Quote:
Originally Posted by Young04
I am considering the X3M Comp for my next car (along with the M550i). Couple of questions:
1. The ride. I know this has been talked about a lot but wanted to ask it this way - can anyone name cars that have a rougher ride than the X3M Comp? Or is it that the X3M Comp is pretty much the roughest riding stock vehicle you have driven but you still find it tolerable? I did a test drive a nearby dealer but the roads were very smooth. I'll definitely set up another test drive but wanted to get your takes in the meantime.
2. Downshifts on highway. If you're just cruising at 75mph and go up a hill, does the car downshift to maintain speed? Unless we are talking about a huge hill, most cars I have driven that are even remotely performance oriented do not downshift in that scenario.
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1. Ride is fine most of the time. I occasionally find it annoying on really bad roads. It's not really any worse than a Mini Cooper, but deep cut roads with lots of square edges, or abrupt speed bumps that are almost square edged, do seem to bounce you around more than you'd expect due to firm damping. It's not a deal breaker though.
2. Depends on what mode you are in. The car will downshift less if in Efficient as it wants to keep the revs low as much as possible, but if it needs to it will shift. In Sport and Sport Plus it will do so more readily, especially if the gearbox is also in those modes. For day to day driving, especially in efficient, you won't notice as it is so smooth. Full Sport Plus in both engine and gearbox is best managed with manual shifts as the car can be a bit uncomfortable in auto in this mode.
One issue I do have is unrelated - the M seats in the X3MC are quite narrow. I find the seat base bolsters can dig into my ass and I'm reasonably slim. My skinny wife finds them uncomfortable too, despite how great they look. Again, not a deal breaker, but an annoyance. They were perfectly fine on three 400 mile trips I've taken, but have bothered me recently, maybe as they break in. I dunno.