BMW shuffles X1 pricing

BMW Group Australia will drop the price of entry to its X1 small SUV range by $1400 when the facelifted 2020 model arrives in October.

Instead of $45,900, the base front-wheel-drive, three-cylinder petrol sDrive18i will be listed at $44,500 plus on-road costs.

An even bigger price cut of $2400 is in store for the mid-range petrol four-cylinder sDrive 20i which will hit showrooms at $48,500.

But the top-of-the-range all-wheel-drive xDrive25i is headed in the other direction, with a price rise of $2000, up from $60,900 to $62,900.

Just to confuse matters, the price of the only diesel in the range, the sDrive18d, remains static at $49,900.

The facelift – or Life Cycle Impulse (LCI) in Bavarian – includes BMW’s new-look one-piece kidney grille that is being applied systematically across the range.

The two inlets of the bigger chrome grille meet in the middle, with vertical chrome slats filling out the airways.

The LED headlights are now hexagonal, and can be upgraded to anti-dazzle matrix adaptive lighting as part of a driver assistance package.

At the back, L-shaped LED taillights are new, as is a bigger 90mm exhaust tailpipe.

New tech in the latest X1 includes a wireless phone charging tray in the centre armrest and bigger infotainment screens – 8.8-inch in the SDrive18i petrol and 18d diesel and 10.25-inch in the sDrive20i and xDrive25i.

The upper variants also get a higher level of sat-nav service and mirror-mounted puddle lights that beam the X1 logo onto the ground (optional as part of a convenience package on the lesser variants).

Apple CarPlay is standard across the range, but there is no mention of Android Auto.

Most variants get Sensatec pseudo leather, while the xDrive25i gets the real deal.

Powertrains are all carried over from the current range that was launched in all-wheel-drive form in 2015.

The base petrol two-wheel-drive sDrive18i sticks with the three-pot 1.5 engine producing 103kW of power and 220Nm of torque.

The diesel equivalent, the sDrive18d, has a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine with an output of 110kW and 330Nm.

Next up the ladder is the 2.0-litre petrol sDrive20i with 141kW and 280Nm, while the range-topping xDrive25i gets a healthy 170kW and 350Nm.

BMW says the fuel economy figures for the refreshed range are yet be confirmed, but the current model has the 18i at 5.8 litres per 100km, the diesel 18d at 4.7L/100km, the 20i at 6.1L/100km and the 25i at 6.6L/100km on the combined test cycle.

So far this year, sales of the X1 are down 25.6 per cent, to 1344 units to the end of June.

Like arch rival Mercedes-Benz’s GLA, the X1 appears to have taken a hit from Volvo’s new and much-praised XC40 which this year has charged straight into the lead, with 1519 sales for the first six months of 2019.

2019 BMW X1 pricing*

*Excludes on-road costs