[chassis]

My wife took her X3 in for an oil change, and received an X3 M40i as a loaner. I had a chance to drive it during lunch and enjoyed it. My daily is the "other" German manufacture, whose first name is Gottlieb.

Pros
- Acceleration. Very nice, drivable in both comfort and sport+.
- Exhaust. Great note with pops on throttle liftoff.
- Transmission. Outstanding crisp shifting, no surprise from ZF.
- Steering wheel. Nice and chunky.

Cons
- harmon kardon not well implemented. Mid-range and bass are muddy. This is compared to a Benz hk implementation in a GLE350, which is a top notch execution.
- Front extendable seat cushion. This is a BMW thing, and I don't like it in my wife's X3. The latch/release handle is always brushing against my leg.

Summary
- A compelling product that has me thinking. A check of cargurus shows that a year old model seems like a good buy.