There are 2 owner-reported electrical system complaints for the 2021 BMW X1in NHTSA's database. These are unverified consumer reports and may not reflect confirmed defects.
While I was driving my BMW X1 1 to 3 weeks ago, frontal collision warning malfunction, pedestrian alert and request service flashed. It was a distraction and not safe. When My husband brought it to the dealership, they were not certain how to fix it. They took a video while doing diagnostic. The right bumper is pop out a little bit because it got hooked to a protruding rod in a concrete parking block while I was parking in front of a food store in Raritan sometime last year. I did not have it fix yet because it was not so obvious and the aesthetics of the car was not much affected. For that reason, the man in the video was saying that he saw a little damage there and was assuming that there’s sort of impact there to the right but it’s hard for him to tell. He was talking of a hard impact which did not happen. He said, visually he could not see anything that is bent but usually if there is a hard impact, it usually twigs the knuckle or the tire rod and he was pointing to those. He also said that when there is a hard impact, they usually recommend to replace the steering rack which is very delicate electronic steering rack and he was pointing where it is. He said, those 3 parts need to be replaced and he will do an alignment once they’re done. He said the reason why always the collision warning are coming on are because of all the steering angle faults from the steering moving so far off. I spoke with the manager last Monday and agreed with alignment but he said if the warning won’t go away after then, I have to spend about $5,000 to replace all those 3 parts. They were not listening that the car did not get a hard impact that’s why they could not see anything bent. It was just the right side of the bumper that was hooked to a rod. They did not even talk about checking the cameras or sensor of the car which according to google is the common cause of frontal collision malfunction. The root cause should be found to fix the problem.
The car was displaying these messages: Frontal Collision Warning System: Malfunction, Brake intervention not available. Visual and acoustic ️ warnings active. Consult service center. Daytime Pedestrian Warning reduced:Brake intervention not possible, but visual and acoustic warnings are still given. Consult service center. It was inspected by the dealership but they were saying that I have to pay $5,000 for it to be fixed which is not right because I think it is a manufacturer’s defect. They were blaming it to a collision which never happened. A portion of the right side of the bumper came off sometime last year because as I was trying to park it, it got hooked to a rod in a parking block. It is not even obvious that’s why I did not have if fix yet, not a priority for my budget. I need a car to go to work. An unfix controller area network and electronic control units could lead to fatal accident.
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