[sward]

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I testdrove the BMW iX 40 today as one of the first customers in Sweden. My car is a BMW X5M Competition so that's what I'm comparing the iX to.

I really didn't like the BMW iX when I first saw the pictures of it. But it has grown on me, but I still had doubts about the interior. Not any more, the iX is a great looking car both inside and out. It's not as luxurious as my X5M but it's not far off. I haven't seen one single photo of a white iX that I liked but seeing the white iX in real life. WOW, its stunning

Its more space inside the car compared to the X5M, a lot more legroom in the backseat. It's a big difference. I had worries about the new dash but it works. There is a lot of space between the dash and the cupholders. I like the new idrive screens more than I thought I would.

My only real complaint is the cargo space. Its small. Almost the same size as the i4. It should have been larger

So, the testdrive. Well, we started the car and then we needed to turn the music off. Easier said than done. There is no button on the dash. Finally, we could lower it on the steering wheel but I'm sure the gesture control would have worked but at the time I didn't think of it. The car is quiet, really quiet. There are 2 driving modes, D and B. B is hard on the regenerating when lifting the gas pedal. The car stops hard. B made med nauseas. I didn't like that mode. But D was really good. During normal drive it acts like a normal petrol car but when you get close to a stop it automatically adds regeneration so you never really need to break but in between stops you never feel the backside of regenerating.

When we returned and parked the car, we faced the next problem. How to open the doors from the inside. There is no handle. Instead, there is a button to push to open the door. So, they removed the volume noob but they added buttons to open the door. I'm sure I will get used to it, but I really don't see why we can't have a normal handle on the inside of the door.

Will I replace my X5M Competition for an iX. Yes, most likely. But I need to wait for the M60 that they said had more than 600 hp and 0-100 km/h in under 4 s. But overall, I really like the iX a lot more than I thought I would. It's a car you really need to see in real life. Pictures doesn't do it justice.