2026 Best Subcompact Luxury SUV: BMW X1
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There’s a bit of a stigma around subcompact, entry-level luxury cars. “All you’re paying for is the badge,” skeptics claim. “Lease deal specials,” haters may christen. And yet the BMW X1 sidesteps that stereotype by being a properly premium-feeling luxury SUV and winning the AutoTrader Award for Best Subcompact Luxury SUV for the third year in a row.
Beating out segment mainstays like the Audi Q3 and Lexus UX as well as newcomers like the Volvo EX30 and Acura ADX, the X1 came out as the favourite among a jury of more than 20 automotive experts across Canada. Our experts weigh design, safety, quality, efficiency, performance, driver satisfaction, user-friendliness, tech and features, value, innovation, and, of course, overall engineering excellence to decide which cars are worthy of a win. An award-winning car represents a vehicle we’d confidently recommend to friends and family.
The BMW X1 was all-new for 2023 and has gone relatively unchanged since. For 2026, there are two models available: the base xDrive28i with 241 hp and a sportier 312-hp M35i xDrive. After destination and A/C tax, the former starts at $53,555, while the latter goes for $63,555.
For that, you get an entry-level BMW that’s sufficiently stylish, pretty great to drive, and inherits a lot of tech and swagger also found in products from this brand costing tens of thousands of dollars more. Its interior is very much a shrunken-down, more plasticky version of the cabin found in, say, the flagship 7 Series, and somehow might even be a nicer space than the more expensive X3. A huge wireless charging area with a roller coaster-style lap bar for your phone is a defining feature of this cabin, keeping your device secure and out of sight — but not too out of sight.
The M35i in particular feels properly peppy on the road and even manages to feel like a proper BMW when shown corners. AutoTrader Road Test Editor Dan Ilika wrote, “No, this isn’t a full-fledged M vehicle; but even in the context of lesser performance, this X1 delivers a dynamic drive experience worthy of that special letter in its suffix. The front-mounted mechanical limited-slip differential helps to reliably get torque to the ground even under duress, reducing the kind of torque steer that might otherwise exist without it.
“Toss this crossover into a corner and it remains admirably engaging, with little body roll to report. It handles more like a small hatchback than its dimensions would suggest – not that it’s especially oversized, but there’s very little indication of its upright shape from behind the wheel.”
It’s practical, too, with Ilika (who is quite tall) praising its exceptional headroom and cargo capacity that rivals that of the one-class-up X3.
As AutoTrader Editor-in-Chief Jodi Lai summed up, “[the X1] is a fantastic entryway into the brand. This subcompact SUV does everything a BMW should – it drives well, looks cool, and feels fancy inside, but it’s also surprisingly practical and easy to live with day to day.”
A lot of entry-grade “luxury” cars feel more like dolled-up versions of economy cars from somewhere else in the brand’s corporate family, because that’s often literally what they are. The BMW X1, despite technically sharing mechanicals with Mini, doesn’t feel like that.
It’s condensed, sure, and there’s plastic where nicer BMWs would have leather, but other than that, it feels like you’re getting and driving a real, proper Bimmer. It feels like the happy hour weekday lunch menu at a Michelin-starred restaurant, except here you’re actually getting a lot of the same dishes they’d serve at dinner on Saturday night, and that’s why the X1 wins the award for Best Subcompact Luxury SUV of 2026.
