My wife loves driving all types of cars - hatchbacks, Sedans and especially SUVs. According to her, an SUV gives her a commanding view of the road and thereby instills confidence and a feeling of ’superiority’ in her.
After having owned and driven a Hyundai i20, Honda Civic, Mahindra Scorpio and Honda-CRV we wanted to go for an SUV from the German’Big-Three’. Mercedes has lost its sheen in the current decade so it was basically a choice between a BMW and an Audi.
We were looking for a crossover SUV so a BMW X3 and an Audi Q5 seemed to perfectly fit the bill. While I was tilting towards the Q5 for it looks my wife was inclined towards the X3 for the better ’driving’ experience that BMW is renowned for.
Long story short, we took a test drive of both the vehicles and immediately got bowled over by the BMW X3 just as we had expected. The rest is history.
After owning and driving the BMW X3 for over 3 months, here is what I have to say about the vehicle.
Despite being an SUV, this car drives like a sports sedan. It zooms from 0-100 km/hr in less than 6 seconds and the handling is the best that I’ve found in its class. It took time for us to get used to the rapid acceleration in the’sports’ mode - our other coveted SUV, Honda CRV, now suddenly seems archaic in terms of speed and acceleration.
For a diesel engine, it is amazingly quiet at any speed and just purrs along. I have 19" alloys which seem to make the ride even more enjoyable. I like a pretty soft ride and this is perfection. There are four driving modes and I almost always use the comfort’ setting which seems just right and there is plenty of power to pull away at junctions. On weekends or on those days when I get a rush of adrenaline, I switch to’sports’ mode and enjoy the feeling of riding a fighter jet of sorts.
The car feels nimble and thanks to the smart drive(AWD) system, taking corners at high speeds is a bliss - you don’t feel the body roll-over that is a common issue with all SUVs.
Given the sports car like performance, I didn’t expect this car to be very fuel efficient but I am glad it proved me wrong. I have to admit that I have never seen any SUV or a performance car with such a frugal engine - I am impressed beyond words with its fuel consumption.
The cabin is spacious and classy(though I liked the interior of Audi Q5 a tad bit more) and the iDrive system works like a charm - the inclusion of the Professional Multi-Media Navigation System makes it even better. The beautiful panoramic sunroof certainly makes for a very light and airy cabin environment.
A 200 mm of ground clearance is considered decent for an SUV. The X3 has 212 mm of ground clearance which means you can do a little off-roading every now and then. I had the pleasure of taking my car to a beach recently and I must say that it did really well on sand and I was pleased with the way it handled soft sand in particular - again, it was the drive system that made this feat possible. I remember my Scorpio getting stuck in the soft sand back in 2011 and it took a tractor and half a dozen men to tow it back to the tarmac.
The car is fully automatic. You have an auto button for almost everything; the headlights/backlights, air conditioner, windscreen wipers, engine stop/start etc., meaning the car does everything by itself if the auto buttons are switched ON. Our BMW X3 has been on auto ever since I drove it off the dealership - this nifty feature lets you focus on driving and makes things so much easier.
My wife doesn’t let me drive the BMW X3 anymore. She insists that I take the CRV to my office while she drives the BMW X3 to her workplace - it’s frustrating but I let the lady have the privilege to swagger around in this marvelous piece of German machinery.