

Now for today's update:

Autobahn from Innsbruck to the Nurburgring: the Autobahn is a mixture of short bits of brilliance in between much longer bits of frustration: even on a sunday morning you're still stuck between roadworks sections and traffic jams (they even have fixed road signs to tell you where the traffic jams are (!)). Very rainy most of the day, the X-drive and new tires with full depth threads were put to good use, eventually in the afternoon the traffic thinned up and the road dried and I was able to see (briefly) 240 Km/h (that's 140 Mph) on the speedo. The N20 certainly keeps up even with the fast 'left lane' cars over here, once again a superb freeway mile-muncher, even though it could use a little bit more high speed stability (probably a little bit wider tires).

Then we finally made it to the 'ring. What is there to say about this place that hasn't been said already, two words to sum it up: "gearhead heaven". Some incredible cars out there and a dry track meant that I was able to break the 2000 Km mark on the Nordschleife. 4 laps cost almost 100 euros (plus a half tank of gas (!)) and the X1 even in the hands of a 'ring newbie (though I knew the way around... mostly ) was certainly not the slowest (though far from the fastest!!!). Pretty darn safe, though definitely the front tires are too narrow to bother the rears and it's "understeer city" pretty easily but the stability control does a good job (as much as it can) to try and keep it in check if you keep pushing the front past the initial tire complains. AWD definitely doing it's job as well and I could tell there's a little bit of 'rear wheel drive bias' (supposedly part of the M sports package) that lets you adjust the rotation a bit on the throttle, and grip was decent as well (though the OEM tires did get a bit over heated and started feeling greasy half way through the 3rd lap in a row). It's also got some decent acceleration too and that engine does like to rev nicely now that I can consider it properly broken in.

It's going to be hard to have to drive it at US speeds on US roads full of US drivers after this...
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      10-07-2012, 04:30 PM   #13
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I found the picture some guy took:

https://picasaweb.google.com/1035409...30716384613346
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      10-08-2012, 11:12 AM   #14
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Doesn't even look like an SUV in that photo.
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      10-10-2012, 12:58 PM   #15
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Thanks for this thread, I apprecaite your comments/thoughts. I'll be doing ED next spring time for my X1. I want it sooner but I'm not sure winter is exactly that best time to visit Germany.
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      10-10-2012, 04:11 PM   #16
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mabrahams View Post
Doesn't even look like an SUV in that photo.
That's because it's not really an SUV (in the way the term is typically used by car manufacturers) .

In Europe it's large enough to look a bit like one, but in the US it'll probably be smaller than any other thing called 'SUV' and will disappear in the parking lot full of those large monstrosities. For example we parked next to an Audi Q3 today and it's definitely lower and less 'off-road' looking. Park it next to a X5 and it looks like a station wagon. Honestly it's really a 'tall station wagon' with a tiny bit higher ground clearance that a car.

And that's what does wonders for it's handling (and IMHO makes it look very good) and it's gas usage (lower aerodynamic drag). (honestly, how many SUV drivers to actually ever use their SUVs for actual proper off-roading? And most of those very large SUVs don't actually have that much room inside).

And I'm betting those people with 12 MPG (or less) large SUVs or Suburbans are probably crying at the pump right now in California!
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      10-10-2012, 04:14 PM   #17
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It's been raining a bit lately here and I really like the traction of the X-Drive. It's actually pretty hard to get it to spin the wheels even when trying (flattening the gas pedal on wet paint or metal), very impressive amount of grip, very sure footed!
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      10-10-2012, 04:30 PM   #18
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mabrahams View Post
Doesn't even look like an SUV in that photo.
And yet I was probably the only one doing laps on the track with 3 large luggage completely filling the trunk, a passenger and a bunch more bags in the rear seats ... and passing a rented lotus on the inside of the Karousel!!!!
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