I noticed also that the ‘tyre noise’ issue has been raised again. As I previously mentioned tyre noise is 90% road surface induced. I have just changed my tyres on my X1 from Bridgestone to Michellin Primacy and I have not noticed any change in tyre noise whatsoever.
NosherN – I understand that tyre noise varies by type of road surface, but the issue here is the comparative levels of tyre noise in the X1 versus other cars on exactly the same stretch of road. As it had come up on several group tests I wanted to make sure that I applied a bit of science to this so used a sound meter! I did a round trip between three motorway junctions in both our current VW Tiguan (which I consider to be quite noisy) and the X1, both yesterday afternoon. Same road, same route, same conditions. On the smooth tarmac sections, the two cars were near identical in terms of measured sound in the cabin and both quiet. On the rougher or concrete stretches, the X1 was 5 decibels louder than the Tiguan, which was a noticeable difference. I did all these tests at 60, 70 and 80 mph in both cars. In fact the X1 was even louder than my daughters Ford Focus! So yes, all cars are noisy on concrete or poor road surfaces, but the X1 is louder than most in these circumstances. It hasn’t put us off the car but it’s something that BMW needs to address with the next model due in 2022. BMW does tend to skimp a bit with soundproofing on its lower end models.