so have you ever owned a car have you ever had a car breakdown or cost you
lots of money for maintenance are you really worried about reliability when
you buy a car how about you want to buy yourself a great brand new German SUV
but you don't want to break the bank how about the brand new 2018 BMW x1 but you
want to find out what sort of reliability and concerns those cars have
and is it ultimately worth the dollars that BMW is asking at about thirty to
forty thousand dollars it represents a great value on today's new car market
welcome back to the channel I'm your buddy mark with exotic car playplace and
today so the latest x1 features a whole host of different engines from three
cylinder four-cylinder gas jobbies how about three and four cylinder turbo
diesel engines lots of different choices you can also get in depending on the
market you can get different transmissions from manuals to automatics
you can get a selection and a host of different options for that car now this
new generation of x1 has a transversely mounted engine and the only unfortunate
part to that is the fact that you can no longer get the turbo inline six that you
were able to get in previous generation in the original x1 you could get that
300 horsepower turbocharged inline 6-cylinder engine you can no longer get
that you are limited to four and three cylinder engines but that's okay it is
still a great value still well made and still represents the German brand so
let's get rolling into where do you start to find out where some of these
problem areas are why don't we start with recalls because recalls are a great
representation of what the vehicle has currently and what you can expect from
it in the future now fortunately as I always say when you
talk about reliability you keep it simple the x1 of course is the simple
of all of the wonderful x-series cars in the German BMW German lineup now of
course with that there is only one recall that is associated with a 2018
model year and that is the crankshaft sensor firmware and all it needs is an
update because with the current firmware sometimes you can experience a lack of
starting horn outright stalling altogether because when you compare that
to the x3 there's two outstanding recalls and when you go to the x5 there
is actually five recalls associated with that car as you see when you work your
way up the line of complexity along comes the associated recalls and now
another way to evaluate the obvious and that is reliability is to find out from
previous owners one of them being the Sun visors are too small yeah I know
boohoo but you know what the complaint really was the fact that they're too
short and when you are facing a very sunny day often the Sun visors are too
small doesn't protect you from the blinding Sun and of course creates an
obvious driving hazard another one that was noted by owners these are owner
noted were engine hesitation and rough idle now there is an act of bulletins by
BMW to actually address that issue and don't you hate it when you're driving a
car and then you pull up to a light and all of a sudden the thing starts to
shake and vibrate you guys hate that as much as I do I know it's horrible so
that is a real concern but fret not everybody BMW has a solution for that
how about this one here's a case where one owner was driving along in a sunny
day it was great outside the weather was was good and there was no obvious signs
of external collision and all of a sudden Urza loud explosion and the
sunroof basically imploded effectively leaving glass everywhere and so of
course obviously that's an insurance claim get it sorted out but in itself is
a little bit disconcerting I don't know about you but I don't like showers of
glass coming down on my head while I'm driving at the highway
speeds doing a hundred kilometres an hour doesn't appeal to me all that much
I don't know about you not a great situation and then there's another one
and did you see that review I did on this car because I reviewed a twenty 18
X 128 I now okay so we're setting off in his beautiful 2018 Mediterranean blue x1
the one that I reviewed I had this exact problem and the funny thing is after
doing research I wasn't the only one that experienced this this was actually
a problem that many owners have found and there's actually a way to disable it
and that is the rear kick feature on the rear hatchback you know it's great to be
able to use your foot hands-free let that hatchback open up but the problem
is it's too sensitive or there's other you know sensitivity related concerns
there and of course when an owner is reaching into the trunk and they're
moving things around and all of a sudden that thing that hatch it decided to
close down right down on top of me all by its lonesome that was a bit of a
shocker I'll tell you that's a problem and that is not only something I noticed
this was something those recognized by several owners over the course of 2018
so moving right along we're gonna talk about some of the things that BMW has
recognized you know through bulletins and whatever else they've recognized
there's a whole host of issues that they want to have sorted out so if you find
yourself with a 2018 model year x1 and you have some of these following
problems there are fixes and BMW will give you a fix in most cases for free in
a lot of cases its software and it's quite a simple fix but I'm gonna share
those with you right now the first one is a buzzing from the Valvetronic system
now what that tends to be is BMW recognized that there was an issue with
the Valvetronic motor hitting its limits and vibrating it's doing sort of a shake
and it needs a program so all that was was a bit of an east of programming
change and it can sort that out and it reduces the travel on the limit so it
doesn't have that motor fighting itself and
potentially burning out because I'm sure that's likely what would happen
eventually if you didn't deal with it another thing is the display goes black
another is to update that's all that is but there have been displays that have
gone away another one is the phone contact list you are buzzing through
looking at your phone contacts on the iDrive system and all of a sudden
they're scrambled in different orders well that's a problem that many owners
have experienced yet again it is an is to update so fret not it's a relatively
simple fix but it is a problem the next one is navigation have you ever had a
navigation system go flaky on you when you're buzzing down a busy highway 6
lane highway in Southern California and you don't know where the next turnoff
isn't all of a sudden your GPS or your navigation dies on you
hey it's happen to me and I don't have a map to back me up either so this is a
common problem and so that in itself has been rectified by contacting the
manufacturer TomTom who happens to be the supplier for the navigation systems
at this new model as x1 2018 another issue is the memory seats they
lose their limits so the memory seats you hit the button and is supposed to go
so far the limits have been reduced there might be just a software update
for that so fret not again not that serious but again it's software and then
another one is the check control message one that says you do not have the key in
the car even though you physically are holding the key in your damn hand it is
telling you there is no key in the car that is a problem it's not recognizing
the key there is a software update for that as well now here's one a little
more mechanical by nature so you're driving along and I'm sure you can
explain to this a lot of you guys we've all had vehicles that have made some
weird noises while you're driving so this is not an uncommon thing however
you're driving along gradual acceleration and there's a humming
somewhere there's a sensation of a vibration or a humming coming through
the chassis somewhere well that is in fact a problem and it is one of three
number one it actually could be a loose tailgate ouch you'd hate to have
something like that happen out goes a child or you know the mother-in-law or
possibly some groceries something goes flying out the back because you know the
tailgate falls off a second one is the rad mount so the radiator maybe isn't
mounted quite squarely and securely and that again can transfer some of that
vibration through the chassis and cause that same sensation and the third is the
engine stabilizer yet another issue that can be easily sorted with a quick trip
to the dealer they'll fix you up nice so here's another one how about your horn
your honking on the horn at that guy that just cut you off and you get a
mechanical vibration in the horn well that's really not supposed to happen for
the most part so what really what that is is most likely just mounting
equipment there's a bracket in there in the horn and if it's not mounted
properly that has been a known issue so that can be rectified again either
remounting relocating repairing or just replacing it all together that has been
a common fix for these cars as well now here's another scary one we talked
about the tailgate falling off possibly here's one where the tailgate will
unintentionally open it'll open either when you're parked so you can have a
thief walk in and grab your goodies out of there you've just done all your
Christmas shopping and some guy rolls along and helps himself feeds his family
or it can also happen while you're driving along minding your own business
and offset both the tailgate opens again something precious falls out the back
and you know what it just needs to be reprogrammed that's it now here's one
your seats so you look at it you're in the back seat you look forward and you
see the front seats in front of you their front seats there and you look and
there's foam exposed coming out from underneath the leather or the vinyl
finish you see foam popping out we talked about a lack of confidence when
you've just paid a pile of money for this great new German automobile and
you've got foam coming out showing out the back
my 1998 Volkswagen Golf does not have foam hanging out the bottom of the seats
but fortunately BMW will take care of that for you they'll fix you right up
there will be a rework they'll plug push it all back in there refasten it with
some fancy little tape and you'll be on your way
minor fix here's one that's a bit of a pain moisture in the headlights you know
you've got the two headlights up front have you ever seen vehicles with water
sloshing around in the taillights almost like a fishbowl or headlights that are
fogged over because they're full of condensation
well that condensation has been known to happen not on one not on - but there's
forums littered with people with this experience of the headlight assemblies
fogging up because of moisture and condensation within the lenses well
guess what BMWs answer to that is removal dry it out reinstall where they
will replace it is if there is a water stain like a black mark or something has
created some permanent damage on the inside of the lens they will replace
that lens you free of charge generally I should say generally I'm not here
guaranteeing on their behalf again guys you take this up with your local dealer
but that's one of the fixes so the other one one big one and of course it's a
mostly electronic thus far this one is you're getting a whole host of vanos
lights or engine lights that are telling you've got an engine problem or a code
that's popping up and that's causing you some distress because now all of a
sudden you've got these engine lights or these codes and lights lighting up the
dashboard like a Christmas tree so that is really really scary and quite
annoying to be quite frank with you that is a common issue and a lot of times
these codes are coming for no good reason well what it is is it's strictly
a software programming issue in the DME that's the basically the brains of the
operation that's the computer of this whole system and it just needs to be
updated that's all that is so you know if you do see that sort of a problem you
see a random anja light pop up take it to the dealer let them
have a look at it chances are fewer we're talking about a new car right now
it's under warranty take it in there any way they can scan it if there's a
problem if you need a software update they'll do that for you
free of charge so that is really the large list the summaries of the issues
that have been identified whether through owners or identified you know by
BMW stumbling across these issues now overall you know I reviewed this exact
car I reviewed a twenty eighteen twenty eight so it in itself I really enjoyed
the drive when I in my time that I got to you know experience this vehicle I
really really enjoyed it there was a few things I didn't care about you know the
wheels I found were a wee bit small for it but overall the build quality was
solid had great materials the technology was you know everything you could ask
for from a modern-day vehicle and with the right engine at least the one I
drove of the twenty eight I was very very peppy like it was very quick so
you're not lacking in performance you've got efficiency you've got reliability
because now you're not dealing with that old diesel engine that's the other thing
I want to touch on since we're talking reliability is the old n47 engine do you
remember the old diesel four-cylinder turbo engine that they had in the
previous gen as well as some of the other BMWs that would blow apart because
of catastrophic timing chain issues well they don't use that engine in in this
car anymore there you're now using the B 37 and the b-47 engines which are a
vastly improved engine in the diesel format of course the gas jobbies you've
got you know a couple different versions to choose from made it to it either in
auto or manual as mentioned already these engines are all proving to be very
very robust and at this time it looks as though the mechanicals of these engines
are the least things to be concerned with the biggest things is software
programming some of the electronics you know connecting through bluetooth with
your phone to the those sort of things some of the
electrical some of the electronics and that will be sorted out in most cases
through a lot of these bulletins by BMW so overall my time with the car was a
lot of fun it's peppy its reliable and it's a lot of fun to drive and you know
what it's relatively affordable the car I drove the 28 I was about forty
thousand dollars Canadian now you can get them for a little bit less and of
course you can pay quite a bit more however mine was well outfitted and you
know what that's a lot of bang for your buck you're getting a great German car
it's very reliable and honestly a lot better I think then a lot of the
predecessors before it I really hope you enjoyed the video you make sure you give
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