Grey BMW X1 Rental in Los Angeles

This is a cool, slightly blue-cast grey rather than a warm one, and on the current X1 — which is squarer and more upright than the car it replaced — it does something useful: it keeps the big flat panels from looking blank the way a plain silver does, without darkening the car into a single shape.

Grey is the shade to take when the week is mostly work. It is the least conspicuous car in the fleet at a valet stand and one of the easiest to keep looking clean, and it suits the current X1's upright, technical shape better than a soft colour would. If you want the same car with some warmth to it, the blue X1 is the one to ask about.

The X1 is the BMW that makes most sense in Los Angeles and gets the least attention for it. It is short enough to park on Abbot Kinney, tall enough to see over traffic on the 10, and quiet enough that a two-hour crawl to Orange County is not an ordeal. The turbocharged four is brisk rather than fast, the boot is genuinely square, and the rear seats take two adults properly. Honest hook: it is the small BMW SUV, not the fast one — book it because it is easy, not because it is quick.