[NickC]

Hi,

I'm Nick and am perhaps a bit of an imposter here, but very fortunately won a competition to live with an iX for a week in a recent BMW email, in collaboration with Allbright - shout out to the BMW UK team on https://twitter.com/BMW_UK or BMW UK (@bmwuk) • Instagram photos and videos and if you are interested in Allbright, please see BMW i and AllBright Partnership | BMW i | Discover BMW

Our usual car is a 5-door Mini Cooper SD, so this is a pretty enormous leap... but the BMW team very kindly arranged for us to have an xDrive 50 M Sport in Phytonic Blue, with Comfort pack, Sky Lounge pack, Clear&Bold Interior Application and the 22" alloys. Spec here should you wish to see it in the configurator: Configure your perfect BMW (though this has a black interior) and here's a pic below;

We have it for a few more days - as a petrolhead in an EV for the first time, it's completely obvious to me that this is the future and it's incredibly fun - the acceleration is truly addictive, the assisted driving (whilst not perfect) does really make things easy, and build quality is superb as you'd expect!

Happy to answer any questions, will post a few more opinions when it's been handed back!

Nick

 

[XDrive]

Hi,

I'm Nick and am perhaps a bit of an imposter here, but very fortunately won a competition to live with an iX for a week in a recent BMW email, in collaboration with Allbright - shout out to the BMW UK team on https://twitter.com/BMW_UK or BMW UK (@bmwuk) • Instagram photos and videos and if you are interested in Allbright, please see BMW i and AllBright Partnership | BMW i | Discover BMW

Our usual car is a 5-door Mini Cooper SD, so this is a pretty enormous leap... but the BMW team very kindly arranged for us to have an xDrive 50 M Sport in Phytonic Blue, with Comfort pack, Sky Lounge pack, Clear&Bold Interior Application and the 22" alloys. Spec here should you wish to see it in the configurator: Configure your perfect BMW (though this has a black interior) and here's a pic below;

View attachment 1423

We have it for a few more days - as a petrolhead in an EV for the first time, it's completely obvious to me that this is the future and it's incredibly fun - the acceleration is truly addictive, the assisted driving (whilst not perfect) does really make things easy, and build quality is superb as you'd expect!

Happy to answer any questions, will post a few more opinions when it's been handed back!

Nick

Welcome to the forum Nick! That's cool you get to live with the iX for a week! Be sure to keep us posted on how you're enjoying it and what you do with it.

What stands out to you the most so far about the iX?

 

[brwilli]

One question I have is, how easy will it be to get debris out of the area at the bottom of the windshield given that we aren't supposed to have access to that area? I'm thinking of things like pine needles. Blow them out? Suck them out? Thanks, and enjoy.

 

[NickC]

Thanks XDrive for the welcome! Visiting friends and family tomorrow, so have a ~200mi round trip planned which I am excited for - one of my friends is waiting for delivery of his i4 M50, so he's excited to see iDrive 8 and compare an EV to his current A35 AMG as well!

So far I would say it's amazing how buttery smooth the power delivery is - you can feather the accelerator in B mode and be really accurate with it, and of course the huge amount of torque is addictive to play with - our Mini isn't slow off the lights, but apart from a Tesla matching me I don't think anyone else has got close to keeping up. The steering was surprisingly light and actually both my wife and I found it really easy to adjust to the size of the car (she's never driven an auto before this, but adjusted quickly). The cost of electricity (even on bp pulse rapid chargers being twice my current domestic rate) is low - it cost about £22 to go from just under 50% to 95% - in a friend's old X5 it used to cost about £150 to fill up!

However I was excited about ultrafast chargers - I went to Gridserve in Braintree with a 350kW charger and the 50 I've got should support 200kW, but maybe given the cold temperatures I was only getting about 50-75kW, both there and on my local bp pulse 150kW. Maybe it's better in summer? But the aforementioned charge took around 55 mins which I was a little disappointed by. Even getting to 80% took about 35 mins.

I know the design is divisive and some friends who've seen it so far have openly said they don't really like it, especially the front - but actually both me and the Mrs really like it now, and it certainly has drawn plenty of looks. The washer fluid appears to come out of the wiper arms themselves, which is a bit odd - but guess it's more aerodynamic. I've read the optional B&W speakers are supposed to be amazing, but the harmon kardon standard ones are still really very good - I've got some B&W MM1 speakers and the hk's aren't far off them for detail. The crystal iDrive/seat adjustments are too blingy for me, and actually just isn't very tactile in my opinion. Most of the buttons (e.g. reading lights) are all on capacitive touch buttons - there's very few physical buttons, and sometimes they don't seem to work first go.

However the standard seats seem really comfortable so far, I already appreciate the massage function and there's loads of space, especially in the rear seats with no transmission tunnel - everyone who's been in the back has said the same.

brwilli - good question, I'll check over the weekend and get back to you!

 

[ExiPaceOwner]

But the aforementioned charge took around 55 mins which I was a little disappointed by. Even getting to 80% took about 35 mins.

what level was the battery before you started?

 

[NickC]

One question I have is, how easy will it be to get debris out of the area at the bottom of the windshield given that we aren't supposed to have access to that area? I'm thinking of things like pine needles. Blow them out? Suck them out? Thanks, and enjoy.

Here's the best photo I could take between the windscreen and bonnet. There appears to be a slatted grille most of the way along which presumably runoff water drains through, but the distance between the bonnet and the windscreen is small so picking things like pine needles out by hand is unfortunately going to be slow! Might be best to blow them?

what level was the battery before you started?

Thanks for the question - it was 48%. However interestingly with my drive yesterday I did about 230 miles, including various passengers and hence lots of brisk acceleration, and I dropped to 15% charge. When I charged it this morning, even though it was only 1 degree celsius, the dash suggested it had gone over 150kW, maybe 175ish? This was probably only for about 15mins of the charge, but did mean I went from 15-80% (79kWh delivered) in 49mins, which is much more impressive.

Although we were a little worried at times about whether we'd make the trip, putting it in Efficiency mode did really help and it was both huge fun and effortless doing the driving yesterday. I had a huge smile on my face - will miss it when it goes on Tuesday!

 

[brwilli]

View attachment 1425

Here's the best photo I could take between the windscreen and bonnet. There appears to be a slatted grille most of the way along which presumably runoff water drains through, but the distance between the bonnet and the windscreen is small so picking things like pine needles out by hand is unfortunately going to be slow! Might be best to blow them?

Thanks very much

 

[RorryVau1]

Hi,

I'm Nick and am perhaps a bit of an imposter here, but very fortunately won a competition to live with an iX for a week in a recent BMW email, in collaboration with Allbright - shout out to the BMW UK team on https://twitter.com/BMW_UK or BMW UK (@bmwuk) • Instagram photos and videos and if you are interested in Allbright, please see BMW i and AllBright Partnership | BMW i | Discover BMW

Our usual car is a 5-door Mini Cooper SD, so this is a pretty enormous leap... but the BMW team very kindly arranged for us to have an xDrive 50 M Sport in Phytonic Blue, with Comfort pack, Sky Lounge pack, Clear&Bold Interior Application and the 22" alloys. Spec here should you wish to see it in the configurator: Configure your perfect BMW (though this has a black interior) and here's a pic below;

View attachment 1423

We have it for a few more days - as a petrolhead in an EV for the first time, it's completely obvious to me that this is the future and it's incredibly fun - the acceleration is truly addictive, the assisted driving (whilst not perfect) does really make things easy, and build quality is superb as you'd expect!

Happy to answer any questions, will post a few more opinions when it's been handed back!

Nick

Hi Nick
Thanks for your post, really interesting. Can you let me know the width dimensions of the boot with the tailgate up please. My iX 50 is coming in a couple of weeks and I've got a large item I need to move and can't find the internal boot dimensions anywhere. Thanks in advance if you can answer my question.
Cheers Roy

 

[Derbeno]

Hi Nick
Thanks for your post, really interesting. Can you let me know the width dimensions of the boot with the tailgate up please. My iX 50 is coming in a couple of weeks and I've got a large item I need to move and can't find the internal boot dimensions anywhere. Thanks in advance if you can answer my question.
Cheers Roy

BMW iX FULL REVIEW xDrive 50 AWD - world’s best big EV SUV? - YouTube At 23:48 he measures the boot/trunk

 

[RorryVau1]

Thanks Derbeno, much appreciated.

 

[NickC]

Yes sorry Roy, the car went back on Tuesday so afraid I can't answer - but hopefully Derbeno's link helps!

 

[RorryVau1]

Yes sorry Roy, the car went back on Tuesday so afraid I can't answer - but hopefully Derbeno's link helps!

It did thanks Nick