Sitting somewhere between the 3 Series Touring and the BMW X3, there is the BMW X1. A small(ish) sports utility vehicle with surprising efficiency. Starting at £24,265 for the base model 1.8 dSE sDrive, it isn’t the cheapest in it’s class to buy, but car finance is a great option to take away some of the pain and get you behind the wheel of a somewhat underrated car.The X1 is actually based on the same platform as the AWD 3 Series Touring, with both 2 wheel drive (sDrive) and 4 wheel drive (xDrive). The strange thing is, it’s only offered with diesel engines (unless you live in America). However, as with all BMW diesels, they are not short of power. The base 1.8d has 1.8 141bhp and 140 lb-ft torque, up to the twin turbo 2.3 offering 201bhp and 300 lb·ft torque.The quality of the X1 falls down slightly Cooking Gadgets compared to the rest of the BMW range, but this car is built to plug a gap. If you want full quality, go for the X3 or X5 and pay the extra! Although the quality might be a little short for BMW standards, it is by no means poor. The attention to detail in the cabin is way ahead of it’s competition. The X1 is built in both Leipzig, Germany and Chennai, India. We have yet to see if there is a marked difference in quality between the two plants.As it stands, the BMW X1 should have the reliability of other BMW’s. It’s this unwavering standard that helps keep BMW car leasing prices relatively low. Because they are sought after second hand cars, deprecation is low, creating more favourable finance prices, especially on a lease plan.All engines pull well, with even the 1.8 hitting 60mph in under 10 seconds.
Cars
Boston Mercedes dealer raves about success of Facebook contest
A recent Facebook and Twitter challenge by Mercedes-Benz sent two fans home with a new model by Mercedes-Benz that will not be available until this fall at Boston Mercedes dealer lots in Massachusetts: Mercedes C-Class Coupe. The all-new 2012 model is even more stylish, modernized and appealing than its C-Class predecessors. Thus, not only did the winners of the Mercedes-Benz Tweet Race experience an amazing road trip from Los Angeles, CA to Dallas, TX, just in time to see their favorite football team, the Green Bay Packers, win the Super Bowl, but they are now driving a brand new, stylish ride.In order to win the race, Todd Sanders and John Pederson not only drove a Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid sedan to the Dallas finish line the fastest, but they also collected to most “tweet” points during the race, leaving car finance calculator them with the title of grand champions. In addition to each receiving the brand new C-Class Coupe vehicles, Mercedes-Benz also donated $45,000 to St. Jude Children’s Hospital as part of the event. Todd and John’s Tweet coach, Pete Wentz, is an active supporter of St. Jude Children’s Hospital and chose the charity to be the winning team’s beneficiary.The contest, which was ran entirely through Facebook and Twitter, required participants to earn as many tweets as possible through a variety of different ways. These ways included getting supporters to tweet certain team hashtags and each driver’s handle in every tweet. Other tweet points were earned for pictures tweeted of support signs from participant’s hometowns; pictures tweeted by people the participants met along the route also earned participants points.