The Chinese love the driver, and a huge number of strange versions of cars with a “long wheelbase” fully speaks about this trend, like this latest BMW X1 with a long wheelbase, designed only for China.
Fortunately, unlike BMW’s recent centennial trick, which is arguably one of the longest and most ridiculous names in the mixed 7 Series, BMW simply called this X1 “Long Wheelbase X1” instead of “BMW X1 congratulates us with the 100th anniversary
So how much is this growing?
All the extra length goes to the wheelbase, where the rear passengers benefit from more than a three-inch increase. It is also almost an inch wider and one and a half inches taller. So, in fact, it’s almost X3 … Talk about matching products.
This, however, leads to a very cavernous interior with two to seven extra inches in the knee space, depending on how the front seats are located. The X1’s long wheelbase also adds a bit of practicality with extra boot space.
Fortunately, the X1’s long wheelbase is not for any market other than China, where it will be built at the recently launched BMW Brilliance Tiexi factory in Shenyang. Customers will be able to choose a turbocharger with a capacity of 136 hp, a four-seater model with a capacity of 192 hp and top turbocharged model with 231 hp They are all connected to the ZF’s eight-speed Steptronic gearbox, and the three-cylinder model is equipped with a six-speed automatic transmission.
-Jack Wilson