NEW BMW iX in-depth review – bold or bad? | What Car?

But is this car any good thats? What were going to find out in this review, but before we start, if you want a great deal on your next car, go to whatcar.com, you can just click on the link at the top of the screen there, or look in our description below to find out Exactly how much money we can save you, but before you do that make sure you subscribe to our channel as well, so you can see all of our other new car reviews, Music. So first, what actually is this car? Well, the ix on the outside is roughly the same size as an x5 and its an electric suv rival to cars like the audi e tron, the mercedes eqc, the jaguar i pace and the tesla model x. It isnt based on a fuel powered bmw. So with the bmw ix3, that is essentially an x3 with a battery in it, but the ix from the ground up is electric only and its the first all new electric. Only car from bmw since the i3 and bmw has thrown all of its expertise at this. As a kind of range topping ev showcase, so its got a plush new interior design, loads of tech, including 5g and cloud technology, and its got some plastics reinforced with carbon fiber in the bodywork. We normally see carbon fiber on cars that are particularly light, something the ix absolutely is not at 2.5 tonnes. The heaviest ix is almost half a ton heavier than an x5, but clearly the main talking point of the car is likely to be the styling.

Lets be honest, it will split opinions wont it notable features, include frameless doors and flush door handles chunky, wheel, arches and plenty more. The ix also has these pretty sleek headlights at the front and, of course, a massive kidney grille here now. Apparently, this has self healing technology. That basically means if you get any scratches or marks on the front here, it can actually repair itself if its left at room temperature for 24 hours or what the car can do is supply warm air to this bit. For five minutes to repair it as well theres sport and m sport trims, and if you go for m sport, then you get chunkier styling plus you can get 22 inch alloys. Now this interior, in some ways, is more similar to the bmw i3 rather than newer fuel powered bmw interiors. So what do you have in here? Well, basically, this is a great interior, especially by electric car standards. All these materials feel really really good quality. They look. Nice, they feel nice. The only exception might be some of these plastics, which dont necessarily feel quite so amazing. But the overall feel in here is one of extreme quality, and what this interior manages to do is combine the kind of visual appeal that you get from a mercedes, eqcs interior, with the rock solid, build quality that you get in an audi e tron. So overall, this really is very good indeed. Whats. Also impressive is the tech that you get with the ix as well.

Now you have these two curved screens which are joined together. Youve got a 14.9 inch touchscreen here for the infotainment system and thats joined to this 12.3 inch. Digital driver display and the graphics are absolutely fantastic. Its really pin sharp – and this is bmws latest idrive system, its idrive 8 and overall, it is pretty good. You get a responsive touch screen and, of course, one of the things that has made idrive so good for so many years is having this rotary dial down here, which just means that cycling, through the menus, selecting different options is just far easier to do, while youre Driving having this physical control, rather than everything being on this touch screen this isnt perfect, though, because some of these menus have quite a lot going on. So if youre, driving and youre glancing at some of these menus for the first time, it can be a bit overwhelming, and some of the icons are a bit kind of small as well. But really this by modern infotainment standards is a very good example of in car tech, not quite so convinced by this touch panel down here. It looks very nice with this wood finish, but its just a bit awkward to know whether youve pressed the button. So that is frustrating and another bigger frustration is that you dont, have physical controls to adjust the temperature or the fan speed. So youve only got two controls down here for the climate, otherwise youve got to dive into this touch screen menu and again.

This is just quite a lot going on isnt it. It would be a bit better if it was all just a bit simpler and, for example, something else. If you want to cycle through the different drive modes, then you go to my modes down here and you can put it in sport and you get this really nice sport graphic come up which looks really good, really cool kind of like a apple screen saver or Something but if youre running waze or google maps on apple, carplay or android auto through the infotainment system, then if you just want to change the drive mode youre stuck on this screen and stuck with that graphic, it doesnt automatically. Take you back to the navigation, which of course is the thing that you want to look at rather than this snazzy graphic. So in some cases, perhaps this is style over substance, but overall this is definitely an impressive interior. Its also a car thats very easy to get comfortable in as well. So you get loads of electric adjustment with the steering wheel and the drivers seat has loads of adjustment too, and instead of being down here on the side of the seat, bmws now moved all these controls up kind of like a mercedes. The view outs really good. As well – and it does feel like a spacious interior too so similar to the i3 youve – got this flat floor all the way through the car.

So it means youve got this open bit of space down here. Theres loads of storage compartments as well, relatively all right, glove box, big door, bins, another cubby hole in here so overall up front. This ticks a lot of boxes in the back. It is incredibly spacious here so im just under six foot. The drivers seats in my driving position – ive got loads of leg, room headroom, also really good. Even with this sunroof, it feels open spacious, thats, also thanks to having these tall windows as well. So it is really good and something else thats useful. Is that because youve got this flat floor, it means that even if youre sat in this middle seat, youve got a comfortable sitting position. Its not like youve got to awkwardly put your legs up to go on top of a lump through the bottom of the floor. There something else, thats, good youve, got two usbcs in front of you here on the back of the drivers. Seat and youve also got this armrest with two cup holders, and you can very simply pull on this. To bring this middle seat down. To give you easy access to the boot or give you a ski hatch, so, overall, its spacious back here its comfortable to sit in its really good, the boot isnt, quite as amazing as the rest of the interior, its actually a bit smaller than what you get In an x5 but youll still fit eight carry on sized suitcases there, which is the same as the e tron, and it certainly isnt stingy for space.

The three rear seats also fold flat individually as standard which is useful, its a five seater. Only though there wont be a seven seat version of the ix now, you might think that, with this being designed and built from the ground up as an all new electric car, bmw might want to make use of this space here, which, of course, doesnt have an Engine in it anymore, so with loads of other evs, you get an extra chunk of storage under the bonnet up front, but you dont with the ix. You have bmws first clamshell bonnet, but you cant actually lift this up. If you want to do that, you got to take it to a bmw dealer, which just seems mad doesnt it. The only thing you can do at the front here is put your washer fluid under the badge there anyway whats this like to drive. So essentially, there are two versions of the ix that you can buy. You can get the xdrive40, which is what were in and that gets a 71 kilowatt hour battery. You can also get the xdrive 50, which gets a massive 105 kilowatt hour battery. Now, in the 40 that were in, you get 322 brake horsepower, which will help you do not to 62 miles per hour in around 6.1 seconds, which is quick, but not as quick as the 4.6 seconds youll be able to do that in with the 516 brake Horsepower x, drive 50.

, so really both versions are quick. The ride quality in the xdrive 40 isnt, brilliant, though the audi e tron and jaguar i pace, are definitely more comfortable than this version of the ix offering a smoother, more controlled experience. But thats not the whole story because on adaptive air suspension, which you get on xdrive50 models, the ix offers a much better ride than the standard car and as a long distance ev cruiser with that suspension, it is really impressive. Another thing thats good in the ix is the brake pedal feel so in lots of evs. It can be really grabby or inconsistent. Just basically make stopping smoothly really quite a difficult thing to do, but theres no problem at all with that in the ix. The brake pedal feels really consistent its really smooth. You know exactly how much pressure you need to put on to stop smoothly among evs. This is probably one of the best brake pedals around. There is another disappointment, though, while the claimed range of the xdrive 40 might seem. Okay, we did a real world range test on a cold winters day and only managed to get 177 miles from a full charge, which is less than we managed from an audi e tron tested exactly the same time in exactly the same conditions so 177 miles. That really isnt very far is it by modern ev standards and its not like this is a cheap electric car that is probably going to be.

Your second car is it. This is a massive luxury suv that is probably going to be most peoples only car, and you can only do 177 miles in it. That is disappointing, but to be fair, that is a theoretical claimed range calculated from the fact. This ix achieved 2.5 miles per kilowatt hour over a controlled mixed test route of 20 miles in an outside temperature of just one degree, but still one of the main reasons. The e tron is a frustrating ev is because its fantastic in many areas, but it doesnt, have a great range, its even less efficient than this ix, but it has a bigger battery. So the ix actually looks like its even worse for range than the e tron, but again like the suspension, there is something you can do about this go for the x drive 50 and the claimed wltp range from its massive battery is a huge 380 miles. It also moves the maximum charging speed up from 150 kilowatts to 200 kilowatts. But if you want the x drive 50, then that costs more than 20 000 pounds extra on top of what you pay for the extra i40, which is loads now the handling ultimately isnt brilliant. So if youre driving this car quickly, it feels very heavy theres. A lot of body lean, it doesnt feel particularly agile and its got quite a quick light steering setup as well, so it doesnt drive as well as an audi e tron.

But then, to be honest, are you going to be driving this car that quickly around corners? That, often probably not so, what is good is that this light steering is really really easy and good around town at low speeds. So if you are just using this car to do a few miles in town, do the school run then its really smooth very easy to move, especially considering how big it is. So, its pretty clear. The two versions of the bmw ix require two separate verdicts. While all versions have a great interior, the xdrive 40 doesnt ride, as well as the best evs and has a disappointing range so really for the money. An e tron or an i pace. Look like a better choice. Things change with the xdrive 50, though, because the boost in range and the adaptive air suspension you get make the car significantly better and majorly boost its appeal as long as you can afford it, that is for more information on the ix go to whatcarl.com, where you Can also save a load of money on your next new car, just click on the link to find out more but before you go make sure youre subscribed.