Filed under: Performance, Crossover, BMW, First Drives
Was It Worth The Wait?
The X1 is BMW's ultimate compromise machine in the car-as-truck-as-SUV-as-wagon-as-city-vehicle category. It's aimed at undecideds who want a BMW that's attractive and can carry stuff while sitting high up, but not too high up. Being able to park it easily, even in downtown New York, is good too, as are the fuel and emissions efficiencies. The X1 has been a huge success elsewhere, and we ourselves thought it was a pretty good idea when we drove one last year.
Since shipments began worldwide from BMW's factory in Leipzig, Germany, the X1 has quietly sold over 300,000 units, almost all of those in Europe. For a small sport activity vehicle that costs a BMW-style premium, that really is a huge number of units. BMW is pretty accustomed to this sort of success with its Sports Activity Vehicles, as it likes calling them. When it started out in late 2003 and was the only small premium crossover vehicle out there, the original BMW X3 sold nearly 250,000 units through 2007, and the general public didn't seem to notice.
But other premium automakers did, and now everyone offers a small SUV or crossover. Either that or they're stupid because they don't. When we first drove the X1, we immediately understood what BMW saying about its big plans for this trucklette. The X1 (no matter what you personally feel about its smallness) has nearly perfect proportions, the design details are solid overall, and it frankly makes a much better original X3 than the actual X3 did back at the end of 2003. And just ahead of the X1's imminent arrival on our own shores, this smallest of BMW activity vehicles has received its first mid-life update.
Continue reading 2013 BMW X1 [w/video]
2013 BMW X1 [w/video] originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 18 Jul 2012 11:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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