Car Gazing
BMW's X3 SUV feels like a sports car
By Derek Price
Although I've never owned a BMW, I always feel right at home when I drive one.
I'll step inside one of these brand-new German cars – even some that are so expensive they're intimidating – and suddenly feel like I'm driving a car I've owned for 10 years. It fits me like a pair of well-worn leather shoes.
I can only think of one reason for feeling so comfortable in a car that I drive so rarely, and that's because BMWs perform remarkably like the nimble, ultra-responsive sports cars I've owned through the years. My personal taste is for cars that connect the driver directly to the road, offering intense sensory feedback so I know precisely what the car is doing at any given moment. That's what a BMW does, so I'm in my element.
In fact, the only exception to my Law of BMW Comfort came when I drove the X5, BMW's big SUV. It was incredible for an SUV, but that was the whole problem. It still felt like an SUV.
It also ranked fairly high on the stupidity scale because – let's be honest – does anybody really need a BMW SUV? It's almost like driving a Ferrari golf cart or cutting your grass with a Mercedes-Benz luxury lawn mower. What's the point?
That's why I didn't have high hopes for BMW's smaller SUV, the X3. Perhaps I should have.
From the moment I turned the key, the X3 gave me the exact same right-at-home feeling that I get from BMW's sports sedans, so I instantly pretended I was Hans Stuck on the Nurburgring. I would look for fun, double-apex corners on exit ramps and pay close attention to braking points when scooting around town.
I've never driven an SUV that feels as precise as this one, including the super-expensive Porsche Cayenne. Everything about it is designed for chronograph-like precision, from the taut suspension to the perfectly tuned steering and brakes.
Even the temperature controls seemed to be designed by an obsessive-compulsive engineer. Instead of setting the temperature for, say, 72 degrees, the digital readout calls it 72.0 degrees, inferring that the air temperature could not be more than a tenth of a degree from where you set it. The whole vehicle echoes that philosophy of nitpicking.
Only one engine is available: A 3.0-liter inline six, which is a great powerplant. It quickly pulled the X3 to 95 miles per hour on an uphill entrance ramp to Interstate 30, and it was so smooth and refined that I didn't have a clue how fast I was driving until I looked down at the speedometer, half horrified and half smiling.
Inside, the X3 is as nice as you'd expect a BMW to be, but there's not much legroom in the back. Interior quality is mediocre for the price, and any Lexus or Audi could run circles around it in terms of fit and finish. The materials look and feel luxurious, though, especially the soft leather and warm wood trim.
With a starting price of $36,800, the X3 is stuffed full of standard equipment. It comes with automatic climate control with an air filter, eight-way power adjustable front seats, a huge glass sunroof that retracts all the way to the back seat, rain-sensing windshield wipers, a great stereo with a connection for your MP3 player, and cool headlights that automatically follow your steering wheel left and right when you turn corners at night. It's not a cheap SUV, but it gives you a heck of a lot of goodies for the money.
It also ranks far lower on the stupidity scale than its big brother, the X5, because it's not really an SUV. It's more like a big station wagon, which means it actually drives like a BMW should.
(Derek Price is a newspaper editor and freelance writer living in Texas.
Contact him at dprice@cargazingonline.com)
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