Driving Impressions of the New BMW X3

Painted Rock Farm, outside of Atlanta, GA – BMW is introducing the new X3 to the world’s motoring press at an off road facility known as Painted Rock Farm over the next few days. The new X3 is considered an all-road, all-weather vehicle and what better way to determine whether or not it’s still a BMW then to subject to twisty streets, gravel roads,
and rutted tracks. And the verdict is . . .
First impressions formed from the passenger seat on the drive from the Fulton County Airport to Painted Rock Farm is one of quiet comfort. The optional sports seat with power adjustments should be familiar to any BMW owner. The interior is significantly more upscale that the previous X3′s and could tempt shoppers of competitors’ vehicles into looking at the new X3.
The new X3 is immediately recognizable as a BMW from the inside. There is the common theme of gauge placement, fonts on gauges, and location of controls. This commonality of design aesthetic and ergonomics from one vehicle to another
from the top to bottom of BMW’shelps focus the brand’s image.

The new X3 comes with iDrive standardthe navigation system is optionalA heads-up display is optional and the test vehicles were equipped with it. However, Steve Chupnick, my partner for the driveand new father of twinshere’s to Mrs Chupnick and Michael and Mirawas unable to see it wearing polarized sun glasses.The back seat is comfortable with additional leg room versus the previous X3. And the rear cargo area is quite spacious at 26 plus cubic feet. In addition there is a useful rail system to help secure cargo. With the rear seats folded down the cargo capacity is over 55 cubic feet. There is a lot of useful space in the interior and enhanced cubby holes in the door panels for larger objects. BMW has listened to their customers. The space available is utilized well.
Behind the wheel the first thing that is noticeable is the tight/stiff chassis. This is a very stiff platform and has allowed the suspension engineers to focus on controlling wheel travel and not body flex. It is much more difficult to make a large box stiff and BMW has shown its engineering and production prowess in pulling this off. The new X3 feels greatand rides very welleven on rutted gravel roads.
The new X3 shows off sophisticated suspension engineering. It utilizes a proven five link rear rear suspension and front suspension component mounting techniques that provides excellent feedback without noticeable harshness In addition the multi-link rear suspension improves interior space in the rear cargo area.
The electric power steering provides decent feedback
much betterthan prior implementations from other manufacturers And, thanks to the tuning of the suspension geometry, when the right side wheels were purposely steered into a deep rut that ran parallel to the road, there was no kickback
The test cars were all X3 xDive35i models. As expected, acceleration is very good with the 3 liter gas turbo enginethe familiar N55B30That engine coupled to the standard eight speed automatic returns a 5.5 second 0-60 mph time according to BMW. There is no optional transmission available, only the eight speed auto. The US will get the xDrive35i initially with an xDrive28i to follow. The world market gets an xDrive20dand we saw pallets of those great little diesels sitting on the factory floorplease bring the diesel model to market BMW