Instrumented Test
TESTED
Anyone who has paid attention to our coverage of the latest BMWs is familiar with the company’s steady march toward the future—and somewhat away from the core values that have traditionally drawn enthusiasts to the brand. The focus on pure driving pleasure that once universally defined BMW has ebbed against the onslaught of tech-overloaded interiors, adaptive suspensions, electric power steering, and porky curb weights. Enthusiasts fret over the passing of great BMWs such as the E39 5-series, E38 7-series, and E90 3-series, yet the magic of those cars lives on in one of the oldest designs sold by the Bavarian automaker today, the all-wheel-drive X1 xDrive35i tested here.
Suckiness-Aversion Vehicle
The X1 xDrive35i has yet to fully undergo the modernization process that has turned the 5-series into a floaty barge and cost the 3-series its glorious steering feel, and it still packs a proper inline-six (albeit turbocharged), hydraulic power steering, subdued interior design, and a suspension that was actually tuned instead of given a gaggle of electronic settings. Its sole concession to new-school BMW is its oddball, niche-chasing body styling, which falls somewhere between a wagon and crossover. This smallest BMW Sports Activity Vehicle is really a taller E90 3-series wagon, a car with which the X1 shares most of its underpinnings.
Our test car’s sparsely populated window sticker reinforced its old-timey BMW feel; options such as iDrive and its attendant controls were pleasantly absent. This left behind a clean dashboard with actual buttons and knobs and an analog shift lever (the four-cylinder X1 xDrive28i gets an electronic joystick lever). A panoramic sunroof, power front seats, xenon headlights, and Bluetooth are standard. We’d add seat heaters, available with the $550 Cold Weather package. Our car carried only the $1900 Sport Line kit (18-inch wheels, sport seats; there also are base, xLine, and M Sport groups), $550 Valencia Orange paint, and free (and convincing) pseudo leather, resulting in a relatively modest (for a modern six-cylinder BMW) $41,975 price.
Get Your Six Cylinders in a Row
The X1 xDrive35i gets the same turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six that’s under the hood of nearly every other BMW, making 300 smooth horsepower and 300 lb-ft of torque. It’s hooked up to a sweet-shifting six-speed automatic, and in our hands, the combo was good for a 5.2-second 0-to-60-mph run (a second quicker than the four-cylinder xDrive28i) but delivered a meager 17 mpg (6 fewer than we got in the xDrive28i). Cold weather and snowbound traffic snarls didn’t help with fuel efficiency.
When traffic broke, we found the 35i motored through the white stuff without drama. Traction in a straight line or around corners was plentiful, despite the X1’s sporty 18-inch Pirelli all-season run-flat tires. Stability control can be completely disabled to allow easy drifts (if that’s your thing), thanks to the xDrive setup’s rearward torque bias, although the system’s brain was quick to shuffle torque to the front axle when needed. Under all conditions, BMW’s once familiar, firm yet compliant ride-and-handling balance impressed. This 35i was agile but rode better than our long-term X1 xDrive28i M Sport tester, thanks to smaller wheels, higher-aspect-ratio tires, and non-sport suspension. A snowy skidpad prevented us from recording a grip figure for the X1, but we recorded 0.82 g in a roughly 100-pound-lighter, non–M Sport xDrive28i with similar tires. The 35i’s firm brake pedal was linear and easy to modulate—a boon on the slick roads we encountered—and the stoppers returned a solid 163-foot halt from 70 mph.
Beyond its irreproachable dynamics, the 35i most delights in its feel. The doors make a wonderful thunk when closed, the body feels as solid as granite, the big six up front has a hearty sound, and lacking iDrive distraction, its drivers are tasked solely with driving. Sure, the similarly sized 3-series wagon offers nearly as much driving satisfaction, but it’s new-school BMW, and you can’t get it here with an inline-six.
Connoisseurs should buy the 128i—the last BMW to offer the naturally aspirated inline-six—if any are left on dealer lots now that it has been replaced by the turbo-four-powered 228i. But if you absolutely need a usable back seat (even if the X1’s is slightly tight) or an additional set of doors, the X1 xDrive35i is the second-most BMW-like BMW you can buy today. Act now, before it, too, is “enhanced” by modernity.
