There are 2 owner-reported powertrain & transmission complaints for the 2024 BMW X1in NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
Our X1 has a lot of "slip" in the transmission. It's most apparent when you back up and then switch to drive. In our X1, the car keeps rolling backward like it's in neutral. Drive doesn't engage until after a long delay.
The auto start/stop on this car is super slow and will turn off the engine before the car comes to a complete stop. It causes confusion at intersections because of the slow getaway and has nearly caused several collisions. For instance, last week I was turning left at an intersection. The left turn was a yield, so i am turning across oncoming traffic. This is the usual intersection in my city. I did not come to a complete stop and started to turn left. I left plenty of space to the oncoming traffic. To my surprise, the engine had turned off and I sat in the intersection pressing the gas pedal to no power. I essentially coasted most of the way through the intersection before the power came back. By that point, I was pushing the gas so hard that when the engine started, I nearly lost control because of the sudden jolt of acceleration while turning. This has happened multiple times and puts drivers of the X1 and others at risk. I've owned and driven hundreds of cars with auto start/stop and this has to be the worst by far. I cannot understand why the engine will turn off before the car comes to a stop. This is more typical of a mild-hybrid drivetrain, except this car does not have an electric engine. It happens with no consistency, so there's no way to adapt driving style. There is only one way to disable the start/stop, and it's deep within the menus (several button clicks on a touch screen-only display), and then it only disables it for the current trip. The dealer has mentioned it's not great but has no way to fix as it's a software problem. Zero warning lamps.
Complaints are unverified consumer reports submitted to NHTSA. A high complaint count may reflect vehicle popularity, not defect severity. Data sourced from NHTSA public records.
Data synced from NHTSA on Apr 26, 2026