I popped into my local BMW dealer on Monday, just to look at the 2 series active tourer M Sport 225. Not as I can really see myself in an MPV ? but, I thought I’d have a look given I was close by. Sadly there wasn’t one in stock so looked at bot the X1 and iX1. The interiors were near identical with the loss of the idrive controller, in favour of a mostly touchscreen apprroach. call me cynical but most would say this is a backwards step for the marque. The active tourer also had the same layout, however the screens were nice. A quick look in the X3 and M3 was a more traditional dashboard layout, with the idrive wheel still in situ. The i4 had the new screens layout but still retained the idrive wheel, as did the rest of the 2 series. More importantly what the fook are BMW doing with the baby X1?
You may recall that I had the more powerful iX1 30 for a day recently and I wasn’t impressed. It was the first EV I had driven and I absolutely hated the fact that it felt like you were braking when you took your foot off the accelerator. Maybe that feature can be turned off? I didn’t check. Yes it was fast but, like all EVs, if you drive it fast the range plummets. It was also no quieter on the road than our petrol X1 (admittedly the engine in ours is whisper quiet).
I completely agree that the removal of the iDrive rotary controller is a massive retrograde step. BMWs iDrive is universally regarded as the best infotainment system on the market and one of the reasons for that is the rotary controller, which is significantly safer than touchscreen when on the move. All 1 and 2 Series variants are losing the rotary controller. Very bad move. Also, all BMWs are losing the ‘favourites’ buttons which I use all the time. They are absolutely brilliant and I don’t know why more manufacturers don’t use them. Thankfully the BMW Voice Control is faultless (unlike others I’ve used), so I guess people will have to get used to using that all the time.
In all honesty, the only area where I felt that it was better than our current X1 was the fact that it now has AutoHold. Over 2 years into our current X1’s ownership, the absence of AutoHold still irritates me. Thankfully, it’s the only thing that I don’t like about the car. I’d just prefer something a bit bigger – like the X3.