The E84 is the only X1 built on rear-wheel drive, and not an SUV in today's sense. BMW took the E91 3 Series Touring platform, raised it and kept the longitudinal engine — an estate on stilts, built from 2009 to 2015 at Leipzig.
That separates it completely from every later X1. The F48 that followed drives the front wheels, has a transverse engine and sits on a different platform; practically nothing carries between them, not body, not suspension, not driveline. The family resemblance runs instead to the E90 and E91 3 Series of the same years.
What takes these cars off the road is rarely the body. On the N47 diesels the timing chain sits at the back of the engine against the gearbox, and changing it means pulling the drivetrain. On a car of this age the bill routinely exceeds what it is worth.
So the panels are often in better order than the registration year suggests — bonnets are by a distance the commonest E84 part on our shelves, with lamps and mirrors after them. A 2012 facelift brought revised headlights, rear lights and bumpers.
