“Marvelous on the inside, maddening on the outside — I’ll get to the styling — the iX is addressed to the tech-loving, Earth-hugging mainstream who might want to buy or replace a similar-sized BMW X5. The company says the iX may also speak to those who like X7’s “expressive” front-end styling. Maniacs, in other words.
… Whatever else the iX is or does, it’s got legs: an all-aluminum suspension with aluminum subframes; double-wishbone front suspension with anti-roll bar; five-link rear suspension with anti-roll bar (and some trick-ass spring struts); optional adaptive damping and two-axle air suspension with automatic self-leveling. Also, e-assisted, speed-variable steering and optional rear-wheel steering. Corner-to-corner, the iX felt locked down tighter than New Zealand.
BMW’s interior designers elected to use a fair number of hard buttons as well, available but discreetly arranged in a way the company calls “shy tech.” But one selector is practically an exhibitionist: the cut-glass rotary controller in the floating center console, part of the Executive Package. It is among the details that offer warmth and tactility to shoppers seeking an alternative to Teslas’ Vulcan minimalism.
Note to Tesla: the iX’s hexagonally shaped steering wheel is the yoke done right.
My question is, does BMW really want to sell electric vehicles or is this an elaborate scheme to discredit the technology? Because, man, the iX’s exterior styling is just brutal. What a mutt. Those squinty little LED eyes, the soft shoulders, the gravid belly, the swollen nose with a glass-butterfly bandage. Is this some sort of purity test for the eco-conscious? Because I’m failing.”
— Dan Neil, The Wall Street Journal
