One Year Anniversary (US owner)

[mullini]

So X1s went on sale in the USA end of August/early September 2012. I needed a new car at that time but for various uninteresting reasons didn't formally order until the end of September and took delivery the Friday after Thanksgiving. sDrive281, Ultimate, Lighting, H/K, Midnight Blue/Black. So this week marks my one-year anniversary. I love the car and am glad I purchased it. I'm hoping to continue loving it for several more years. Here are the Top 10 comments/experiences from my first year of X1 ownership:

1. Malfunction! One week after purchase, I get the "Engine malfunction" light and reduced speed, not far from home, and I make one more shopping stop. When I come back to the X1 the light has disappeared and it's running normally. I called Beverly Hills service next day and was told, "Just the computer adjusting. If it happens again, bring it in." Never happens again.

2. Adjusting to ASS (Really that should be the official way to reference Auto Stop Start). At one point early on I considered going to the dealer to have this deactivated. However, I eventually learned the "foot touch" that keeps ASS from engaging. To me what that means is that without remembering to push a button, I control ASS, and when I want it to engage, it will. Yes, from time to time it will engage when I don't want it to, like in very slow freeway traffic when we're inching along. But that's, fortunately, very rare. Now when i drive someone else's car and come to a complete stop where I know I'll be waiting a minute or two, I miss ASS. Seems wasteful. Yes, I can turn off the ignition, but IMO, the ASS turns on and off quite smoothly. I feel no shudder. So count me in the "pro-ASS" column. So to speak.

3. First flat. Around 10pm on a Saturday night I had to pick someone up from lovely (kidding) LAX. Barely out of garage when I get flat tire alert. Luckily I had a second car. Next morning I look at tire (right passenger) and it has gone completely flat. Anyway the tire could not be saved and it cost about $400 to replace. I then made an appointment with Daniel Dutton of Pacific BMW for an after-market tire policy. Price was fair, coverage seems excellent. Maybe I will never use it. Maybe I'll replace two tires over the next three years and that will just about cover the cost of the policy. Time will tell. But I drive with a lot more confidence now as I encounter the various road hazards we all face.

4. EcoPro/Coolant. I was using EcoPro a lot for several months, especially ont he freeway. I no longer do - because about 10 months after purchase, I had a low coolant alert that told me to bring the car in right away. I got it into BH BMW service the next day. They filled it up and SA told me some vague stuff about "settling in production" or whatever. Research produced some posts on this that suggested a connection to using EcoPro, which raises the engine temperature (apparently). That may be an unproven theory, but I decided to drive without EcoPro for a while and see if I took a hit on MPG. After 2 months, I can say that not only did I see no reduction, I actually had a couple of my best tank MPG averages ever. So why risk the possible connection to EcoPro and coolant usage? I just don't use EcoPro anymore. And on the topic of MPG...

5 - MPG - I am super happy with my MPG. I live and drive in Los Angeles. Sometimes freeway speeds in my 40-mile round trip work commute are good, but often enough they are not so good. And weekend errands involve a lot of street driving and frequent stops. I really don't know how to estimate my true "city vs. highway" percentage, but with only a couple longer road trips over the last year factored in, my year-to-date MPG is over 28, and most tank fill ups are around 27.5. I'm very happy with that.

6. Service visit - About 4-5 weeks shy of my one-year anniversary, as I approached 14,000 miles, I got the Oil Service alert. Took it into BH BMW on a Saturday and was out in under 90 minutes. Well I had thought that the first maintenance visit after one year might be a bit more extensive, but I suppose BMW knows what it's doing.

7 Power. I know the 35 buyers love that extra power they have. But I am more than happy with the N20. And I have never experienced anything like "throttle lag," which I take to mean I am not a driver who sometimes needs/wants to accelerate extremely hard and fast. Still, there have been times when I wanted to sweep around a slow moving vehicle, and every time I found it very easy to just slightly depress the accelerator and VROOM I jumped 5-10 MPH like that and was where I wanted to be.

8 Steering - this is the one area I feel is a bit weak. I have the sDrive without Servotronic. Frankly, I'd like a bit more resistance at low speeds. I'm OK at freeway speeds, although it could be a bit tauter there as well. I park in two structures with tight turns, and I can maneuver them satisfactorily, but it could be better. I have not driven an X1 with hydraulic, and maybe I'd find that TOO taut.

9 Interior - Love it. I find I don't miss the sunglasses holder and I had in my Lexus IS. The rubber-lined cubbyhole under the stereo holds my clip-on sunglasses fine (as well as my IPod). And all in all it seems safer to reach down, eyes on the road, to pick up the glasses than it was to look up or feel around blindly for the opener to the visor sunglasses holder in the Lexus, which would sometimes pop back open and obscure the rear view mirror. I find myself being neater in the X1. My door cubbyholes are not stuffed with nonsense, even after one year. I always have water at my fingertips. In my first few months, I did experience some "crackling" sounds from the dash area, which others reported on as well. For whatever reason, the crackling just dissipated and then disappeared. Overall, I just feel super comfortable in the X1 interior.

10 iDrive, etc. - Frankly I got the Tech package just because I wanted the big screen to see more music details, including cover art. The Nav has been helpful a couple times but for the price, I don't use it enough to really justify it. In particular I find the traffic flow indication hard to see. It's such a thin line, sometimes with my poor eyesight i don't even know which direction of traffic it's depicting. I have an iPhone 5 and use Bluetooth for calls, but I have never received any messages and I don't care enough to figure out why or if I should. I click around through the Menu and Options and give up after a while. I have no doubt that in a couple years, these types of auto tech hubs will be much more user-friendly, especially if they can just work off our phones. But maybe that will take longer than I imagine, since the current ones are such a moneymaker for the car companies.

This is my first BMW. I'm loving it, but I don't know if my next car will be a BMW. I'm 58 this Friday and keep my vehicles several years, at least. Maybe I'd like to try the Mercedes or Audi experience, an Acura, who knows. But I'm very happy with the X1 purchase I made one year ago.

[GreatStarSe7en]

really good wrap-up of one year experience. I will be one year next March.

[squishy]

Originally Posted by GreatStarSe7en

really good wrap-up of one year experience. I will be one year next March.

Same! What day? Bought mine March 21st.

[greyguy]

Originally Posted by mullini

This is my first BMW. I'm loving it, but I don't know if my next car will be a BMW. I'm 58 this Friday and keep my vehicles several years, at least. Maybe I'd like to try the Mercedes or Audi experience, an Acura, who knows. But I'm very happy with the X1 purchase I made one year ago.

Well I've got one year on you and although I strayed over the years, I keep coming back to the BMW fold...

[Kevman]

Great 1 year wrap up. My feelings are very similar. I still use eco pro, but like you, may give it up soon. I think i get 1-2 mpg better, but is it really worth it? Love the steering in my X drive 28i. Had a loaner 328x at first servicing, steering was much looser.

Love the car, 16k miles since got new in April.

[halfmoonclip]

Interested to see your comments on turbo lag. Her ladyship's panzer (Audi A4) has their take on a two-liter turbo four. If I didn't know what powerplant it had, I wouldn't know; response is immediate, and the great thing with turbos is the degree to which they respond to how they're driven. Behave yourself, and you get good mileage, but put your foot in it and they'll go about as fast as you care to go...but the mileage will suffer.
Happy to hear that you're having a similar experience with the Bimmer iteration. Now if they can just get us our damned car...it's still sitting in Joisy.

BTW, what is 'EcoPro'? Not familiar with it here.
Moon

[Twix]

I find my N20 had minimal to no lag. It only seems to have lag from a complete stop, but that's throttle sensor lag, not turbo lag

[mullini]

Thanks for feedback, everyone. EcoPro is BMW's "econo" setting, if you will. You have to engage it by pushing a button on dash. When I first used it I would immediately sense that the car felt heavier, if you will. I started to use it on the freeway. Maybe it's best to use EcoPro in city/street driving, but I didn't like the reduced power from stops. I thought freeway driving would be a good use for it. I explained why I stopped using it in my post. Even if it is causing me a small hit on MPG, I really like not having to hit another button once I've pushed START ;-)