Back in the good old days when America was the world?s biggest car market, everybody wanted us to know we were special.
All of our domestic automakers built cars just for us, while those in Europe and Asia pandered to our every whim. Can you buy a Toyota Tundra in Tokyo" No. See"
That was then. Today, China is the world?s biggest car market and every manufacturer worthy of its proving ground goes to great lengths to find out exactly what Chinese customers like?and stretches its resources to deliver it to them.
Chinese customers like long. They like their small sedans stretched, they like their large sedans stretched, and they like their SUVs stretched.
BMW knows this. One of every four first-generation X1 crossovers ended up in China, and that?s why it opted to unveil its stretched, second-generation X1 in Beijing today. This X1, to be built in the joint-venture plant at BMW Brilliance in Shenyang, will deliver the much cleaner, purposeful look of the second-generation X1 to the Chinese market?and combine it with a choice of three gasoline engines in both front- and all-wheel-drive models. All stretched.
The Chinese X1 has grown 4.3 inches longer, and all that extra length has been devoted to the rear-seat passengers and their knees. It?s now 179.7 inches long and 63.7 inches tall and remains 71.7 inches wide.

The big upgrade, then, is that rear-seat passengers get another 4.3 inches of knee room, or more if they slide that seat back as far as it goes, sacrific...