[kdl]

Ordered on 11/09/2010.
Took delivery 01/20/2011.

Main reason to have X3: a smaller SUV. My Honda Pilot is kind of too big/wide.

Deep Sear Blue, Oyster/Fineline, Premium and Tech Packages, Comform keyless entry.

Here are some of my brief impressions after 3 trips around 80+ miles. Not in particular order or priorities.

Folding mirror: It is a surprise. I checked about this feature before, but thought it's not available on new X3. X3 does have this feature with premium pkg. Just push a button on the driver side door, mirror will fold. Very cool.

Homelink garage door opener: Kind of hard to setup compared with my Honda. You have to do it twice, once with the remote, then the homelink.

Panoramic moonroof: definitely better design compared with MB GLK. Motored cover open/close, and the smoke glass panel over front seat can go all the way under the rear panel.

Bluetooth: you can have up to 4 phones/devices added. Together with on wheel answer/hangup button, very easy to use. The 8 pre-set button is also very cool. You can store phone#, or GPS destination. Touch the button, LCD will shown what's been stored for that button, very cool feature.

Rear View camera with top view: very good together with parking distance control, maybe just beep a bit too much, but it definitely will help.

Comfort Keyless: I only order this seperately. Very impressive. If the remote in my pocket, second person right next to me, cannot open the door. You can also open the truck when the X3 is locked. Together with start/stop button, basically you don't need to touch/press the remote.

Audio quality: As an audiophile, I really don't care too much about car audio. Once Lexus had Mark Levinson Audio, for 5K, but it's an over kill. A brief listen of CD track, sound quality is so so. But hey, I don't do serious music listening in the car anyway. Bottom line: there is sound.

Driving impression:

There is a lag from full stop to move. I had the same impression on the test drive of 28i. I read elsewhere people mentioned about this. Just need to get used to this, when X3 is in motion, no lag on the gas padel at all.

The ride is very smooth and comfortable. You can feel some of the bumps on the road, but damping in general is good.

Brake is very very responsive, I have to apply less force on X3 brake, otherwise, it will be kind of hard brake.

Steering wheel feeling is also very smooth, just about right.

I did heard a bit light, high pitch noise when driving over 75mph on highway. I felt it is coming from fuel injection. At lower speed, not that audible. Hard to describe it, it's not loud, it's there. If you listen to radio, you might not notice it. But if you just pay attention to listen to any sound, you will hear it. Definitely not road noise.

All in all, I am pleased. Lots of bells and whisles compared with my Hondas. I felt the BMW approach is to let you focus on driving. Do as little else as possible when you have the comfort keyless entry.

Thanks for reading.

[Insider]

Do you have the standard or upgraded stereo?

[kdl]

Originally Posted by Insider

Do you have the standard or upgraded stereo?

Standard Audio.