Category: Small 4x4s 
Price Range: £27,870 to £39,170
Remarkable roadholding and handling, smooth engine, covetable looks, surprising off-road ability.
Inappropriately cheap-looking fittings, unacceptable ride comfort, overpriced.
Intriguing entrant to the ranks of soft-roaders, but BMW is stretching its premium credentials a little too far here.
The high and fully adjustable driving position, simple but smart facia and bluff extremities all make this an easy car to drive and manoeuvre, and standard park distance control and various optional items help this process.
One is the 'auto sense trailer' which cuts power and brakes all wheels long enough to get a fishtailing trailer back under control. Another is headlights which steer into a corner to improve the view.
A six-speed manual gearbox is standard on the 2.0-litre and the lower-powered 3.0-litre diesel and the 2.5-litre petrol, a six-speed automatic is standard on the higher-powered 3.0-litre diesel and the 3.0-litre petrol and optional on all bar the 2.0-litre diesel. The manual has a precise throw and the automatic is quick to change through the gears, although can be overridden by usual the manual mode.
The X3 feels wonderfully crisp and poised for the sort of car it is, with quick, accurate steering marred only by an odd, springy slackness about the dead-ahead. It's particularly good fun to pitch the X3 into a bend on a trailing throttle and accelerate hard, feeling the front pull it straight and intercept what would, in a rear-wheel drive car, likely turn into a near-spin.
The xDrive system works just as BMW claims, automatically correcting understeer or oversteer by diverting torque to whichever axle needs it most and seldom resorting to the slowing-down effects of DSC (Dynamic Stability Control, fitted as standard).
The X3 is pretty effective off-road, too, thanks again to xDrive which reacts very quickly to grip differences between wheels, and Hill Descent Control which automatically applies brakes under ABS control as you pick your way down a slippery slope.
A total of six engines are offered, three petrol and three diesel. Starting with the more popular diesels, the 2.0-litre is the biggest seller, if not the most spectacular of performers. Its 147bhp and 243lb/ft of torque (from 2000rpm) struggles to pull the X3's 1.8tonne weight along with any real conviction, with a 0-62mph time of 10.2seconds and a top speed of 123mph.
Next up is the 3.0-litre which is available as a 3.0d with 214bhp or 3.0sd with 281bhp- the latter using twin turbos to increase the power. Torque is more than enough in both cases to haul the X3 plus a large trailer along with little difficulty, namely 367lb/ft in the 3.0d and 428lb/ft in the 3.0sd, all of which is available from just 1750rpm.
With the six-speed manual gearbox, the 3.0d manages a 7.4second 0-62mph, this drops to 7.7seconds with the auto. The 3.0sd is an extremely strong engine which endows the X3 with a 6.6second 0-62mph time. On the motorway it still pulls strongly all the way to its 149mph top speed.
The petrols measure 2.0-, 2.5- and 3.0-litre in size and have 147, 215 and 268bhp respectively. The 3.0si is the strongest performer with a 7.2second 0-62mph time thanks largely to the 232lb-ft of torque available at 2750rpm. The 2.5 has 184lb-ft of torque and a 8.5second 0-62mph, the 2.0-litre 147lb-ft of torque and a 11.5second 0-62mph time.
Latest Readers' Drives About the BMW X3
wrote on 25 11 2007