Xtra large Beemer with a key to match
Bigger X4 a more practical family car
THIS week I am more than usually worried about the contents of my trousers.
It is bad enough carting around a very expensive smartphone in your Levis, but I’ve also got the key to this BMW X4 20d in another pocket.
It is no ordinary key, not even a fancy ‘plipper’. It’s a complicated device with a screen, just a bit smaller than a fag packet, through which you can program all sorts of the car’s functions.
You can, while on safari in Africa, check your car is safely locked in the long-term car park at Gatwick. This clever device is extremely dear to replace – more than £500 – if you drop it. Apparently, my friends at Top Gear magazine have already dropped a couple of them.
But this new X4 is some machine, even without its impressive key. My neighbour Mike has totally fallen in love with it.
He drives a new X3 but when he saw the coupe-shaped SUV he didn’t realise the two cars are intimately related.
BMW only introduced the X4 four years ago, but since it shares the same mechanicals as the more conventional X3, creating a new generation of the X3 model meant the X4 would follow suit. And because the X3 has grown in size, so too has the X4. Its length has increased by 81mm to 4,752mm, the width by 37mm to 1,918mm and the wheelbase is longer by 54mm. Only one dimension is smaller – the overall height. That’s because the ground clearance has been reduced.
It must be the shape, but next to Mike’s X3 the 4 looks like a size
With strong torque and 8-speed auto the 20d is amply fast
above even though it isn’t. He’s right – it is an imposing motor.
Our test car is a high spec M-Sport X which brings with it big alloy wheels, blue brake calipers and bags of style. It’s more modest under the bonnet as it’s the least powerful 20d which means 190bhp from its 2.0-litre diesel engine. If you want the full fireworks you’ll want the M40d with its 326bhp twin-turbo 3.0-litre diesel or the 354bhp M40i petrol version. Without options, the M-Sport is already £47,000. Both petrol and diesel top models are £55,725 and £55,315. But with its strong torque and slick 8-speed automatic, the 20d is amply fast.
The X4 feels big to drive – there’s a lot of bonnet width up front. It feels almost as big as its coupe X6 big brother.
What it doesn’t feel like is an X3. You sit lower, and also the view out the back isn’t so good because of the coupe shape. There’s plenty of room in the front, and a remarkable amount in the back considering the sloping roofline. But then that’s one of the gains from the longer wheelbase.
The boot is bigger than the old X4’s and can hold an extra 25 litres to make a seats-up total of 525. Seats down you have 1,430.
The extra rear legroom and luggage space make this new model a more practical family motor. Back up front, our M-Sport has red leather sports seats, a fat leather-wrapped steering wheel, a comprehensive digital instrument panel and the latest version of BMW’s iDrive controller rotary knob through which you control the infotainment system.
The X4 is not a light car, but revised suspension and changes to the standard four-wheel drive system give it remarkably sporty handling with not too much roll and a decent level of comfort over bumps. It’s certainly no sports car and the feeling of physical size puts you off getting too carried away on country lanes.
Coupe-style off roaders are gaining in popularity all the time – and as far as the X4 is concerned it’s not hard to see why. Just be careful with that key.