[SimplySpoons]

Hey there!

I'm new to XBimmers, and placed an order for a 2017 X3 xDrive28i a couple of weeks ago. I came from the Volvo world a 2001 XC70, and while I love that car, I just got sick of repairing all the little things. I'd fix one thing, and immediately after, something else would break. I also spend lots of time in the Subaru dragcar world, but the STi simply isn't a comfortable daily driver anymore hahaha

Originally, I was considering a 2017 Volvo V60, a 2017 X1, or a 2017 X3. Test drove all three, and the X3 stood out to me, and put a smile on my face while driving it.

The V60 was great, and looked awesome, but the interior and infotainment system simply wasn't up to par with BMW's, although I did love its electronically heated windshield, as I live in Vermont and it can get quite chilly here.

While test driving the X1, it just seemed a little too small for my liking. So, decided on the X3.

I ordered mine in Deep Sea Blue Metallic with the Saddle Brown Nevada Leather/Burl Walnut Trim interior, with the following packages/options:

xLine
Cold Weather
Driver Assistance
Driver Assistance Plus
Lighting package (Adaptive LEDs and Automatic High Beams)
Premium Package
Harman Kardon sound system
Technology Package

I was torn between the Melbourne Red and the Deep Sea Blue, and after seeing some recent pictures of the Deep Sea Blue on here, I just couldn't turn it down.

I also had some trouble deciding between the xLine and M-Sport packages, and I found myself preferring the xLine's wheels and fender flares, even though I really like the M-Sport's front bumper. If I could somehow mix-and-math the M-Sport's front bumper onto the xLine package, I would hahaha

The car is scheduled for a production date at the end of this month, and I couldn't be more excited. The wait is unbearable!

Anyway, thank you for reading through my rambling, and I look forward to being part of the BMW family!

[Crassus]

Congratulations on the purchase! Brilliant colour, leather and trim combination Deep sea blue looks amazing in person, and I get compliments about the car regularly - especially the luminesces and lushness of the colour. As for Melbourne red, it's a hot colour with M-Sport.

What tyre size and alloys have you ordered?

Did you consider the XC90?

[SimplySpoons]

Originally Posted by Crassus

Congratulations on the purchase! Brilliant colour, leather and trim combination Deep sea blue looks amazing in person, and I get compliments about the car regularly - especially the luminesces and lushness of the colour. As for Melbourne red, it's a hot colour with M-Sport.

What tyre size and alloys have you ordered?

Did you consider the XC90?

Thank you!

The pictures of your car in particular were actually what helped me decide on the Deep Sea Blue

I glanced at the XC90, but it was a tad too large for me. The new XC90's are enormous hahaha

[Crassus]

Originally Posted by SimplySpoons

Thank you!

The pictures of your car in particular were actually what helped me decide on the Deep Sea Blue

I glanced at the XC90, but it was a tad too large for me. The new XC90's are enormous hahaha

I looked at the XC90 too but couldn't see myself living with a 4 cylinder engine in such a large and expensive car.

[SimplySpoons]

Originally Posted by Crassus

What tyre size and alloys have you ordered?

I got the same style as your car I believe: the 19" Style 608 xLine wheels (8.5x19 ET38) with 245/45/R19 tires, although I plan on swapping the OEM all season run-flats with a set of winter tires, as I live in an area that can get particularly snowy

Originally Posted by Crassus

I looked at the XC90 too but couldn't see myself living with a 4 cylinder engine in such a large and expensive car.

Exactly! Volvo's new infotainment system is awesome, but as a result of them engineering that brand new system, the prices of the new XC90s/S90s are sky high. Although I'm thinking that needing to manage the climate settings all on a touch screen could get a little cumbersome. As cool as that concept is, I'd rather have physical buttons/knobs to adjust the interior temperature, like the BMW's have

[Tjalle]

Crassus, possibly the best/most interesting powerunit - next to a F1 hybrid- is XC90 hybrid with 320bhp engine and 100+bhp electric motor driving rear wheels.
Electric motor has immediate respons, which means - e.g. driving on ice in a curve - that when throtteling, rear end kicks out but is automatically corrected when engine kicks in some milliseconds later.

Pure fun - but at a cost though

I hope for X2 in some years to have similar configuration.

[brissim]

Congratulations on your order. Almost did the same but instead have gone the opposite direction. After 5 great years and 110,000km (~65,000 miles) in our 2011 X3 30d we've just recently placed an order for a 2017 Volvo V60CC T5 AWD. Did seriously look at getting either a 2017 X3 or 330i GT but decided in the end the Volvo gave "more bang for the buck". Not concerned about the out-dated infotainment system with the Volvo - I'm actually someone who prefers using buttons than drilling down through menu systems.

Tony

[Crassus]

Originally Posted by SimplySpoons

Although I'm thinking that needing to manage the climate settings all on a touch screen could get a little cumbersome. As cool as that concept is, I'd rather have physical buttons/knobs to adjust the interior temperature, like the BMW's have

Funny enough that's my biggest gripe with the touch screen on the XC90 and even the Tesla Model S. It pathetic that a basic function like temperature requires opening a tiny pop up screen to then only be able to change the temperature in increments.

Originally Posted by Tjalle

Crassus, possibly the best/most interesting powerunit - next to a F1 hybrid- is XC90 hybrid with 320bhp engine and 100+bhp electric motor driving rear wheels.
Electric motor has immediate respons, which means - e.g. driving on ice in a curve - that when throtteling, rear end kicks out but is automatically corrected when engine kicks in some milliseconds later.

Pure fun - but at a cost though

I hope for X2 in some years to have similar configuration.

Hybrids are good in the city but at speeds above 60mph the engine noise and mpg is terrible as the over-stretched 4 cylinder combustion engine does the leg work of powering an SUV designed to carry 7 people.

A friend of mine has a hybrid Lexus RX450h. Because he spends little time in slow start and stop traffic, and mostly drives on twisty country roads and motorways, his mpg is only 32mpg.

[SimplySpoons]

Originally Posted by brissim

Congratulations on your order. Almost did the same but instead have gone the opposite direction. After 5 great years and 110,000km (~65,000 miles) in our 2011 X3 30d we've just recently placed an order for a 2017 Volvo V60CC T5 AWD. Did seriously look at getting either a 2017 X3 or 330i GT but decided in the end the Volvo gave "more bang for the buck". Not concerned about the out-dated infotainment system with the Volvo - I'm actually someone who prefers using buttons than drilling down through menu systems.

Tony

The V60 was definitely a better value. The BMW ended up being about an extra $150/month for a fully-loaded X3, but I wanted to give the BMW a shot, and the X3 put a smile on my face while driving it. Not to say that the V60 didn't either, but it felt similar to my XC70, and I wanted something a little different

[BigJake]

Congrats! I take mine over the Roxbury Gap

[SimplySpoons]

Took delivery of the car today, and I'm lovin' it! I've been spending some time getting used to all the new technology, and I still don't quite feel comfortable using the backup camera hahaha. I always find myself turning around and and looking out the rear window the old fashioned way, but I'm sure I'll get used to the camera soon.

I don't really have any real gripes with the car, but here are some thoughts:

- I've found that the "range until empty" display is sort of inaccurate, but this seems to be the case in most cars. It will say that I have 470 miles until empty, and then 1 mile later, it will go down to 450 miles, and that's with conservative non-aggressive driving.

- The heated steering wheel button location is strange (on the side of the steering column, behind the wheel,) and it would be nice if there was a notification on the dash to notify you when the heated steering wheel is turned on. From what I'm understanding, some models have this

- This one is my fault, but the ambient lighting. It seems that the X1 and X5 have LED light strips between some of the dash and door trim pieces (as seen below,) and when I test drove the X1, I thought that was a nice touch. However, it appears that they left this out on this generation X3 for some reason, and it only has the lights in the door handles, in the center-console storage compartment, up by the sun/moon roof button, and in the door storage compartments. But again, this is more my fault for misunderstanding what each model came with hahaha, and the ambient lighting still looks great!



The things I do like:

- Once you've had a chance to play around with it, iDrive is quite intuitive

- The Harman Kardon surround sound system sounds awesome, and I'm glad that I upgraded from the standard Hi-Fi system

- The LED lights are amazing! I was on the fence about them, and I'm super happy that I upgraded to the LED package last minute. The light design looks fantastic from the front of the car, and they illuminate the road perfectly

- Somewhat related to the above, the remote has a feature that allows you to tap the Panic button once, at which point it turns on the headlights for 45 seconds. This makes it easier to find the car in a crowded parking lot, and I use it for finding my way back to the house in the dark after I lock the car hahaha

- This may seem insignificant, but the cup holders. I love me a good cup holder. BMW designed these with the bumpy road in mind, and they hold the cup in place like a champ

- The HUD. I was on the fence about this feature originally, as I've used some older style HUDs (like in the Pontiac Bonneville,) and they were pretty limited in features, and were difficult to read in the daytime. However, the BMW HUD is top-notch, and is easy to read in day or night. It also has some fantastic features beyond just simple speed display. It displays the voice command icon, navigation directions, song information, and a cool interface for skipping back and forth in your playlist (which took me a while to find.) I'm sure there are more features, and if anybody knows any cool ones off the top of their head, I'd love to hear them

- The voice commands are accurate and easy to use for navigating menus and inputting navigation destinations. I also like how you don't always have to use an exact phrase when speaking to the sysyem. For example, if I wanted to cancel my navigation route, I can say either "Cancel route" or "Stop navigation"

- The Lane Departure feature is helpful, along with the proximity sensor and adaptive braking

I'm sure I'll think of more as I drive the car more, and I'll update this as I think of them.

I have an appointment on Tuesday to do some coding (anti-dazzle, etc.) and I'm super excited for that.

If you've read all the way through my novel of thoughts, thank you! Here are a couple of pictures. One from when I picked the car up at the dealership, and one from when I got it home

[malicem3]

Looks awesome! Great choice on giving BMW a try. I really like the Deep Sea, I think it looks perfect with a saddle brown interior.

The distance to empty feature relies on your previous driving history and calculated MPG.

I agree on the heated steering wheel notification. I guess the good news is it warms up quick and gets quite warm.

That interior design will be applied to the next gen X3.

[SimplySpoons]

I'm exactly one month into owning the car, and I'm loving it so far!

I haven't found any significant gripes, and the car is even better with a little coding from Rich!

A few things I've noticed:

• As of yet, I haven't found a way to Pause music that's being streamed via Bluetooth, apart from using the Voice Controls or pausing using my phone. I've seen that there is an improved interface for playing music from your phone when you connect via USB, and for whatever reason, iDrive couldn't recognize my phone when connected through USB. It is an Android phone, so it's totally possible that iDrive is only compatible with iPhones when using the USB connection. If anybody knows of a way to get Android to function with iDrive via USB, I'd love to hear it
  
  
• Tramlining. I've read that this is a common occurrence with the RFTs, and it is definitely noticeable on some roads.
  
  
• Very occasionally, the Split Screen feature within iDrive acts up, and won't load the second screen. When this happens, I have to switch the Split Screen to another view, switch it back, and then it works again.
  
  
• The headlight sprayers. It's a cool feature, however, whenever you use them (which is whenever you spray the windshield sprayers,) the fluid simply gets caked onto the headlights, mixes with the dust and dirt from the road, and dries on the headlights. Depending on your speed, the fluid will sometimes get pushed off by the wind, which I'm thinking is what BMW intended in order to "clean" the fluid from the headlights, however, this doesn't always happen at lower speeds. I'd almost prefer that the headlights weren't sprayed hahaha
  
  
• The backup camera tends to get pretty dusty, and needs to be cleaned often. However, this happens on all cars with backup cameras
  
  
• When washing the car with a pressure washer, it tends to lock and unlock itself multiple times throughout the process. I'm guessing that it's sensing the vibrations from the pressure washer, and automatically locking the car because it thinks somebody is trying to break in. No big deal, just funny to watch the headlights and taillights flash on and off multiple times while washing the car
  

[Smithy2014]

I love the deep sea blue colour but unfortunately it is no longer a choice on the msport package so went for carbon black which has a hint of blue. Hoping to get it in a couple of months time.

Glad to hear the HUD is good - i specced it on my new one and have never had a car with it before. Also glad you are pleased with the LED lights, I was undecided on these as in the UK there are very very very few with this option which makes me wonder why (other than cost....)

I have the comfort access package on my current X3 and have to remember to leave the key in the house otherwise I am constantly locking and unlocking the car with the key in my pocket! Incidentally have you discovered the trick to lift the wipers? (if you try to lift them in the down position they catch on the bonnet)

[Spitfire-]

Originally Posted by SimplySpoons

• As of yet, I haven't found a way to Pause music that's being streamed via Bluetooth, apart from using the Voice Controls or pausing using my phone. I've seen that there is an improved interface for playing music from your phone when you connect via USB, and for whatever reason, iDrive couldn't recognize my phone when connected through USB. It is an Android phone, so it's totally possible that iDrive is only compatible with iPhones when using the USB connection. If anybody knows of a way to get Android to function with iDrive via USB, I'd love to hear it

Pressing the volume button pauses the music (i.e. mute) for me while streaming through bluetooth using Spotify. I've tried this with both the Nexus 5x and Pixel.

[SimplySpoons]

Originally Posted by Spitfire-

Pressing the volume button pauses the music (i.e. mute) for me while streaming through bluetooth using Spotify. I've tried this with both the Nexus 5x and Pixel.

That's good to know, thank you so much!

[Crassus]

Originally Posted by SimplySpoons

[*]Tramlining. I've read that this is a common occurrence with the RFTs, and it is definitely noticeable on some roads.

You are not alone. I tramline almost during every drive. It never makes me feel uncomfortable as I prefer cars that give feedback through the steering wheel rather than filter what the tyres are doing on the road surface.

[Takehold]

If you turn off your headlights when you spray the windshield the headlight washers will not spray. If I need to quickly spray the windshield in the morning when it is dark out, I just turn off the lights for a second then turn them back on when I am done spraying.

[SimplySpoons]

Originally Posted by Takehold

If you turn off your headlights when you spray the windshield the headlight washers will not spray. If I need to quickly spray the windshield in the morning when it is dark out, I just turn off the lights for a second then turn them back on when I am done spraying.

I'll do that! Thank you!

[Tjalle]

Crassus, I was - slightly - unhappy with handling incl. tramlining, until lowered with H&R. Less chassis comfort, but OK. 90% driving in SPORT.

20" PZERO RFT, adaptive dampers, sport steering. Will change to Michelin Pilot Super Sport, non-RFT when tyres are up.