BMW’s X4 is 3-seriesbased, but longer and lower than
its X3 sibling. Porsche and Audi are playing the same game. Who’s winning?
Diehard BMW enthusiasts
will despise the X4, there’s no getting round that. They’ll dismiss it as a
jacked-up 3-series saloon with a coupe roof that’s neither true SUV nor
credible coupe. They may be right. But before we jump to conclusions, there is
logic at work in the BMW boardroom: the SUV/ crossover boom continues unabated,
and BMW’s X models remain strong- sellers, with over 20,000 sold each year in
the UK alone. Meanwhile, its rival Audi is in a model blitz that’ll see today’s
current 49 models blossom to 60 by 2020, giving customers the new and different
that we all crave.
But before we jump
to conclusions, there is logic at work in the BMW boardroom: the SUV/ crossover
boom continues unabated, and BMW’s X models remain strong- sellers, with over
20,000 sold each year in the UK alone.
BMW can’t be left by the wayside, hence GT this and Gran
Coupe that and X models all over the place. But is the X4 genuinely filling a
niche that’s yet to be exploited, or is it a wild flail in the dark for an
alternative to products that already do the job perfectly well?
A day driving the X4 30d alongside Porsche’s Macan S Diesel
and Audi’s SQ5 should help answer that.
Essentially, X4 is to X3 what the one-size-up X6 is to X5 -
a coupe-like version of an existing and more upright SUV. Only the differences
between X3 and X4 are more significant. The X4 might be built in Spartanburg,
USA and share its platform with the X3 - itself derived from the 3-series - but
it’s 14mm longer and sits 36mm lower and is further removed visually from the X3
than the X6 is from X5. BMW says the X4 is a sports activity coupe that
‘combines the strengths of BMW X models with the sporting elegance of a
classical coupe and enough room for five people’. It aims to sell only 2000 in
the UK each year, with large chunks of production directed to China and the US
to meet demand.
Only diesel models
come to the UK: a four-cylinder 20d ($60,638), and the six-cylinder 30d
($74,393) and 35d ($81,188).
Only diesel models come to the UK: a four-cylinder 20d ($60,638),
and the six-cylinder 30d ($74,393) and 35d ($81,188). All are all-wheel drive,
which is a little surprising given the availability of rear-wheel-drive X3s,
the boons of less weight and lower emissions this brings, and the fact that the
X4 looks like one of BMW’s less convincingly rugged X models; BMW doesn’t
mention off-road ability.
Our test car comes with the mid-ranking 3od engine and
standard-fit auto gearbox, which means a very healthy 254bhp and 413ft» ft
served up by eight closely stacked ratios. It’s also in top-spec M Sport trim,
bumping the price to $75,404, a $4,308 premium on the X3, but with more kit. An
extensive options list - Professional media pack, reversing camera, adaptive
dampers, head-up display, surround-view camera... - then ignites the blue touch-paper
and sends our X4 skyrocketing past $91,148.
Climb in the X4 and you feel like you’re sitting snug and
low in a car that’s positioned high on the road; in fact, you’re 20mm lower
than an X3 driver. The seats are comfortable, the driving position good, the
major controls all easy to find and read, the iDrive system mostly easy to
navigate with a twirl of the rotary controller; the dash does, however, have a
touch of the over-inflated novelty balloon about its proportions, and the grain
of the leather and the dash appears inspired by an elephant’s knees. Still,
this is a perfectly agreeable place to spend time.
Climb in the X4
and you feel like you’re sitting snug and low in a car that’s positioned high
on the road; in fact, you’re 20mm lower than an X3 driver.
