BMW X3 xDrive20d SE (2011) Review & Road Test

BMW X3 Review & Road Test

If you’re going to pontificate on a subject – in this case, pen a BMW X3 Review – it’s probably best to declare any prejudices and preconceptions up-front.

So before starting to deliberate on BMW’s new X3 – in this case the entry-level BMW X3 xDrive20d SE – I need to declare that firstly, unlike many who review cars for a living, I ‘get’ the whole softroader thing. And secondly, I thought the original BMW X3 was truly awful.

I get that there are many motorists who feel less intimidated and more secure driving a car with the ride height of a van. I live with one. I also get that families feel their brood are safer in something perceived as rufty-tufty and a bit butch.

To disparage that sense of security as daft is unfair. To suggest buyers of an X3 should engage their brain and buy a better-equipped and nicer-to-drive 3-Series instead is to completely miss the point. So I’m on-side before we start.

Where I’m off-side is with the X3. BMW’s first X3 was a painful bit of marketing fluff. It had plastics last seen on a Blue Peter model table, a ride that had passengers doing the Tigger bounce and crash on almost any road and build quality that seemed to have been signed-off by a blind man. I was not a fan.

So, in a sense, we start with a level playing field.

On paper the new BMW X3 looks very promising. It’s grown in size (in fact it’s about the size of the original X5) to put fresh air between it and the X1 and it now looks like a convincing, and well designed, softroading SUV.

Which is a good start, especially as when BMW revealed the new X3 last summer they did make it clear it was to be a distinct move upmarket. They said:

“…the lowest-emission four-wheel drive model in the sector, the first to have start-stop with auto transmission, unparalleled agility, significantly upgraded cabin and a raft of sector-first technology“

This, apart from sounding the eco-trumpet so beloved of car makers in 2011, sets the bar high and the expectations even higher. And at first encounter, certainly cosmetically, BMW has delivered.

The doors shut with a satisfying clunk and the cockpit is now a genuinely nice place to be, with some very tactile surfaces and standard leather trim. There’s also a noticeable – and welcome – amount of extra room, both in the cabin and in the boot, which will now swallow 1600 litres with the seats down. And no, I can’t easily visualise 1600 litres either, but there’s room for dogs or shopping or bikes or… plenty of ‘stuff’.

Check out the 2011 BMW X3 Photo Gallery

Standard spec comes with a decent 6.5” screen for the Infotainment , but our car has the posh SatNav (an extra £2160 as part of the ‘Media package – Business Advanced’) which means an even better 8.5” screen. You also get Climate as standard.

What our X3 – and every other X3 – also gets is the latest version of BMW’s i-Drive, which now has a plethora of buttons around it for direct access to certain menus. This in principle makes the i-Drive more cluttered, but in practice makes it far more usable.

So the cosmetics on the BMW X3 now hit the mark; it feels like a proper, grown-up car that’s been conceived and designed with style and thought. Lots of clever touches and a real feel of quality.

But what about the ride? What about the drive?

The BMW X3 now has a quality interior

The BMW X3 xDrive20d SE we’ve got this week is going to be the best seller in the range. In fact, it looks as though BMW will only bother with one other X3 – the xDrive30d – in the UK, declining to bring any petrol-engined X3s to the UK on the grounds of low demand. And they’re probably right.

For now, the 2.0 litre turbo diesel is actually Hobson’s choice, so it’s a good thing it’s a decent lump. With 181bhp and 280lb/ft of torque the X3 can get to 62mph in just 8.5 seconds and tops out at 130mph.

If you want to access that performance you do have to work a bit with the manual ‘box our car had. A manual box Claire and Carla found a bit far back for comfort and which we all thought would be better off replaced by the new eight-speed auto – one option not on our car’s extensive list.

The X3 is so car-like to drive and so refined the auto-box would probably suit it better. And the standard stop-start would then work properly, unlike the stop-start on the manual. That’s not BMW’s fault, it’s the driver’s fault. We all do the same – foot on clutch and in gear when stationary – which means the stop-start never kicks in on a manual.

The crashy-bashy suspension of the original X3 is replaced by something that feels far more BMW. Yes, the ride is firm, but it’s compliant; you feel the road but you don’t lose a filling with every small ridge or crumbling section of tarmac.

The electric steering has proper feel, if not exactly overwhelming feedback and even on the winter tyres (Winter tyre package – £1800) BMW thoughtfully provided (sadly it was a mild and snow-free week) the X3 had loads of grip.

Loads of grip that can be enjoyed to the full, especially with the Variable Damper Control (VDC) (£910) which gives some extra meat to the X3’s electronic dampers and tweaks the throttle response to turn the X3 in to something resembling a 3-Series when the mood takes. Which is both surprising and enjoyable.

Which leaves this review sounding a lot like a fan piece. Perhaps it’s the distance that BMW has come with the new X3 that makes it feel so good. Perhaps it was just that sort of week.

A week and a few hundred miles isn’t enough to know what a car is really like to live with long-term. But that few hundred miles has made it clear that BMW has hit the target with the new X3. Inside and out the X3 is now a good looking car, and to drive it is both rewarding and frugal (although we only got 43mpg – not BMW’s claimed 50mpg).

The new X3 also feels like a quality product; it actually feels like a BMW, and that was the main thing missing from the original X3.

That it drives like a 3-Series most of the time, will allow you to blat round B Roads without losing your fillings or your dignity, and will cruise on motorways all day at anything you can get away with, is impressive. So good is the new X3 it comes very close to being the best in its class.

We’d give it garage space. Especially with an auto ‘box.

(30 photos – click any thumbnail for full gallery)

By Cars UK