One year after

[Sebulba]

This is my first post on this forum (Hello everybody!), but I read the posts even before I became an X1 owner, a year ago.
It is a modest s-drive18, alpine white, xenons, alloy wheels, sport seats, professional radio and some minor extra equipment. On the wishlist remained (out of my financial plan): panoramic roof, leather seats (my wife despreatly wanted them...), USB audio connection, harman-kardon audio, and mineral white color, unfortunately seen live after the car was delivered.

Here are my impressions after 13,000 km and one year of ownership.

Good things first:
- the engine is... fantastic... the car goes on 5% uphill with 160 km/h without absolute easiness... Fuel consumption (calculated on full tanks) goes from as low as 5.7 l/100km (41 mpg, if the online calculator gives the right numbers) to 7,1 l/100km (33 mpg) for 80% urban drive. Engine noise is very acceptable, it is a little loud on cold start, but on normal ride is barely hearable. Oil consumption is minimal, I put 0,5l after 10,000 km, when the indicator bar was around middle.
- flawless quality of work - no repair costs so far, not a single thing to complain, nothing broke, no strange noises
- great stability on dry roads, absolutely confident and fun to drive
- steering that reveals all the situation under the wheels, my wife says it is a little bit to heavy, but I like it
- enough room for 4 passengers and baggage
- easy and intuitive commands, instruments easy to read without unuseful colorful distracting informations
- and not so important, but priceless: the passing- and driving- bys looking at the car with admiration


Not so good things (because we expect a perfect car from BMW, don't we?)
- radio (Professional )... it is the only real disappointment; the sound in under average, lacking the highs (no tweeters), and with muffled middle tones; it is ugly, menus are clumsy to operate, operation is unlogical, for example the random function plays always in the same order (so instead of 1-2-3-4... it plays 1-67-23-84... every time, so what's the difference?); no volume indicator on the display;
- the baggage-door-open alarm activates only when car is moving, so you have to stop and close the door
- after a year I'm still not sure about the functioning of auto door locking/unlocking system
- the is just a little bit to hard on bad roads
- although the car never went out of control because all the electronics do the work, I still don't feel very confident in sharp turns on wet roads, it is not a nice feeling to hear one of the rear wheels slipping; maybe it is because it is my first rear-drive car
- rear seats fold with middle and left section together, I would prefer the opposite
- kind of "dummy" rear window heaters which do not heat
- some more compartmens in the cabin would be nice
- why is the command for closing the external air flow on the steering wheel? I don't remember I ever used it...

I think that's all... I wish a nice ride to all the forum members.

[loukas135]

Mine is a Canadian 28iXDrive ( 4 cyl petrol 241 ch / 258 lbs torque) with Sport(seats, paddles, 18" wheels), Premium(panoramic sunroof, heathed steering) and light(xénon directional ring with lights washer) pkgs. The color: dead sea blue.

Delivered october 18th. Abosolutely no complaints. At all. I really like this car. 3 personnality wether you put the trany in "D" mode (economy, comfort), "DS" mode (sporty with auto downshifts) or "DS M" (sporty and full autonomy to change gears.

The boot is well enough for all my needs so far, the center " 20 %" which falls flat is perfect for carrying family ski in the BMW ski bag.

Panoramic roof is wonderfull, let the sun in and light as well.

The engine is awesome. Torquey, quick and smooth. You could think it's a 6 cyl. BMW has really put it together by adding two shafts and eliminate the kind of vibration you usualy got from a 4cyl.

The sport seats are a MUST. It's a shame BMW don't include them a STD equipment. The STD seats are barely ok. When you can afford Them (sport seats) pull the trigger. You will like your ride so much more.

And overall, I like to look at it ... A Lot !!!! ha ha ha !

Congrats for your first post and thanks to share your experience with the community.

Have multiple nice rides in 2012 !!!

[BigDave]

Hi Sebulba - thanks for taking the time to do this report. I also have had my X1 for 1 year. There are some unusual noises from speakers & ventilation but I guess I will just have to live with them. They call them characteristics of the car.

As for your comment "kind of "dummy" rear window heaters which do not heat". This is in fact the radio aerial.

[Blue Bottle]

Hi Sebulba, thanks for the post glad you love the car, I have just picked mine up and it is a dream, any negative points that I have seen on you tube etc when they compare the car to others have been put aside. There is plenty of space behind my seat and I am 6 fo tall so have the seat quite far back. Build quality is BMW so very good and it drives like a dream. the i drive (i fiddle) is a great addition to the car but I do miss the fact that the Nav system does not have speed camera warnings or display the speed limit like my Tom Tom does.

Great car and so happy with it

[Sebulba]

BigDave, thanks for your information about rear window heater, I would never guess that...

I add one more thing that seems to have no sense (I forgot of that since last winter) - the start/stop that does not work when outside temperature is below 3 degrees Celsius...

[beeker]

Hi ya

Glad your liking the X1. My experience hasn't been as good.

The bad:
1) Strange whirring noise when doing around 60-70mph. As soon as you touch 80mph it stops. It was suggested that it was the tyres so I put 4 new ones on and it still does it to this day. Different temperatures outside affect it so definately tyre/wheel related. Giiven up trying to sort it.
2) Squeaking noise when starting the engine. This took near on six months and an email to the CEO of BMW before it got sorted. 5 fanbelts, 2 tension pulleys and a suggestion by BMW Germany to swap parts with a working X1 (that was the final straw for me and still the squeak. After the email and rant on Facebook it was found to be the alteranator to be faulty!
3) After the car being not used for 2 weeks and with a change in the outside temperature the iDrive controller went stiff. That's being replaced next week.
4) Brakes made a loud squeak (see other posts) but after a harsh braking session it hasn't done it since. Keeping an eye on it still now the temperature here is dropping.
5) On 3 occasions the iDrive (SatNav Pro) display goes red and doesn't display anything. Rebooting the iDrive sorted it the first time and the other two occasions it sorted itself out. No errors codes recordered on the computer and no fault could be found.
6) Various rattles (see other posts) but that seems to be the character of the X1.
7) And I nearly forgot the clutch failure after 3,000 miles! New clutch, fly wheel and cylinder was fitted on the orders of BMW Germany. Couldn't of happened in the worst place - Monkey enclosure at the safari park! :-) Managed to get it going again and back to the dealership.

The good:
Still love the damn thing. After all it's problems I still love BMW. Had an E90 32d before this one and that came with it fair share of problems but still loved that one too when it was behaving.

[Mulberry]

Beeker, Sorry to hear that you've experienced the problems listed...not enjoyable at all. I'm sure that you may have already tried this, but the first problem that you mention sounds like the windscreen rubber seal. Mine had a similar noise when new and what was happening was that at higher speeds the top rear of the seal lifted. It was also affected by temprature. The good news is that there is a fix for this.

I've owned my X1 for nearly two years now, and even with what I consider 'major' body work modifications, sports suspension, 18" alloys fitted with run flats, I've had no rattles or other problems to date. Actualy that's not true, the Sat Nav Pro (with reversing camera) did 'freeze' for a short time once, but corrected itself and I've not had the problem since. I've about eighty albums on the hard drive and a friend had been exploring the functionality so wasn't that surprised.

I hope that your car has settled down now and you're enjoying it.

[beeker]

Hi ya

Thanks for the advice. I don't think it's the rubber seal from the other post I've read. The one I have sounds definately like it's coming from the wheel arch area and it's like a washing machine droning noise rather than a whistle type noise. On the other post there was another person with the same noise as me and never got to source or it either. I'm suspecting it's the wheel size and run flat tyres. My wife can just about hear it but my hearing is much better than hers and it's very qnnoying to me. When she's driving it I can tell exactly how fast she is going by the sound of the droning/whirring noise.

[nathan35]

Originally Posted by Sebulba

- after a year I'm still not sure about the functioning of auto door locking/unlocking system

Hey Sebulba, I've had the car for 1,5 years and have had a quite similar overall impression as you.

For the automatic lock, just an idea: please note that you can program the function differently for the two different car keys you have, so it may be that you're puzzled because the locks behave differently with each of the two keys.

[snowmanyee]

Originally Posted by beeker

Hi ya

Thanks for the advice. I don't think it's the rubber seal from the other post I've read. The one I have sounds definately like it's coming from the wheel arch area and it's like a washing machine droning noise rather than a whistle type noise. On the other post there was another person with the same noise as me and never got to source or it either. I'm suspecting it's the wheel size and run flat tyres. My wife can just about hear it but my hearing is much better than hers and it's very qnnoying to me. When she's driving it I can tell exactly how fast she is going by the sound of the droning/whirring noise.

Hi pal. Am just curious what wheel size and offset you have? I used to drive a SUV eith protruding wheels and i encountered such whirling noises due to wind resistance due to the protruding wheel

[gmiles]

Glad your enjoying it still

[manicm]

I also had done 14,000kms on my sDrive 18i, until 3 weeks ago when an imbecile driver in a truck turned into me. My car's in for repairs, for damage on the front-left

My only real complaint about the car is that, because I'm at altitude, the 2.0l engine is seriously gutless.