2023 BMW iX M60

Test Drive Notes Library

Pros
Interior room. The iX is an electric crossover, built from the ground up to be an EV. It’s about the size of an X5 on the outside, but feels much bigger within. The first thing you notice is that it feels large and airy inside— more Stockholm than Munich. Sitting in the driver’s seat, you also notice the low cowl right away. Lots of modern SUVs have high hoods, to better allow you deniability when you run over a USPS box. The iX is the opposite, the low cowl lets you easily see the road ahead of you. Except for the thick A-pillars, visibility is very good, and the front visibility is refreshing.
Range. We got pretty close to 300 miles on a full electric charge. That eliminates range anxiety for most people. If you can live with only (!) 500 or so horsepower, you can get even more range with the iX 50, and save a bunch of money, too. That would be our choice.
Power. As you might imagine with 600 hp and all wheel drive, the iX has plenty of get up and go. More like get up and went. The nice thing about it is that it’s not in the way when you don’t need it. It’s very easy to drive the iX gently in day to day traffic. And then, when you need a ridiculous blast of power for passing, highway ramps, or impressing your neighbor, Walter, the power is instantaneous and significant.
Quiet and comfortable. It’s electric, so the only “motor” noise is a pleasant, synthetic, Apple-computer like zhhhhzzzhhh when you accelerate hard. While we normally switch off these manufactured sounds, we left this one on. Otherwise, BMW has done an excellent job at keeping noise out of the cabin. That’s true at highway speed, too. The ride is extremely comfortable. It absorbs bumps and imperfections at a luxury car level. Handling is competent and crisp, but not sporty. BMW seems to have split its lineup into sporty cars and luxury cars, and this is definitely the latter. It’s a particularly comfortable highway cruiser.
Rear seat room. Commodious, man. Stretch out. Your little kids might not even be able to kick the back of your seat and annoy you.
Advanced head up display. The head up display includes safety information, including other vehicles that the safety sensors are picking up around you. It displays them for you on a projection hovering over the front end of the hood. It’s another step towards not having to take your eyes off the road.

Cons
iDrive step backwards. Rather than menus with words, BMW has added “apps” for a number of deeper menu controls. So if you want to adjust how your doors unlock, or some display options, you have to find the appropriate app, and then access the menu that way. We believe someone at BMW had the idea to make these things resemble apps on your phone, with icons. But if you’ve ever swiped through five screens of apps on your phone trying to find one, you could have predicted that this would be a bad idea while driving. The primary apps have permanent places on the main screen, but should you want to go any deeper, you’ll have to go all Windows 95 on this thing.
No more switches. In another unfortunate decision, BMW has eliminated most hard switches. There’s a volume roller control between seats (and a few controls on the steering wheel). But in order to do most other things, you have to go into the main touch screen. That’s particularly annoying for climate controls. While temperature controls are “docked” permanently at the bottom of the touch screen, to change anything else, you have to call up the climate menu and poke around while trying to watch the road. Our prediction: In the near future, actual hard controls for things like temperature and air flow will be considered luxury items, and those that want to sell luxury cars will provide them, to differentiate themselves from the cheaper cars that force you to navigate through menus to save $15 on switches.
Awkward cupholder. The cupholder is located at the very front of the center console, but half a level down. So the top level of the center console is in the way.
Exterior in its teenage geeky phase. The front view of the iX is particularly unappealing. Looks fine from other angles. So always park facing in.