[Schooey]

I had previously been looking to replace my M50d with the new model but the Q3 campaigns were very much around the 30d, nice engine but felt I wanted the M50d.

As we entered Q4 I found the X3M offer on various dealer social media pages so I finally decided to go take a look, initial thoughts, stating the obvious I know but it is/looks slightly smaller than my X5, no problem still big enough.

The cabin looks and feels great, gearstick? looks busy but again no issue, loved the seats, felt very comfortable and the front bumper looks quite aggressive.

Arranged a 48hr test drive and called back in the following day to collect.

Got the keys, car was outside, really liking the styling now, quick walk around to check for any damage or marks, all good so jumped in.

Loved the seats, familiar BMW layout, the dash was the obvious difference without the new style dials but in honesty I prefer this layout, the new X5 layout seems quite French car to me but anyway, moving on really liked the looks.

The demo spec was black with black, pan roof, comfort, driver assist etc...

Sorted my driving position, opened the roof slightly and then fired up the car, actually from the inside the exhaust seems quite muted, especially compared to my previous RS3, the impact of the new emissions regs I guess.

I selected drive, that gear selector is a bit ‘faffy’ if you’re not used to it, but got moving and off we went.

Now I do research & procrastinate over my new cars, I am quite literally a sales persons worst nightmare e.g Sales: This deal is only available today sir, it will never be repeated Me: No problem, ill call you in 48hrs with my decision, if the offer isn’t available I’ll call around a few other dealers who maybe extending their offer period. My point being I spend days, weeks sometimes reading reviews, watching YT videos. So yes I have done my research, now to test things a bit, cue the well known Joe Achilles.

I like the guys videos, he seems genuine, enthusiastic, knowledgeable so having watched his review I was nervous, the ride quality he highlighted was worrying for any prospective purchaser of an £80K car.

After a few miles, I got onto a dual carriageway ride so far, firm, by no way was it crashy, hit a few bumps in the road but honestly while I was braced for the dreaded smash there was nothing? The car seems to rock you slightly left to right indicating a firm chassis set up, on normal A-B roads a similar story, some surfaces gave an slight Tyre rumble at 30mph and honestly a few occasional squeaks and rattles were noted but that said I’m coming from a car with air suspension.

Cabin noise is very low, you can talk normally, quietly, it is not intrusive at all , so after all that was Joe Achilles right? He described the ride as awful, preferring the M40 variant. I think Joe needs to give it another go, not in sport plus on a narrow country lane at pace. Over the next two days I continued to test this and my final verdict, firm yes, slightly rigid set up yes but can I live with it, absolutely!

Performance, not much to say really, it is RAPID! There is that initial hesitation when in auto but learn the driving style, adapt and you can iron it out, as an example, I was gifted the opportunity to sit a a set of traffic lights, beside me a 19 plate RRS, thought nothing of it, i was more concerned at how much higher up the RRS was, coming from an X5 of course and that was that, until the lights changed, off he went, in that split second I looked ahead, Road (dual) clear for about a mile where the dual ends to single lane, fine decision made, gave it some gas, oh my goodness, I think I was a shocked as the RRS guy, anyway, 60 mph arrived I settled in arrived at the end of dual sign only to find this RRS literally 3 inches from my rear bumper, no worries mate, you carry on, the road is now 40mph, I am by no means a boy racer I’ll just enjoy the comfort while you start googling “ BMW X3M COMPETITION”.

At night the cabin is great, HUD was a bit too bright, took some fiddling, adaptive lights are awesome, so clever.

Boot space, I actually like the single tailgate compared to the split on the X5, it’s big enough, you can stow the load cover, great really. Noticed no spare or mobility kit, need to check that on my order.

Economy, I was between 16 and 22 mpg, I think I can keep it above 20, but do you really buy a performance car to worry about fuel economy? If so then you’re buying the wrong car, although fortunately I do have two other cars for longer runs which offer 40mpg + and I genuinely only do about 6K miles pa in my M50d. Stop start by the way was a bit intrusive so I turned it off.

Random bits, comfort access works great, love the lumbar in the seats and the M badge light at night, car looks great, gear selector slightly faffy, exhaust button didn’t really seem to do much? Wireless charging was great but why is apple CarPlay an option at this price? Gesture control, a bit of a gimmick, the gloss black trip picks up fingerprints really easily. Driving assistance is a bit scary, I turned off lane departure as it almost veered into something, admittedly I hadn’t signalled to pull out but a few times it had me worried, be on your guard with that. I do like the blind spot warning lights in the mirrors though.

So that was it really, I’m trying to secure a vehicle in my spec without paying for extras I do not need, I expect to be below £599 with my options and no deposit, should know fairly soon.

Overall all, great car, some compromise on ride quality but it should not put people off, price is awful but with over £20K discount it makes a tempting offer as a family suv with over 500bhp.

[JOHNBMWM5]

Originally Posted by Schooey

I had previously been looking to replace my M50d with the new model but the Q3 campaigns were very much around the 30d, nice engine but felt I wanted the M50d.

As we entered Q4 I found the X3M offer on various dealer social media pages so I finally decided to go take a look, initial thoughts, stating the obvious I know but it is/looks slightly smaller than my X5, no problem still big enough.

The cabin looks and feels great, gearstick? looks busy but again no issue, loved the seats, felt very comfortable and the front bumper looks quite aggressive.

Arranged a 48hr test drive and called back in the following day to collect.

Got the keys, car was outside, really liking the styling now, quick walk around to check for any damage or marks, all good so jumped in.

Loved the seats, familiar BMW layout, the dash was the obvious difference without the new style dials but in honesty I prefer this layout, the new X5 layout seems quite French car to me but anyway, moving on really liked the looks.

The demo spec was black with black, pan roof, comfort, driver assist etc...

Sorted my driving position, opened the roof slightly and then fired up the car, actually from the inside the exhaust seems quite muted, especially compared to my previous RS3, the impact of the new emissions regs I guess.

I selected drive, that gear selector is a bit ‘faffy’ if you’re not used to it, but got moving and off we went.

Now I do research & procrastinate over my new cars, I am quite literally a sales persons worst nightmare e.g Sales: This deal is only available today sir, it will never be repeated Me: No problem, ill call you in 48hrs with my decision, if the offer isn’t available I’ll call around a few other dealers who maybe extending their offer period. My point being I spend days, weeks sometimes reading reviews, watching YT videos. So yes I have done my research, now to test things a bit, cue the well known Joe Achilles.

I like the guys videos, he seems genuine, enthusiastic, knowledgeable so having watched his review I was nervous, the ride quality he highlighted was worrying for any prospective purchaser of an £80K car.

After a few miles, I got onto a dual carriageway ride so far, firm, by no way was it crashy, hit a few bumps in the road but honestly while I was braced for the dreaded smash there was nothing? The car seems to rock you slightly left to right indicating a firm chassis set up, on normal A-B roads a similar story, some surfaces gave an slight Tyre rumble at 30mph and honestly a few occasional squeaks and rattles were noted but that said I’m coming from a car with air suspension.

Cabin noise is very low, you can talk normally, quietly, it is not intrusive at all , so after all that was Joe Achilles right? He described the ride as awful, preferring the M40 variant. I think Joe needs to give it another go, not in sport plus on a narrow country lane at pace. Over the next two days I continued to test this and my final verdict, firm yes, slightly rigid set up yes but can I live with it, absolutely!

Performance, not much to say really, it is RAPID! There is that initial hesitation when in auto but learn the driving style, adapt and you can iron it out, as an example, I was gifted the opportunity to sit a a set of traffic lights, beside me a 19 plate RRS, thought nothing of it, i was more concerned at how much higher up the RRS was, coming from an X5 of course and that was that, until the lights changed, off he went, in that split second I looked ahead, Road (dual) clear for about a mile where the dual ends to single lane, fine decision made, gave it some gas, oh my goodness, I think I was a shocked as the RRS guy, anyway, 60 mph arrived I settled in arrived at the end of dual sign only to find this RRS literally 3 inches from my rear bumper, no worries mate, you carry on, the road is now 40mph, I am by no means a boy racer I’ll just enjoy the comfort while you start googling “ BMW X3M COMPETITION”.

At night the cabin is great, HUD was a bit too bright, took some fiddling, adaptive lights are awesome, so clever.

Boot space, I actually like the single tailgate compared to the split on the X5, it’s big enough, you can stow the load cover, great really. Noticed no spare or mobility kit, need to check that on my order.

Economy, I was between 16 and 22 mpg, I think I can keep it above 20, but do you really buy a performance car to worry about fuel economy? If so then you’re buying the wrong car, although fortunately I do have two other cars for longer runs which offer 40mpg + and I genuinely only do about 6K miles pa in my M50d. Stop start by the way was a bit intrusive so I turned it off.

Random bits, comfort access works great, love the lumbar in the seats and the M badge light at night, car looks great, gear selector slightly faffy, exhaust button didn’t really seem to do much? Wireless charging was great but why is apple CarPlay an option at this price? Gesture control, a bit of a gimmick, the gloss black trip picks up fingerprints really easily. Driving assistance is a bit scary, I turned off lane departure as it almost veered into something, admittedly I hadn’t signalled to pull out but a few times it had me worried, be on your guard with that. I do like the blind spot warning lights in the mirrors though.

So that was it really, I’m trying to secure a vehicle in my spec without paying for extras I do not need, I expect to be below £599 with my options and no deposit, should know fairly soon.

Overall all, great car, some compromise on ride quality but it should not put people off, price is awful but with over £20K discount it makes a tempting offer as a family suv with over 500bhp.

Joe Achilles talks Bollx, he can't afford a decent car just lives off these bull test drives.
Good review not for me after my F90 M5 a big come down, also low end torque none existent.

[x3mcomp]

Great write up. I also don't have an issue with the ride. I am nearly 600 miles in and can not wait to be able to put the foot down!

[Wills2]

More importantly did it have a rear camera!

[Schooey]

Originally Posted by JOHNBMWM5

Joe Achilles talks Bollx, he can't afford a decent car just lives off these bull test drives.
Good review not for me after my F90 M5 a big come down, also low end torque none existent.

If it wasn’t for a Labrador the M5 would have been my choice, off topic I was seriously tempted to go for a 730d £599 dep £599/mth absolute barge, still tempted as a replacement for my Golf GTI in Feb.

Yeah surprised by the low end or slight lack of, I’m sure somebody will find a remap but possible warranty issues?

[Schooey]

Originally Posted by Wills2

More importantly did it have a rear camera!

I was too busy looking ahead of me! Yes it did though, don’t know how I would manage now if it didn’t.

[Wills2]

Originally Posted by Schooey

I was too busy looking ahead of me! Yes it did though, don’t know how I would manage now if it didn’t.

Good news....

[MrItaly]

Originally Posted by Schooey

If it wasn’t for a Labrador the M5 would have been my choice, off topic I was seriously tempted to go for a 730d £599 dep £599/mth absolute barge, still tempted as a replacement for my Golf GTI in Feb.

Yeah surprised by the low end or slight lack of, I’m sure somebody will find a remap but possible warranty issues?

I too was hoping for a decat and remap miracle to cure the low end, but the Italian tuner I've chosen, who has already remapped one of these on dyno, assures me that there's not much to be done about the low end. I am swapping to a Metallic cat downpipe and a remap after that, but he already warned me this won't alter the lack of power under 2,700 rpm. He told me that's just they way this engine was designed to be- to work in a linear fashion above 3k. That's the trade off apparently.

[JOHNBMWM5]

Originally Posted by MrItaly

I too was hoping for a decat and remap miracle to cure the low end, but the Italian tuner I've chosen, who has already remapped one of these on dyno, assures me that there's not much to be done about the low end. I am swapping to a Metallic cat downpipe and a remap after that, but he already warned me this won't alter the lack of power under 2,700 rpm. He told me that's just they way this engine was designed to be- to work in a linear fashion above 3k. That's the trade off apparently.

Sounds like the new M3/4 will have the same problems then, not good.

[M5 TT]

I picked mine up today, only done 200miles and enjoying it. Bloody thing loves to change down. Does not like 8th gear. I guess as the turbos are a bit lazy low down it tries to keep the car ready to go if needed. Other than that can't fault it so far.

As said ride is stiff but comfy if that makes sense. I came from an RS3 and it's ways better, feels as hard but deals with rough surfaces much better and is more that acceptable

[Schooey]

Originally Posted by M5 TT

I picked mine up today, only done 200miles and enjoying it. Bloody thing loves to change down. Does not like 8th gear. I guess as the turbos are a bit lazy low down it tries to keep the car ready to go if needed. Other than that can't fault it so far.

As said ride is stiff but comfy if that makes sense. I came from an RS3 and it's ways better, feels as hard but deals with rough surfaces much better and is more that acceptable

Happy New Car Day! I forgot about the 7th gear thing, it was doing it at motorway speed, drops from 8th to 7th?

Enjoy your new car, I’m probably 3-4 weeks away yet, but until then my M50d is still pretty awesome.

[M5 TT]

The car I always wanted (M50d) but could never afford at the time.

I ended up putting it in manual to keep it in 8th. Bit of a pest. Wonder if it will learn??

[Schooey]

Originally Posted by M5 TT

The car I always wanted (M50d) but could never afford at the time.

I ended up putting it in manual to keep it in 8th. Bit of a pest. Wonder if it will learn??

The deals on the current M50d don’t seem to be there, the equivalent spec to my 67 plate is £84K, the trouble with an approved used is the APR so that’s what made the X3M so appealing.

Yes I kept dropping into manual to get back upto 8th, perhaps it will pick up on the driving style as you say, but then at motorway speed, 8th gear was around 1400rpm? if I recall, that seems to be the worst range for the X3M - based on my limited test drive experience, I want to try a good motorway run & see how it affects mpg in auto/manual.

[Zero71]

8th is probably intended for higher speed autobahn cruising?