• last year
This is the ballistic version of the BMW iX we've already test. So, is it worth spending all of the extra money? Paul Maric gets behind the wheel to find out and also tests 0-100, reverse max speed, the autonomous tech and 0-100!

Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE

More BMW content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/bmw
More BMW iX content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/bmw/ix

Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior 00:56
Interior 05:11
Infotainment 06:39
Safety Tech 08:38
Practicality 09:44
Charging 14:28
On the Road 14:57
0 - 100 km/h 20:24
Verdict 24:22

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#bmw #ix #review
Transcript
00:00 G'day, I'm Paul, BMW iX.
00:02 I know we've reviewed this before,
00:04 but this is the bee's knees version.
00:06 It is the fast one, and I'm really keen to see
00:08 what a fast BMW EV actually feels like.
00:12 The last sort of proper fast BMW EV I drove was the i8,
00:15 and that thing was sensational,
00:17 but it was a plug-in hybrid,
00:18 whereas this is a full electric vehicle.
00:21 Now, this is called the BMW iX M60.
00:23 It's priced at just over $220,000.
00:27 It competes with things like the Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV,
00:32 the Jaguar I-PACE, the Audi e-tron,
00:35 and if this is too expensive,
00:37 the entire range kicks off at just over $135,000.
00:40 Today, I'm gonna do a detailed review of this car,
00:42 so if you do wanna skip ahead to other parts of the review,
00:44 you can use the time codes on the screen.
00:46 If you're on YouTube, you can scroll down
00:47 and use the chapters below.
00:49 If you haven't done so already,
00:49 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon
00:51 so you can find out every single time
00:53 we drive a fun car like this.
00:56 Now, let's talk about the exterior.
00:58 You've got nine colors to pick from.
01:00 They're all free except two metallic colors
01:01 that are $2,600.
01:03 So the M60 looks a little different
01:05 to the other versions of the iX.
01:07 It has an M Sport package on it,
01:08 and a few M badges lit around the car
01:11 that I'll show you in a second,
01:12 but look, I gotta say, this design is growing on me.
01:14 I know, you know, but it is growing on me,
01:17 and I think that this is the thing with BMW.
01:20 People are just outraged at first,
01:21 but then when they actually get a bit of time
01:23 to look at these cars and they come in the right colors
01:26 with some of the highlights that this has,
01:27 actually starts growing on a lot of people.
01:29 So let me know if you're one of those down there.
01:32 So I mentioned in our first review of this
01:34 that this has a self-healing grill here.
01:36 So in addition to the heating elements
01:38 within the grill there,
01:39 if you do get a stone chip or a scratch on that,
01:41 if you apply a bit of heat to it, it actually self-heals.
01:44 So it's a special material that does that,
01:46 which I think is pretty cool.
01:47 Down here, you have active vanes
01:48 for the cooling of the battery pack.
01:50 Up here, you have a little device that pops out
01:53 to shoot your front camera with high pressure washer jet.
01:57 And then over here, you have the filler
01:58 for your washer fluid.
01:59 And that's because this bonnet is a non-serviceable item.
02:02 So it does open, but for a general consumer,
02:05 you're not gonna be opening that.
02:06 There's nothing interesting under there for you.
02:08 Over here, you have a set of BMW laser headlights.
02:11 Now, BMW's actually phasing these out.
02:13 If you had a look at our BMW i7 walk around,
02:15 if you haven't seen that yet,
02:16 you can click up here to watch that.
02:18 I actually explain BMW's getting rid of laser headlights
02:21 and going down the path of full LED.
02:23 And the i7 actually has Swarovski crystals
02:26 built into the headlights as well.
02:27 So they get a bit of a shimmer when there is an LED
02:30 sort of powered behind them, which I think is pretty cool.
02:31 So down the bottom here,
02:32 you have a different colour for this little section.
02:35 Obviously, you've got body colour over here,
02:36 and this is all black with a little scoop
02:38 on the side here for aero.
02:39 Whip around to the side of the car with me.
02:41 Down here, you're gonna find a set
02:43 of a whopping 22-inch alloy wheels.
02:46 Now, I love this gold highlight package.
02:49 So you can see here, the M logo is gold.
02:50 You've got gold inserts here on the wheels,
02:53 including gold around the side of the car as well.
02:56 I think teamed with this body colour, it looks so nice.
02:59 It really cuts a beautiful line with all those highlights.
03:02 Behind here, you get a set of M Sport brakes as standard.
03:05 So they measure 340 mil in terms of rotor size
03:08 with four piston calipers up the front.
03:10 Then you have a similarly sized rotor
03:11 at the back of the car.
03:12 This is a heavy vehicle.
03:13 It's a little over two and a half tonnes,
03:14 a little under 2.6 tonnes.
03:16 So it is a lot of weight to be moving around
03:18 and also slowing down as well.
03:20 So I'll be keen to see how that performs.
03:22 Buried under there, you've got air suspension as well
03:24 and a ground clearance of 180 millimetres.
03:27 So at the top here, you have this gold element
03:29 that whips around to the side.
03:30 You have an LED indicator built into the wing mirror.
03:32 Camera there on the side.
03:33 And normally under here, you'd find a puddle lamp,
03:35 but what BMW does, they have their magic carpet
03:38 that gets put down the side of the car.
03:39 That's nestled into here.
03:41 So that projects out onto the road there.
03:43 Gives you a little bit of a sort of carpet to walk on
03:46 as you get towards the car.
03:47 Up the top here, not only do you have
03:49 a panoramic glass roof,
03:50 this is the biggest panoramic glass roof
03:52 to ever feature on a BMW.
03:54 And it also has the ability to go between
03:56 sort of transparent and also translucent
03:59 with the push of a button, which I reckon is pretty sweet.
04:01 No privacy glass, which I thought was odd.
04:03 On top spec, I would have thought that would be standard.
04:06 These door handles are interesting as well.
04:08 So right here, I can see there's like a rock
04:10 that's sitting in there.
04:11 So I don't know what the purpose of these door handles is.
04:14 And a lot of other BMW products, they sit flush.
04:16 Whereas here, you put your finger in there
04:18 and you can see here that it obviously
04:20 collects things as you go.
04:21 So it must be an aero thing.
04:23 IX here on the side, this is your charging port.
04:26 I'll run you through that a little later on.
04:27 Come around to the back of the car.
04:29 So this is the rear.
04:30 I reckon this is probably the best angle of the IX.
04:32 It really just looks nice and chunky
04:34 and meaty out on the road.
04:36 And I love again, that gold theme on the batches.
04:38 So big M badge there with 60 after it.
04:41 And then IX on this side here.
04:44 Yeah, it's just a cool looking setup.
04:45 So similar to the front there,
04:46 you have a washer for your camera at the back here.
04:49 So that pops out and gives that a little squirt.
04:51 A little bit of a diffuser down the bottom there as well.
04:54 And LED taillights are a little bit hard to see there,
04:56 but you can see they frost nicely
04:58 and you can see the indicator when that's running as well.
05:01 Boot lip spoiler there too.
05:02 So let me know what you reckon about the design
05:04 in the comment section.
05:05 Do you think it is good looking?
05:07 Is it growing on you like it is growing on me?
05:10 Let me know what you reckon down there.
05:11 So we're inside the IX.
05:13 We'll start off with the key.
05:14 You've got the BMW logo there, which is the lock button.
05:17 And on the side you have unlock, boot,
05:20 the button here for ambient lighting.
05:22 And then it's blank on the back.
05:23 A little bit of M colorage there as well,
05:25 because it is an M vehicle.
05:27 It's a proximity sensing key.
05:28 So you can leave that in your pocket.
05:29 And then you have the start stop button just here.
05:32 So this interior, I think it is absolutely stunning.
05:36 While you may dislike that exterior,
05:38 this interior really does look fantastic.
05:40 So you have that floating curve display up the top there.
05:43 You have premium materials as far as the eye can see.
05:46 I even love this sort of fabric material
05:48 down the bottom here as well.
05:50 And they've got very minimalist with the buttons.
05:52 So you'll notice things like your climate functions
05:54 are all here on the screen
05:55 as opposed to being banked down here.
05:57 So I think it actually is a really nice setup.
05:59 And I love the seats.
06:00 They just look sensational.
06:02 They're like a big armchair.
06:03 So very impressed with the way that looks.
06:05 There's wood here as well.
06:07 Now, in terms of your touch points,
06:09 here in the center, that's sort of nice and soft
06:12 and soft on the door as well.
06:14 How soft are they?
06:15 Well, we've got our durometer.
06:16 We've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
06:18 If you want to see how this car compares to others
06:19 that we've tested before,
06:21 look at the link in the description below.
06:23 Now, what about your build quality?
06:24 So this all feels extremely nice and solid.
06:28 And door slam.
06:29 This sounds a bit tinny, actually.
06:34 I did notice that earlier.
06:36 I don't know what it is, but yeah,
06:37 it's got a bit of tinniness to it.
06:39 Now let's talk infotainment.
06:41 So I'm going to preface this by saying
06:42 we actually took a deeper dive of the infotainment system
06:45 here in the iX in our previous iX review,
06:47 and you can click up there to watch that.
06:49 Today, I'll just run you through the basics,
06:50 just so you get an idea of what it's like.
06:52 So this is iDrive 8,
06:53 which is the latest version of BMW's infotainment system.
06:56 This center screen here is about 15 inches in size,
06:59 which is awesome.
07:00 So you've got these pillars here,
07:01 and that's what you scroll through.
07:02 It's all nice and quick and easy to use.
07:05 A couple of interesting functions.
07:06 You have the interior camera.
07:07 So when you activate that and log in with your BMW ID,
07:11 it actually uses this camera up here
07:12 to take a selfie of you and the car.
07:15 In the future, this is actually going to be used
07:16 for things like intrusion detection,
07:18 so they can start recording
07:19 if someone does break into your car,
07:20 which I think is really clever technology.
07:22 On the audio front, you have AM, FM, and DAB digital radio.
07:27 Now that is all plumbed as standard
07:28 through a 30-speaker Bowers & Wilkins sound system.
07:33 This is actually a 4D sound system,
07:35 so it has vibrators in the seat,
07:38 and I think also the floor as well.
07:39 So when you do crank the speakers,
07:41 it actually vibrates your back and the floor.
07:44 So it's just ridiculous stuff.
07:47 Now, smartphone mirroring.
07:48 You do actually have satellite navigation
07:50 built into there as well.
07:51 But in terms of smartphone mirroring,
07:53 it comes with both Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
07:56 Both of those are wireless,
07:57 so I'll show you what Android Auto looks like first.
07:59 So there it is there.
08:00 So it integrates within that full screen,
08:02 and then when you go back to that home menu,
08:04 the maps move over to that side.
08:05 But it's all nice and fast and very easy to use.
08:08 And this is what Apple CarPlay looks like.
08:10 So pretty decent setup there.
08:12 Just love how sharp that is.
08:14 This is like space-age tech inside the car here.
08:17 Now, once you're done with playing with all that,
08:18 you do also have a screen ahead of the driver,
08:20 so that's just under 13 inches in size.
08:22 Now, this thing's pretty cool
08:23 'cause you can configure a number of different things
08:26 in the center there.
08:27 What you can then also do is adjust the layout
08:30 as well as you go.
08:31 So they've really just thought about everything here
08:33 and done a fantastic job getting it all customized
08:36 and looking exactly how the driver wants it to look.
08:38 Let's talk safety tech.
08:40 So you have autonomous emergency braking
08:41 with pedestrian and cyclist detection.
08:43 You have an auto-dimming rear vision mirror,
08:46 blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror.
08:48 You have a lane departure warning
08:50 with a lane-keeping assistant.
08:51 It also has a semi-autonomous steering function,
08:53 and we're gonna test that out later on
08:55 to see how well it works up against our banked oval.
08:58 You have rear cross-traffic alert.
09:00 You also have front and rear parking sensors
09:02 and a 360 camera.
09:03 Show you what the 360 camera looks like.
09:05 We'll hit this button just here.
09:07 It's actually really good,
09:08 so I can clearly see the suitcase down there.
09:10 The 360 view is not too bad.
09:12 It is a little warped around the edges there,
09:14 but you can then select the cameras as you go as well.
09:19 So it'll adjust the view that you're seeing,
09:20 which I reckon is pretty cool.
09:22 Over on the side here, you have different views as well.
09:25 So this is just your sonar view.
09:27 Then in addition to that, you can go full screen on that.
09:30 And one other cool feature as well,
09:32 you actually have your buttons here
09:34 for the washing functions that I showed you earlier.
09:37 We also have a car wash view,
09:38 so you can actually line up where your wheels are going
09:40 in those tracks so you don't scratch
09:42 your precious airman wheels.
09:44 So what's your connectivity like?
09:45 Well, you have two USB-C ports down here
09:49 with a 12-volt outlet.
09:50 You have a wireless phone charger as well.
09:52 In terms of storing, your phone can kind of live anywhere.
09:54 There's stacks of room,
09:55 including this neat little phone holder
09:57 up the top there as well.
09:58 One thing I did find this morning
10:00 that I didn't really like is the position of the cup holder.
10:02 So if you do have a coffee,
10:03 you kind of have to lean down and across this section
10:07 to get the coffee out.
10:08 So it really, it's just not a good spot.
10:10 This sort of needed to be a little further back
10:12 or the cup holder's up the top there or something,
10:13 but yeah, not a huge fan of that.
10:16 But they do have teeth down there in the bottle holders,
10:19 which is good.
10:19 Bottle fits inside the door as well without any dramas.
10:22 Let's see how it goes with our big bottle.
10:25 That fits in too.
10:26 Good news, excellent.
10:27 Other storage, you have this big old center console here.
10:31 In addition to that,
10:32 you have a little bit of storage space down here
10:34 and a glove box down the bottom here as well,
10:36 although that looks extremely tiny.
10:39 So comfort is important.
10:40 What have you got here in terms of your comfort features?
10:42 So there's quad zone automatic climate control.
10:46 And like I mentioned,
10:47 you don't have any shortcut buttons here.
10:48 So you have to actually go into a climate menu
10:50 here on the screen and activate your functions up here.
10:52 I don't love it.
10:53 It's kind of a bit clumsy and looks a bit full on at times.
10:56 So you can just do auto and set your temperatures
10:58 or use voice commands,
10:59 but I don't know what was wrong
11:01 with just having a couple of knobs there.
11:03 On the seats, the seats have full electric adjustment
11:06 and you do it here on the door
11:07 using these crystal button selectors.
11:10 So forwards, backwards,
11:13 backrest can go forwards, backwards.
11:15 You can lift the front, you can lift the back.
11:18 You also have lumbar adjustment.
11:19 And in addition to that,
11:20 you also have massage function as well,
11:22 which I think is fantastic.
11:25 Steering is adjusted both tilt and reach electrically,
11:28 which is good news.
11:30 And passenger seat is also electrically adjustable as well.
11:33 And on our reach test,
11:35 this stuff is actually quite hard to reach
11:36 on that side of the screen.
11:38 So you do have to use the iDrive controller,
11:39 which can be a little clumsy for things
11:41 like your smartphone mirroring,
11:42 which tends to be a bit all over the place.
11:45 So yeah, it is a little bit of a stretch here
11:47 to reach that side of the screen.
11:48 Now, just before I shut the door here,
11:50 I love this exposed carbon shell
11:52 that you can see every time you open and close the doors.
11:55 I think that is absolutely cool.
11:57 So once you're inside, let's talk about room first.
12:00 Have a look at this.
12:01 I have a mountain of room here.
12:03 So leg, toe room, headroom, it's all fantastic.
12:07 So this is exactly what you want from a big SUV like this.
12:10 It's on a wheelbase of three metres,
12:11 so it is pretty decent and chunky,
12:13 and it means that you're getting stacks of room
12:15 inside the cabin.
12:16 This is where your other two zones of climate control are.
12:18 You have air vents down here
12:19 and also on the B pillar as well.
12:21 Hooks everywhere if you're doing to store a coat
12:23 or other sort of bits and pieces.
12:25 Four USB-C points,
12:26 two in the back of each of these seats
12:28 with a little holder here for your devices.
12:30 Map pocket there as well.
12:32 Look at all this room.
12:33 So because this is a flat floor,
12:34 you actually have stacks of room here.
12:36 So if you do end up in the second seat here
12:38 in the second row,
12:39 it means you're not going to be too stiff there
12:41 in terms of legroom.
12:42 Centre armrest pops down
12:44 and gives you two cup holders there
12:46 so you can fit a bottle in there pretty easily.
12:48 Bottle fits inside the door without any dramas at all.
12:52 You have ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats
12:54 with this clever little cubby to hide them.
12:56 And then you have three top tether points as well.
12:59 I also love with the seats here in the second row
13:01 how this edge section is padded as well.
13:03 So you can just lean into here
13:05 and have a bit of a kip as well if you want,
13:06 which I reckon is pretty cool for the BMW iX.
13:09 And finally, our window test.
13:12 So it is auto up and down.
13:14 See how far down it goes.
13:15 That is so ridiculous.
13:18 (clicking)
13:20 That is so silly.
13:21 I don't know why you'd even...
13:22 Anyway.
13:23 So let's talk cargo space.
13:25 It's a little sticky beak.
13:27 You've got a power tailgate.
13:29 So in here, you have 500 litres of cargo space available.
13:34 There's a 12 volt outlet up there,
13:35 plus some hooks on the sides as well.
13:38 Beneath the cargo floor,
13:39 you have a tyre repair kit, cable storage,
13:42 not really much else.
13:43 Actually not too bad of a space,
13:45 but it's not like a Model Y
13:46 where it's nice and deep and sort of cavernous.
13:48 It's really taken up by things
13:50 that you would need to carry around with you.
13:52 So keep that in mind.
13:53 Also, by the way, this.
13:55 It's here if you do have the boot open
13:57 and you're pulled over on the side of the road,
13:58 people can still see you,
13:59 given the taillights are integrated into this section.
14:02 I will show you what it looks like with our bags in there.
14:04 So there's that bag.
14:06 And then our suitcase.
14:08 Yeah, look, it's okay.
14:09 I don't know.
14:10 It just feels like a small space for some reason.
14:12 I don't know whether it's this cargo blind,
14:14 but it doesn't look like a huge amount of storage capacity.
14:17 You can increase the size of the space though
14:19 by dropping your second row out of the way.
14:22 So that increases that to 1750 litres
14:25 and almost makes it a flat floor to load things in.
14:28 Now, before we go for a drive,
14:30 I'm gonna run you through the charging options.
14:32 So this has both AC and DC charging.
14:35 And in addition to that, you have a 111 kilowatt hour battery.
14:39 It can charge at a peak of 195 kilowatts on DC
14:42 and up to 11 kilowatt three phase AC.
14:45 So pretty decent options there.
14:47 And with the 195 kilowatt DC charging,
14:49 it actually hits that peak and sits there for a while.
14:51 So it is a pretty decent setup.
14:53 And that all results in a WLTP driving range
14:55 of just under 600 kilometres.
14:57 So we have just hit the road in the iX.
15:02 Let me start off by telling you
15:03 how much power and torque this makes.
15:05 It is genuinely ridiculous.
15:07 So just under 500 kilowatts of power
15:11 and 1,100 newton metres of torque.
15:15 I mean, that is clinically insane.
15:19 It does weigh a lot, so it's almost 2.6 tonnes.
15:21 So it's not like you're moving around a thousand kilo go-kart,
15:24 but that is still a stupendous amount of power and torque
15:28 to get this thing moving.
15:29 So that's all sent through two electric motors.
15:31 One sits on the front axle, one sits on the rear axle.
15:34 They produce 190 kilowatts of power
15:36 and 360 kilowatts of power, respectively, front rear.
15:40 So a bit of an idea of how much meat
15:42 you have to play with there.
15:43 And the interesting thing is when you are driving this,
15:46 at the moment, it's just in comfort mode.
15:47 And I'll run through some of the ridiculous names here
15:49 for the drive modes in a second.
15:50 But when you are in the comfort mode,
15:52 it is really nice and progressive and gentle.
15:54 It really doesn't do anything too stupid.
15:56 If you want to do your EV stuff,
15:57 you can just punch the throttle
16:00 and it literally puts you inside the boot.
16:03 But outside of that, it is really nice and gentle.
16:05 One thing I'm not a fan of though, here is the regen modes.
16:08 They're okay, but for me to change between
16:11 like the light to hard settings,
16:12 I have to go through the menu to faff around with that.
16:14 I do have it in the hardest setting at the moment.
16:16 And when I roll out of the throttle,
16:17 it is quite aggressive in terms of how hard it slows.
16:20 And if I put this down into B mode,
16:21 it will come to a full stop.
16:23 But like a lot of other cars in this segment,
16:25 kind of rocks a little bit when it comes to a full stop.
16:27 It doesn't actually engage the brake pedal
16:29 like it does in a Tesla.
16:30 So something interesting to take note of there.
16:33 Now, what about your economy?
16:34 So BMW claims a combined average
16:36 of just under 25 kilowatt hours per 100 Ks.
16:39 We're currently sitting on 27.6
16:41 and that's over the past thousand kilometers.
16:43 The issue with these press cars is that
16:45 when people hop into these fast ones,
16:47 they tend to drive them like idiots.
16:48 And you can see that's obviously the case here.
16:51 So 30 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers.
16:54 If this is 110 kilowatt hour battery,
16:56 you're only gonna be getting about 350 or 400 Ks
16:59 out of each charge, which is not great.
17:02 But I think if you were to drive a little more sensibly,
17:05 you'd see a far bigger figure than that.
17:07 Okay, time to attack our sine waves.
17:09 Let me just increase our pace a little bit here.
17:12 Get up to 130.
17:13 So these simulate overtaking in Australia on a dodgy road.
17:18 And basically it's just a continuous set of undulations.
17:21 So here we go here.
17:22 Yeah, it feels pretty good.
17:26 All nice and straightforward.
17:28 This has adaptive damping under the skin there.
17:29 So it really does take care of those imperfections
17:32 pretty easily.
17:33 And you can also adjust the height of the car
17:35 using this button here, should you so desire.
17:38 But probably no point faffing around with that.
17:40 It does it all automatically for you.
17:41 Now I did mention the drive modes before.
17:43 So if you press my modes here,
17:44 you've got personal, sport, efficient, expressive,
17:49 and relax.
17:50 So as you move between those,
17:51 it changes all the displays here.
17:53 And it also kind of allows you to jump between
17:55 the different drive settings as well.
17:57 You can hear the noise change there.
17:58 (car engine roaring)
18:01 That's just ridiculous.
18:02 And this is what relaxed sounds like
18:03 when I get on this throttle.
18:04 (laughs)
18:08 This is a little bit funny.
18:09 Let me pop it over into sport mode.
18:11 We'll see what it feels like.
18:13 So instantly that becomes firmer.
18:15 Now noise becomes louder.
18:17 We'll tip it around our track here.
18:19 All right, here we go.
18:21 All right.
18:26 Oh, ho, ho.
18:27 Okey dokey.
18:28 So I mentioned in our last iX review that
18:32 wow,
18:33 this thing is so fast.
18:37 I mentioned in our last iX review that
18:39 it kind of felt like no other BMW
18:42 in terms of the way that it drove
18:43 because it was more floaty and boaty than it was
18:47 razor edged and sport focused.
18:50 This actually brings some of that sport focus back
18:52 and it is sitting far flatter than it did
18:56 in the previous iX that we drove.
18:58 But the pace that this thing is piling on
19:01 when you get on the throttle is genuinely unbelievable.
19:05 It pins you back in the seat like you wouldn't believe.
19:07 And as we roll onto our back straight here,
19:10 I'm gonna pin that throttle down.
19:12 Wow.
19:13 It is not slowing down.
19:15 It is absolutely ridiculous.
19:17 There we go.
19:18 We just nudged 200 there.
19:19 I'm gonna jump on the anchors.
19:21 Holy crap.
19:22 Yeah, it is crazy.
19:23 Normally with EVs, they taper off a little bit,
19:26 especially once you're moving and you're at highway speeds.
19:29 This just feels like it just keeps giving.
19:31 It is just insane.
19:33 The brakes are fantastic as well.
19:34 I did probably three hot laps here earlier
19:36 and they didn't fade at all.
19:37 We had issues with the Bentayga that we tested recently
19:40 where we had brake fade in that.
19:41 And these things, obviously you have regen here as well,
19:45 but the brakes themselves are nice and meaty and chunky
19:47 and they really hold everything together nicely.
19:49 Here in the sport mode, you can also configure it into MDM,
19:51 which gives you that limited stability control.
19:54 I kind of wish you'd be able to switch everything off,
19:56 but part of the issue is that on the back axle,
19:58 you have four-wheel steering and in sport mode,
20:00 it's helping sort of guide the car around the corner.
20:03 I kind of don't really like it
20:04 because it's artificial in its feelings.
20:07 When you do tip it in,
20:08 it doesn't feel natural the way
20:10 that it's going through the corner.
20:11 And that rear wheel steering also makes it feel unnatural
20:14 when the rear end comes out and you go to correct it.
20:16 So I just wish that that could be deleted
20:19 and you just have normal steering.
20:20 It does help with the turning circle and bringing that down,
20:22 but I just want to have a normal setup.
20:24 So time four zero to 100.
20:27 Now this has a claimed figure of 3.8 seconds,
20:30 which is just insane when you think about it.
20:31 It is enormous.
20:32 So V-Box is on.
20:34 Let me just pop it in the right setting.
20:36 I'll go all the way up to 120
20:37 so we can see our overtake time as well.
20:39 I'll put this into sport mode with stability control
20:42 slightly switched off and it also has launch control.
20:45 So I'll show you how that works.
20:46 You just basically push the brake and the throttle.
20:49 It starts shaking the car randomly.
20:51 It says launch control active and oh, Jesus.
20:54 Holy shit.
20:56 That is insane.
21:01 Far out.
21:02 Look, I have driven faster cars in terms of zero to 100 speed
21:07 but it is relative to the weight of the car as well.
21:09 This thing is enormous and the fact it can get up to speed
21:12 that quickly is just ridiculous.
21:14 So the time there was 4.1 seconds.
21:17 A little bit off the claim there,
21:18 but ridiculous nonetheless.
21:21 An 80 to 120 at 2.6 seconds shows you
21:23 that a lot of the meat of this car is in that mid-range
21:28 which typically you don't get with EV.
21:30 So they've done a really good job there
21:31 giving this the mid-range that it needs for overtaking
21:34 and stuff like that.
21:34 So they have some really impressive figures.
21:37 So it's time for our reverse test.
21:38 I've left this in sport.
21:41 We'll see how quick it is.
21:42 Here we go.
21:43 Oh man.
21:48 It's like throws me through the windscreen.
21:50 44, 45 kilometres an hour there in reverse.
21:55 What about your road noise?
21:59 Look, it is a little noisier here inside the cabin
22:02 than the first iX that we drove.
22:03 I think that predominantly may come down to the tyres
22:06 but to me, it is actually still really nice and quiet
22:08 even at highway speeds on course chip roads.
22:10 It is fairly subdued here in the cabin
22:12 and you don't hear a great deal going on
22:13 which I think is excellent
22:15 given you're paying this much money for it.
22:16 You really want it to be nice and quiet
22:18 given it is an EV as well.
22:20 Let's talk visibility.
22:21 So I can see clearly down the front there,
22:23 there really isn't any sort of high point there.
22:25 So it's very visible friendly out the front of the car.
22:28 The wing mirrors are pretty small.
22:29 I would have liked them to be a little bit bigger there
22:30 but you do get blind spot monitors built into those
22:32 which is great.
22:34 Visibility out the back is okay.
22:35 It's quite a small window there.
22:37 So we'll talk about this steering wheel really quickly
22:39 as well.
22:40 When I was talking about handling before,
22:41 we have a tight little course
22:43 just in the centre of our skid pan here
22:45 that I run all the cars through
22:46 and requires a lot of steering input.
22:48 And one of the things that I also don't like
22:49 in addition to that limited stability control
22:51 just not being great
22:52 is that the steering wheel is just really hard to handle
22:55 for quick manoeuvres and quick direction changes.
22:59 So, I mean, obviously I say this all the time
23:01 but it's an SUV,
23:02 you're probably not gonna be driving this
23:04 at a racetrack or something.
23:05 But yeah, just for tight track driving,
23:08 there's just too much going on here
23:10 and it just makes it a bit of a handful to handle
23:12 when it is sort of moving around
23:14 in all sorts of different directions.
23:16 Okay, so it is time to test
23:18 some of the lane support autonomous driving systems
23:21 here in the iX.
23:22 So, we're on our circular bowl here,
23:23 it's banked as well.
23:24 So we're gonna test the three outer lanes
23:26 and see how well it works.
23:27 So I'll get this up to 70.
23:29 So you can see the little steering wheel icon pop up there,
23:31 it goes green to tell us that it's steering on our behalf.
23:34 Now you have to always have control of the car.
23:36 So it means that you've gotta have your hands on the wheel
23:38 at all times, but just wanna see how well this works.
23:41 So this bottom line, it works perfectly fine, which is good.
23:44 We'll jump up to this next lane, we'll give that a crack.
23:48 Okay, wait for that steering wheel to go green.
23:51 There it is there.
23:52 So that's holding that lane really nicely
23:55 and dead centre too.
23:56 So that is really impressive.
23:59 Let's jump up to lane three.
24:00 This is the one that we only had a couple of cars
24:03 actually pass.
24:04 So we'll see how well BMW's system works here.
24:06 Steering wheel's gone green.
24:08 That is sensational.
24:09 It is holding it there perfectly.
24:11 There's like no hesitation whatsoever.
24:14 That is unreal.
24:17 Seriously impressive set up there from BMW
24:20 passing in all three of our lanes.
24:22 So the BMW iX M60, what do we think?
24:30 Just like the first review that we did,
24:31 I think this is the best luxury electric SUV
24:35 you can buy on the market today.
24:37 It is so nice inside the cabin there
24:39 and it is explosively quick behind the wheel.
24:42 If you drive it gently, it actually has a decent amount
24:44 of range for a vehicle this size.
24:45 And look, I think that if you do wanna step into an SUV
24:49 that is electric, that is super nice.
24:51 This really just ticks all of the boxes
24:53 and there is a little spider living on that as well.
24:56 So let me know in the comment section below,
24:57 what do you think about it?
24:59 Do you think that you need this much performance
25:01 or would you just go for the 50i instead?
25:02 'Cause it is 220 plus thousand dollars.
25:05 So it is a little bit expensive.
25:06 I'm keen for your feedback.
25:08 And have you bought one?
25:09 What's it like to live with?
25:10 Let me know down there.
25:10 If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it,
25:13 you share it with your mates.
25:14 And if you haven't done so already,
25:15 subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon.
25:18 But until next time, take it easy.

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