2024 BMW X1 M35i Tested: Is a More Powerful X1 Better?

What’s not to love with BMW’s recently redesigned X1, its smallest SUV with the highest-output modular inline-four engine the company has ever offered? The 312-hp 2024 BMW X1 M35i should be the answer to those who crave a small and respectable BMW SUV breathed on by the M Division with a big punch. This new-for-2024, not-quite-a-full-on-M X1 has its good qualities as well as its problems.

We drove the less powerful and less expensive entry-level 2023 X1 xDrive28i as part of last year’s SUV of the Year competition and congratulated BMW for completely reimagining the X1’s package. It looks and feels “far more like a proper BMW than it used to” and puts ever more distance between it and the Mini Countryman it shares a front-wheel-drive-based platform with. We pronounced the all-wheel-drive X1 “fun to drive” with a great 241-hp 2.0-liter turbocharged I-4 engine.

Our complaints were few but pointed: Road and wind noise could be better—BMW is a luxury brand, after all—and the lack of a dedicated park button for the shifter is a conspicuous head scratcher. Our greatest consternation, however, is reserved for less than seamless shifts from the X1 xDrive28i’s seven-speed dual-clutch automatic transmission and the optional adaptive M suspension “turning even what would be acceptably maintained roads in any other car into a shaky, bouncy mess.” That’s bad news for those interested in the 2024 BMW X1 M35i, where that same transmission and M suspension, though also adjustable, are both standard and equally guilty.

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Where Do Those Added 71 Horses Come From?

As you’ve probably surmised by now, power is the big separator between the X1 xDrive28i and this M35i model. There are about a dozen versions of the lauded BMW B48 engine, a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four with variable valve timing and lift and a direct-injected fuel system. The standard X1’s B48 makes just over 120 horsepower per liter of displacement (241 hp total), but the new flagship M35i model’s 312-hp variant takes it up to about 156 hp/L. Both X1s’ B48s produce the same 295 lb-ft of twist, but the latter uses the unconventional Miller cycle (thus different valve timing), port and direct fuel injection, improved oiling, redesigned intake ports, a stronger crankshaft with bearings borrowed from the six-cylinder engine family, and genuine dual exhaust. Besides increasing each cylinder’s output by 17.75 hp apiece, the result is crisper throttle response and a sporty exhaust snarl in the X1 M35i.

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BMW X1 Acceleration

At the test track and in both X1s, we noted the conspicuous lack of buttons to select the Sport and Sport Plus drive modes and manipulate the traction and stability control systems—in a BMW!? Instead, finding and selecting these functions requires a trip several menus deep in the central touchscreen. (There’s no longer an iDrive control knob.) This trend to eliminate actual knobs and buttons and banish simple functions to a touchscreen is a win for designers and accountants but less so for buyers or drivers. BMW’s first model to feature the updated version of iDrive with QuickSelect and BMW Operating System 9 is aimed at users rather than drivers.

Granted, there’s a temporary “boost” shortcut when the driver pulls and holds the left shift paddle for at least one second, after which all the powertrain and chassis systems are switched to their sportiest setting. Once the Sport Plus drive modes are selected from the touchscreen and the boost function activated, the M35i is primed for maximum acceleration. It leaves the start line with a quickness owed to the built-in launch control, all-wheel drive that sends power rearward via an electrohydraulic clutch pack, and that extra B48 muscle.

The more powerful X1 M35i suffers some not-so-minor tugging at the steering wheel (torque steer) on the way to a 4.8-second sprint to 60 mph, nearly a second ahead of the X1 xDrive28i’s 5.6-second best. Full-throttle upshifts from both twin-clutch seven-speeds are appropriately quick and smooth (but at less angry speeds, they’re curiously less so). The more powerful X1 proves its mettle at the quarter-mile mark with a 13.4-second, 104.1-mph pass; the lesser 28i can only manage a 14.3-second, 97.8-mph best, proving the rule of thumb that 10 hp adds 1 mph in trap speed. The X1 M35i’s acceleration beats the far pricier, similarly mid-tier performance-oriented 2024 Mercedes-AMG GLA35 4Matic.

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BMW X1 Figure Eight

Given the xDrive28i we tested last year and this M35i are equipped with the same M suspension and summer tires, each producing between 0.85 and 0.86 g in lateral acceleration on the skidpad, the more powerful X1 M35i’s 0.5-second advantage when accelerating from 45 to 65 mph surely helps it lap our figure-eight course quicker. Indeed, its 25.9-second lap beats the 28i’s 26.3-second lap by 0.6 second, but the X1s’ behaviors diverge. The M35i’s standard M Sport brakes are more difficult to modulate before engaging ABS because of the pedal’s short travel. Scrubbing speed and initiating a turn from its higher v-max across the middle of the course upsets the M35i’s chassis more, too, introducing a diagonal oscillation between the corners of the SUV. What’s more is that while the base X1’s transmission is adept at downshifting to the proper gear while braking for the corner, the M35i’s transmission is less reliable in doing so; sometimes it does, but sometimes it does not. A win is a win, but one would assume the X1 built and marketed as the sportier, closer-to-M specification would provide better dynamic feedback and manners, not worse.

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BMW X1 on the Road

Clearly, both X1s perform well in the confines of controlled, measured testing on proving-ground-spec surfaces, but on the open road neither offered that cherished ride-and-handling balance BMW has fostered for generations of sporty vehicles. One expects, say, a sports car to sometimes sacrifice a comfortable ride for improved handling, but an entry-level SUV should not—even one with M-leaning intentions. The “all spring, no damper” harshness of the adaptive M Suspension is simply too much for this chassis to quell in the real world, which has expansion joints, manhole covers, and uneven pavement in general.

In terms of transmission programming, selecting the Sport or Sport Plus drive mode or simply nudging the shifter from D (drive) to S ices the twin-clutch automatic’s inconsistent and indecisive shift patterns. Should a BMW driver have to do this? Shouldn’t the default transmission mapping, especially a transmission designed and often lauded for inherent smoothness, be smooth and seamless?

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Is the X1 M35i Worth the Extra Money?

No, sadly it is not, unless you need maximum haste from your X1. While the $9,400 premium over the X1 xDrive28i affords the M35i buyer a more enviable fender badge, more standard equipment, and a healthy dose of horsepower, it doesn’t add up to a more satisfying X1 either at the test track or on the road. While the handsome, roomy, and well-appointed 2024 BMW X1 remains ranked our top-ranked subcompact luxury SUV, it does so mostly on the merits of the less expensive X1 xDrive28i; here, it appears the farther away from the base model you stray, the less desirable the X1 becomes.