Post by alf on Feb 20, 2023 13:33:07 GMT
I got back from a few days in Bavaria yesterday, as usual with Tina it was a packed agenda that saw a fair few km driven, from Nuremburg airport into the city, then a skiiing resort a couple of hours east of there, up and down the mountains a bit, a fair Autobahn schlep to Regensburg (ironically where these things are made) and back, then all of that reversed. Must have been at least 10-12 hours driving in total, about half on hilly A/B roads and half on the Autobahn (which I haven't done much at night before).
I booked a fairly cheap car from Sixt (turned out to be a not very powerul Golf manual on the day) and took the €20 a day upgrade to a 178PS auto X2 - largely as it was late, dark, and I wanted the Auto, and more bhp with some long journeys ahead. I have a slow to heal running injury on my left big toe that randomly decides to be searingly painful (with some crunchy bone stuff going on) when changing gear in a manual, as the Boxster had reminded me that very morning...
While driving on the wrong side, in an unfamilar car, late at night with manflu just off a plane is not the best start, I came to really like this car, much to my suprise (crappy snaphsots below). I had to keep reminding myself it was not a new 1-series, it just did not feel SUV high at all as a driver. In fact for the challenging conditions and long journeys, often in the dark, it was nice to be slightly higher, but I never once felt that nagging instability and unease I have had cornering basically all the SUV's I have driven (F Pace, E Pace Q3, Disco Sport mainly). I found the Q3 S Line nothing like a car to drive, despite the reviews - it felt way higher and the dynamics totally diferent, as did the F Pace compared with a cooking model XF. And the E Pace - presumably an X2 rival - was miserable. I never disliked cornering the (lower roofed) C Max at all, so clearly there is a height level you can get away with before the dynamics concern my tiny brain, and it all feels wrong.
The gearbox behaved very well, I guessed it was the same ZF 8 speed as the Jag as it felt so similar, but I now see its some aisin 8 speed thing - it certainly felt better than any non-ZF auto box I have used before, smooth and responsive. The ride was good and while I never doorhandled it (always being 4-up and usually in rain with plenty of ice and snow about on the sides as a reminder not to be a dick) it handled really nicely. Its one of the only cars I have ever driven that far and could not tell you which wheels were driven (FWD as I Googled from the badging). Impressive, as I did gun it out of some tight bends fairly hard, and reversed back off slightly dowhill deep wet ice in a car park.
The engine was fine - many times I was spat out of a very tight bend onto a fast road with minimal sliproad, something German roads do a lot. It was no enthusiast's motor but the grunt and the much bigger useful rev range made it nicer to use than a 4 pot diesel, while not nearly as punchy as Tina's Audi 3.0 Tdi V6. It was very clearly turbocharged but not offensively so.
The headlights were brilliant, not quite XFR level but about the best I have used besides - weirdly they did very little extra on full beam except light up stuff really high, I'm not sure if they were some form of voodoo lights. I have noticed in the Boxster that new BMW's - especially 1 and 2 series - absolutely blind me on the road when I'm sat that low, even whern overtaking me on the motorway - on one long journey I kept being convinced people overtaking me were on full beam then realised they were all newish BMW's. The beam pattern was noticeably long for dipped beam, whatever they are doing its great as a driver, and bloody horrible in another car if you are sat low down.
The interior I found very nice, the seats smaller and (for me) more comfortable than in bigger cars, plenty of room around everyone, and excellent dials. It's way past the pre-LCI E91 330i I used to have in control layout, not much was familiar but I find BMW layouts logical and the overall feel of all the controls, the handling, and the ride did not dissapoint - I have never driven a BMW I have not enjoyed (Minis aside). The late model E90 318d's I used to get as loan cars handled superbly - they are a brand that generally makes everything feel decent. THe HUD speed indicator was a first for me, incredibly handy.
So overall, ignore how it looks at the front, and its a really nice car, and as a family car a nice compromise in height/handling, I am genuinely impressed! It did 500 miles for a 60-ish litre tank too, pretty good as on the autobahn I was cruising at about 100 most of the time, sometimes slightly more, which always felt very stable even when the road was quite wet. The only black mark I would give it would be the brakes - the pedal was hugely over assisted on the initial press, and while I don't care for the lane assist and tailgating crap, the latter barely figured and all modern cars have this anyway.
I booked a fairly cheap car from Sixt (turned out to be a not very powerul Golf manual on the day) and took the €20 a day upgrade to a 178PS auto X2 - largely as it was late, dark, and I wanted the Auto, and more bhp with some long journeys ahead. I have a slow to heal running injury on my left big toe that randomly decides to be searingly painful (with some crunchy bone stuff going on) when changing gear in a manual, as the Boxster had reminded me that very morning...
While driving on the wrong side, in an unfamilar car, late at night with manflu just off a plane is not the best start, I came to really like this car, much to my suprise (crappy snaphsots below). I had to keep reminding myself it was not a new 1-series, it just did not feel SUV high at all as a driver. In fact for the challenging conditions and long journeys, often in the dark, it was nice to be slightly higher, but I never once felt that nagging instability and unease I have had cornering basically all the SUV's I have driven (F Pace, E Pace Q3, Disco Sport mainly). I found the Q3 S Line nothing like a car to drive, despite the reviews - it felt way higher and the dynamics totally diferent, as did the F Pace compared with a cooking model XF. And the E Pace - presumably an X2 rival - was miserable. I never disliked cornering the (lower roofed) C Max at all, so clearly there is a height level you can get away with before the dynamics concern my tiny brain, and it all feels wrong.
The gearbox behaved very well, I guessed it was the same ZF 8 speed as the Jag as it felt so similar, but I now see its some aisin 8 speed thing - it certainly felt better than any non-ZF auto box I have used before, smooth and responsive. The ride was good and while I never doorhandled it (always being 4-up and usually in rain with plenty of ice and snow about on the sides as a reminder not to be a dick) it handled really nicely. Its one of the only cars I have ever driven that far and could not tell you which wheels were driven (FWD as I Googled from the badging). Impressive, as I did gun it out of some tight bends fairly hard, and reversed back off slightly dowhill deep wet ice in a car park.
The engine was fine - many times I was spat out of a very tight bend onto a fast road with minimal sliproad, something German roads do a lot. It was no enthusiast's motor but the grunt and the much bigger useful rev range made it nicer to use than a 4 pot diesel, while not nearly as punchy as Tina's Audi 3.0 Tdi V6. It was very clearly turbocharged but not offensively so.
The headlights were brilliant, not quite XFR level but about the best I have used besides - weirdly they did very little extra on full beam except light up stuff really high, I'm not sure if they were some form of voodoo lights. I have noticed in the Boxster that new BMW's - especially 1 and 2 series - absolutely blind me on the road when I'm sat that low, even whern overtaking me on the motorway - on one long journey I kept being convinced people overtaking me were on full beam then realised they were all newish BMW's. The beam pattern was noticeably long for dipped beam, whatever they are doing its great as a driver, and bloody horrible in another car if you are sat low down.
The interior I found very nice, the seats smaller and (for me) more comfortable than in bigger cars, plenty of room around everyone, and excellent dials. It's way past the pre-LCI E91 330i I used to have in control layout, not much was familiar but I find BMW layouts logical and the overall feel of all the controls, the handling, and the ride did not dissapoint - I have never driven a BMW I have not enjoyed (Minis aside). The late model E90 318d's I used to get as loan cars handled superbly - they are a brand that generally makes everything feel decent. THe HUD speed indicator was a first for me, incredibly handy.
So overall, ignore how it looks at the front, and its a really nice car, and as a family car a nice compromise in height/handling, I am genuinely impressed! It did 500 miles for a 60-ish litre tank too, pretty good as on the autobahn I was cruising at about 100 most of the time, sometimes slightly more, which always felt very stable even when the road was quite wet. The only black mark I would give it would be the brakes - the pedal was hugely over assisted on the initial press, and while I don't care for the lane assist and tailgating crap, the latter barely figured and all modern cars have this anyway.
