My New BMW X3!?!?

Okay I'm not gonna lie. For the record, I did not purchase a BMW X3. I got it as a loaner from the dealer. But while I had it I thought I would do a quick review of it. Loaners from the dealer are a free complimentary service so I decided to take full advantage of it!

For anyone who's never gotten a loaner from BMW before, here are a few tips. I ended up without a loaner twice when I was promised one at two different dealership. Not a good way to start off my day. I had to take the day off before, so that wasn't a pleasant experience. But to secure a loaner, go into the dealer early for the service appointment. Lots of people from the previous day return loaner vehicles so the best time is to arrive early like 7AM early to get a loaner. Make sure you are 21 years and older with valid ID, insurance and credit card to finish the loaner process. And that's pretty much it. The loaner fleet are typically brand new BMWs. Not bad but unfortunately some of the other people who drive the vehicles don't keep them very clean and the dealer doesn't clean it between every use. I was told that I had a daily allowance of 150mi and that I needed to return the car with as much gas as I had when I got it. These are pretty fair requests I think.

Anyways, let's get onto the review of the X3. The car feels just as spacious as an X5. I know it's smaller than the X5 but interior wise it doesn't feel a whole lot more cramped. The interior is quite spacious for what it is. The X3 was a 2017 xDrive 28i model. The AWD system made sure the car was planted. There was no wheel spin under full throttle. The car is surprisingly fast. I mean by no way is it like an M3 but for an SUV it's not bad. Once the turbos kick in, the car just goes. From 0-60mph it accelerates quite well but at higher speeds the car is just too heavy and there isn't enough HP to keep it pulling along. The car is pretty agile and handles nicely. Cornering is good for an SUV but the center of gravity is high and I could definitely feel that. The brakes are good but there can definitely be improvement. It's not a very hard bite but yet the peddle doesn't soften. 

The rear hatch opens and close automatically with the push of a button on the key fob or on the door latch. It's a really convenient feature that I can see getting used quite a lot. The front window buttons were too far along the door sill for me to reach properly. My hand would naturally rest on the window buttons for the rear windows so that was annoying. The iDrive controller would also sit too low for me to have my arm on the armrest. On the M3 I had no issues reaching but on the X3, I could still reach but it wasn't very natural. The car had partial digital displays and partial analog displays. The combination of the two seemed quite nice. The cabin can be fairly quiet until you raise the RPMs up high. You will hear the turbos spooling. I mean it's not a super nice sounding exhaust but I mean it can be heard.  

The car is a good daily driver. There is alot of cargo space and the car is relatively fast as well. There usually isn't a need for more HP but I mean it's always nice to have more. The heads up display is much more simple than the one on the M3. It only displays the speed I am traveling. There are no speed limit info. It's not a sophisticated and I wish it displayed more info. The new iDrive 5.0 system is similar to the previous generation. The main difference is the ability to have a previous of the next menu without actually clicking on that menu. 

 The car has about a 400-450mi. range on a full tank. The mileage is actually quite good, much better than the M! Even driving at a higher RPM, the car didn't eat up that much fuel. I could definitely see the appeal of this type of vehicle, but if I were to purchase one, I would probably have gotten a better equipped vehicle. Overall, I would say it's nice but not something I would buy. It just doesn't feel special. The X5M feels like it's in a whole other class which it is. I know it's not a fair comparison but just my opinion. For the price, I would say the X3 is a good value especially if bought CPO. Hoping to try some other cool vehicle next time I stop by the dealer! Stay tuned for what I got going on at the dealer in my next post!