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Respectfully disagree (albeit preliminarily).
Perhaps the definition of SUV and off-roading is a broad one.
- This car has xdrive, is very well protected under carriage, it offers the increase suspension (albeit minimal) for clearance purposes when needed and at that it has similar clearance to a Subaru outback or New Grand Cherokee.
- BMW has tested the iX off-road in several environments during development. This implies to me that it is meant to be driven off-tarmac.
- It is certainly not a rock crawler but it is capable (in paper) and also after my visual inspection of the under carriage when I received our iX.
- The Dealer heard exactly what I was intending to use the car for and they agreed that it was a good application. And no indication that I should look at an X5 / X7.
I will report back on my experience for sure. We INTEND to drive this car cautiously on fire roads, gravel roads and a bit of sand (specially cautious due to weight). We don't intend to sign up for Paris/Dakar but certainly intend to potentially swap the 21in sport wheels for smaller rims (waiting on OZ Racing) and more aggressive tires for the summer months . During the summer we access remote locations through dirt roads. Winter we stick to commuting only.
We won't expect to do well on the 10% gnarly roads we leave to our lifted LR3, but the other 90% of off tarmac service roads, for sure.
Again, we will see, and will report honestly out here to help new owners understand the car a bit more.