I can now finally understand why there is an 8 month waiting list for this car in the UK. It's absolutely brilliant. I own an '07 E92 325i msport manual and the X3 is now my wife's car (lucky old her).
I spec'd this car on a budget so although I'd have loved a 35d msport, finances didn't allow. Spec is as follows.
Space grey (I know, I know, boring but I think it looks smart)
Black leather (I know, I know, boring again but oyster, in England where it's always muddy and wet and mouldy and awful - come on? It'll be ruined in a year)
Satin silver trim (cheap and inoffensive)
Auto gearbox (no paddles - wife won't use them but apparently ZF know a thing or two about making beautifully shifting gearboxes and dumping them in BMW's)
Lumber support (essential for long distance and should be standard)
Xenons (again should be standard on a £30k+ car)
Privacy glass (for aesthetic reasons and nothing else)
17 Y spoke 305 alloys (as this means you can still have real tyres and not that run-flat, Flintstone wheel option and they look a million times better than the standard wheels for only £130 extra)
Service package (it's not great value at 20,000 mile service intervals but hey, I don't have to think about it for another 5 years).
The auto gearbox is so so good. The shifts are so smooth and it always seems to pick the correct one of the eight ratios it has to choose from.
The steering seems a little light and without much feel but that's the case in most new cars it seems now that steering is electric.
Ride is spot on and puts my 3 series to shame, mainly thanks to properly chunky tyres that are not that god awful, feel robbing, run flat nonsense. Did I mention I don't like runflats much?
Cornering isn't bad for such a large vehicle and the view and driving position are just superb. I honestly think it is the perfect size car. It's so practical and still manoeuvrable in the Roman city of Bath where we live and where the streets were designed for horses. You see people struggling in their range-rover's and X5's for parking but the X3 has none of these problems yet still has all the presence and premium feel as the Galiothon SUV's.
MPG seems to stay at 40 but too early in its life to tell if this is accurate or not.
Finally, engine. What a bloody masterpiece. So quiet and smooth but crikey does it shift this car down the road if you ask it to. The torque surge for a 4 cylinder is just staggering and I cannot imagine what the 6 pot engines are like (I'd love to find out).
So all the reviews you read are right. This is a brilliant car and it does have all the power you'll ever really need unless you regularly need to dispatch long lines of members of the 40mph everywhere (even through 30 limits) club to keep you sane.
Now just hoping it proves reliable (as its a keeper) and hoping the engine doesn't suffer any cam chain problems like older 2.0 diesel BMW engines seem to. Fingers crossed.
I'd love to post photos but the ones I keep attaching are too large, I only have an iPad and I'm computer illiterate but I'll keep trying.
I spec'd this car on a budget so although I'd have loved a 35d msport, finances didn't allow. Spec is as follows.
Space grey (I know, I know, boring but I think it looks smart)
Black leather (I know, I know, boring again but oyster, in England where it's always muddy and wet and mouldy and awful - come on? It'll be ruined in a year)
Satin silver trim (cheap and inoffensive)
Auto gearbox (no paddles - wife won't use them but apparently ZF know a thing or two about making beautifully shifting gearboxes and dumping them in BMW's)
Lumber support (essential for long distance and should be standard)
Xenons (again should be standard on a £30k+ car)
Privacy glass (for aesthetic reasons and nothing else)
17 Y spoke 305 alloys (as this means you can still have real tyres and not that run-flat, Flintstone wheel option and they look a million times better than the standard wheels for only £130 extra)
Service package (it's not great value at 20,000 mile service intervals but hey, I don't have to think about it for another 5 years).
The auto gearbox is so so good. The shifts are so smooth and it always seems to pick the correct one of the eight ratios it has to choose from.
The steering seems a little light and without much feel but that's the case in most new cars it seems now that steering is electric.
Ride is spot on and puts my 3 series to shame, mainly thanks to properly chunky tyres that are not that god awful, feel robbing, run flat nonsense. Did I mention I don't like runflats much?
Cornering isn't bad for such a large vehicle and the view and driving position are just superb. I honestly think it is the perfect size car. It's so practical and still manoeuvrable in the Roman city of Bath where we live and where the streets were designed for horses. You see people struggling in their range-rover's and X5's for parking but the X3 has none of these problems yet still has all the presence and premium feel as the Galiothon SUV's.
MPG seems to stay at 40 but too early in its life to tell if this is accurate or not.
Finally, engine. What a bloody masterpiece. So quiet and smooth but crikey does it shift this car down the road if you ask it to. The torque surge for a 4 cylinder is just staggering and I cannot imagine what the 6 pot engines are like (I'd love to find out).
So all the reviews you read are right. This is a brilliant car and it does have all the power you'll ever really need unless you regularly need to dispatch long lines of members of the 40mph everywhere (even through 30 limits) club to keep you sane.
Now just hoping it proves reliable (as its a keeper) and hoping the engine doesn't suffer any cam chain problems like older 2.0 diesel BMW engines seem to. Fingers crossed.
I'd love to post photos but the ones I keep attaching are too large, I only have an iPad and I'm computer illiterate but I'll keep trying.
New X3 LCI 2.0d SE - first thoughts.
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