- A class action lawsuit claims the 2023 BMW X1’s transmission shows dangerous behavior.
- The lawsuit alleges the seven-speed dual-clutch is jerky and slow, risking rollaways.
- For 2023, BMW redesigned the X1 and replaced its automatic transmission with a DCT.
BMW’s latest X1 is the target of a proposed class action lawsuit that alleges its transmission makes the car dangerous, and even “life-threatening” to drive.
The plaintiffs in the Virginian suit, a husband and wife who own a current-shape X1 SUV, say that the model’s seven-speed dual-clutch transmission can sometimes take up to seven seconds to to respond to driver inputs.
Related: Class Action Claims Select GM Models Don’t Shift Into Park Properly
That can make the X1 jerky to drive at low speeds or when pulling out of an intersection, which is annoying, the suit alleges. But more than that, the plaintiffs argue, the SUV becomes dangerous by virtue of leaving the driver with no control over it, and also sometimes by rolling away, potentially in the opposite direction to the driver’s intended path.
BMW completely overhauled the X1 for 2023, boosting the 2.0-liter turbocharged engine’s output by 13 hp (13 PS), and building up the same front-wheel drive platform used on the Mini Countryman and previous X1 with sharp exterior styling and a modern, screen-heavy interior that ditched the brand’s much loved iDrive controller.
But one other big change the 2023 model ushered in was a seven-speed DCT in place of the old car’s eight-speed conventional automatic. Where the old car’s auto used a torque converter to smoothly mate the engine and gearbox, the DCT uses wet clutch packs that promise greater efficiency.
The lawsuit suggests that the rollaway problems could be down to faulty actuation of the clutches, defects in the clutch components and problems in the software connecting the engine, transmission and brake software. And it says BMW should reimburse owners the money they spent on their “defective” SUVs.
The plaintiffs might be the only X1 owners who hate their car’s transmission enough to take BMW to court over it, but they’re far from the only drivers unhappy with how the DCT operates. A few seconds on the X1/X2 forum on the Bimmerpost website soon unearths other owners complaining of the DCT’s lethargic nature. Many have resorted to permanently leaving their X1s in Sport mode to improve the response.
