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If you’re looking for a practical yet compact family car with a touch of luxury, the BMW X1 could be for you. You get the space and practicality you expect of a compact SUV, with a premium-quality interior, user-friendly tech and a great driving experience. Most models don't cost much to run, either.
The latest version of the X1 has been available since 2022, but our focus here is on the previous-generation model, sold new from 2015 until 2022. (There was also an earlier, first-generation BMW X1 for sale new between 2009 and 2015.)
You should be able to find a BMW X1 for sale that suits your needs. You can choose from petrol, diesel or plug-in hybrid power, and manual or automatic gearboxes, and some models have four-wheel drive. There is no high-performance model but every X1 has good acceleration and can easily zip up to motorway speeds.
You can choose from a number of trim levels including the entry-level Sport, luxurious xLine and sporty-looking M Sport.
The second-generation BMW X1 is very well equipped, with sat nav, air con, cruise control and parking sensors included as standard across the range. You’ll find Apple CarPlay was included on some BMW X1s, but Android Auto was optional, so if you are an Android user check whether the used car you’re interested in has it fitted.
The X1 should give you good fuel economy for this type of car. In the second-generation model we’re focusing on, petrol models can give you up to 49mpg and diesels up to an average of 62mpg, according to official figures. The plug-in hybrid model has a zero-emissions electric-only range of up to 30 miles on a full battery charge.
Other premium compact SUVs include the Audi Q3, Mercedes-Benz GLA and Range Rover Evoque. While the X1 isn’t the most comfortable of these, thanks to its firm suspension, it offers practicality and a sporty driving experience that those rivals can’t quite match.
The second-generation X1 has space for four adults to travel in comfort, even if they’re on the tall side. If you have two children you’ll find there’s more than enough room in the back row for them and their car seats, and the car’s relatively high ride height makes it easy to help them into them. The boot has more space than many other compact SUVs, easily big enough for pushchairs or the spoils from a big shopping trip. The back seats fold down in three parts, which can be very useful for tip runs or carrying flat-pack furniture. The first-generation X1 isn’t quite as roomy, but it’s still a good family car.
The X1 is the smallest SUV that BMW offers. The X3 is a larger mid-size SUV, while the X5 and X7 are very large. There’s a parallel range of sportier, coupe-style SUVs that have even numbers in their names – the , the and the . Of those, the X2 is equivalent to the X1. Compared with BMW’s non-SUV cars, the X1 is equivalent to the .
BMW has an increasingly large range of electric SUVs, notably the iX1, which is essentially an electric version of the post-2022 X1. The iX2 and iX3 are based on the X2 and X3, while the biggest BMW electric SUV is the iX.
The safety organisation Euro NCAP awarded all three versions of the X1 a full five-star rating, although these reviews become less representative with age because the testing criteria for the latest model will be much more stringent than before. The second-generation version comes with lots of advanced driver assistance features, including automatic emergency braking and lane-departure warning.
A plug-in hybrid model of the second-generation X1 was introduced in 2020, called the X1 25e. According to official figures, it can give you a fuel economy of 156mpg if you start your journey with a fully-charged battery, although the real-world figure will depend on what kind of driving you do and how often you charge up. You can drive as much as 30 miles on battery power alone, which is enough to cover most people’s daily needs. There are also two PHEV versions of the latest, third-generation BMW X1 for sale, called the X1 xDrive 25e and X1 xDrive 30e, giving you up to 56 miles on electric-only power per full battery charge.