The BMW X1 is easily one of the most popular Bimmers on sale and it isn’t hard to see why. It’s small enough to still be fun, it’s cheap enough for most middle-class folks to afford, and it’s still spacious enough to be a practical, family hauler. This new X1 completely new and it’s the best looking X1 yet. However, is it actually good enough to be BMW’s best SUV?
In this new video from Autogefühl, we get to check out the BMW X1 xDrive23i (28i in U.S.-spec) M Sport. It’s probably the sweet spot in the X1 range, as it packs plenty of power, has an M Sport suspension, and it has M Sport looks. So it’s the best looking and likely the most fun version of the X1. But surely that isn’t good enough to make it the best SUV in BMW’s lineup, especially with excellent cars like the X3 M40i, right?
If you take price into consideration, there is actually an argument that can be made for the X1 as BMW’s top-dog utility vehicle. For starters, it’s surprisingly spacious. Despite its small exterior dimensions, BMW has done a great job carving out space and maximizing its front-wheel drive architecture’s packaging. Which means all passengers get great head room, rear passengers get pretty good knee room, and there’s still plenty of trunk space left over.
Surprisingly, it’s also really fun to drive. It has unusually sharp steering for a car in its segment and it changes direction better than every one of its competitors. It’s pretty easy to declare the BMW X1 as the most fun premium crossover on sale, even if that’s a pretty low bar to clear. Combine that with a punchy engine and the X1 feels more like a big hot hatch than it does a family crossover. Word of advice, though—get the M Sport package if for only the paddle shifters. Paddles aren’t standard on the X1 and without them there’s no way to shift gears manually. The shift lever has become a small toggle switch, that doesn’t have the classic manual shift gate that all other BMW automatics do. When I tested the X1, it lacked paddles and, while driving on a very steep mountain road, I desperately wanted to control my…
