First Drive: BMW X1

Having, just prior to this drive of the 2011 BMW X1, spent so much time in the very challenging (on so many levels) BMW 5 Series GT, we're grateful to have been brought back to our preferred BMW comfort zone with another example of the Ultimate Driving Machine.

We now better understand why so many of our BMW contacts have been telling us that the X1 should be a global hit when it finally enters production, much in the vein of the original X3. This little sport crossover shares the architecture of the 3 Series sedan, and in fact the 3 Series sedan, 1 Series hatchback, 1 Series coupe and 1 Series convertible, plus the X1 are all built at the spectacularly automated Leipzig factory in the former East Germany (we visited there during our test-drive nearby).









2009 Frankfurt Auto Show Photo Gallery