SUVs hit the city

BMW has made a name for itself recently by introducing cars that simply don’t fit between conventional class boundaries. The X6 is its most successful sector-straddling model, and the new X1 is designed to pull off a similar trick. It is part compact SUV and part compact estate.

We put the X1 up against the Tiguan and Kuga to see if it could take on a conventional SUV. We didn’t come up with the verdict BMW bosses were after, though. Compared to the lively Ford and versatile VW, the ungainly new X1 was too expensive to cut it.