[araje]

Hello Friends.. Here’s my review of BMW X3 (code name F25, LCI model). Last year X3 went through a Life Cycle Improvement update and hence the name LCI. As of today, X3 is available in Xline trim with a 2.0D engine in India. The 3.0D option is not yet released here. There is also a 2.0D Expedition option which is shown in specs but yet to be launched. India doesn’t do MSport trims for X3 – like they do in the US and UK markets.

The reason I am writing this review and a detailed feature rundown is because the sales reps really don’t know even 40% of the features of the car. I struggled to understand the features with conflicting comments by sales reps and learnt most of what the car does and can do via international bimmer forums and with a BMW genius rep whom I know personally. But all this was after I bought the car.
Hopefully this review and introduction helps potential X3 buyers in understanding the car “before” buying the car.

I got the delivery of car in end of Dec 2014 and since then clocked about 3500kms. I had quite a story in switching from Audi Q3 to BMW X3 quickly, but that’s a topic for another day.

I religiously followed the run-in period restrictions (it was a pain to hold myself back – I tell you) but I gave the car and engine its 2000km run in and then started experimenting it up. Now is when I am hit with the true BMWness of the car, I say. I have 3 posts here to fully explain the car with lots of pictures thrown in.

• [1]Basic features and my view after using them (interior and exterior)

• [2]Dynamic Handling Package with Driving Experience Control and Electronic Damping Control - The best part of X3.

• [3]Bangalore to Mahabaleshwar and back – Long drive using these modes. Full Efficiency pictures while trying all these modes..

Lets start with some pictures first.


I used to own an Audi Q3 before – its review can be found here. Even though these are not the same segments, I will be doing some comparison to voice out my upgrade experience. It will not be fair to my Q3 but still the tangible benefits are worth pointing out for the price difference.

Engine
Audi Q3 2.0 TDI
Engine Type : Inline 4
Max Power : 130 kW /177hp@ 4200 rpm
Max Torque : 380 nm @1750 – 2500 rpm Transmission : 7 Speed S tronic®
BMW X3 2.0D
Engine Type : Inline 4
Max Power : 140kW /190hp @ 4000 rpm
Max Torque : 400 nm @1750 – 5750 rpm
Transmission : 8-speed Steptronic

Numbers on paper is just one part of the story, but one of the biggest advantages I see is that even with the same numbers, I can change the driving character of X3 from 1 end of the spectrum to the other. More about that in Electronic Damper Control and Dynamic Handling Package in 2nd post. I had a linear standard response in my Q3 but here the whole experience totally changes, thanks to solid runtime customization. One big advantage with 8 speed is that when I was doing very high speeds, the 8 speed tranny helped to keep RPMs at a comfortable rate – less noise and the car didnt feel as if its working hard. Q3 too was very comfortable at same speeds but it was working hard to keep up – even with almost same numbers as above. Here’s the big deal – my efficiency used to drop to 9km/litre in Q3 at those speeds but I was able to hold X3’s efficiency to about 11.6km/litre while driving at those speeds. That’s the difference I am talking about. Look for more details with pictures on what efficiency you can get – in 3rd post.

Disclaimer: I am comparing my drive from BLR to Mahabaleshwar on Q3 and X3, on same NH and early morning no traffic conditions. Also – I do not in any way suggest such speeds. I was able to do this at 6AM in the morning on my drive when conditions were right and only to test the car. These observations are only to point the stability and behavior of the car at such speeds.

Ambient Noise: Q3 was a tad bit quieter in the cabin at city speeds and even in highway speeds compared to X3. But this engine is WHOLE LOT quieter than X1 test drive for sure. I am told that this was one of the most important updates in the LCI, engine refinement.

Exterior Highlights
Wheels and RFT:


Gorgeous Alloys, I really like them. These are 18inch Pirelli RFTs 245/50 R18. My view on the most beaten topic – RFTs and no 5th wheel: I think this is overplayed a bit. RFTs are always spoken to be harsh but in my Q3(18inch no RFT) to X3 (18inch RFT) transition, I cant tell the difference. Well maybe that’s because of DHP (dynamic handling package - Electronic Damper Control, explained in 2nd post) which Q3 didn’t have but there is hardly any uncomfortable feeling even on BLR roads. The no 5th wheel feeling does bother me a bit but lets see how that works when time comes.

Note that 5th spare wheel provision doesn’t exist as well. It is replaced by extended storage package which comes with the rails, 4 knobs and a netted storage as shown. The 4 knobs and rails are adjustable and can also be used to secure the 5th donut wheel (bought separately) in the trunk.

The Rings and exterior lights –


Well this is the most biggest contributor of the SAV’s looks in my opinion. The rings are very very bright and way better than Q3. Here’s why – Audi for some reason dims the DRL lights brightness all the time. In the evening 5-6pmish if you OFF the lights, you will then see their full power illumination and their potential. But when lights are turned on, they are never that bright. So me along with many others used to OFF the lights so that the DRLs scream out. The down side was that the dash and instrument cluster illumination also was lost due to turning off the lights. BMW’s DRL rings are their full brightness all the time “! Thank god !”. The Xenon lowbeams are also much better than Audi’s as they fully illuminate the road and corners. The LED fogs bring in a very great white light into the mix. The most important part is you see a very prominent white illumination at the side of the roads (footpath and center divider) while driving so it really gives a left to right 180deg light throw. Particularly on highways at nights when those idiots blind you with high beams, and you tend to look down on road while driving, the fogs illuminate a 180deg left to right view such beautifully that it just greatly increases you confidence factor.

My camera is not able to capture this very well as it underexposes so sorry no pictures for all this. The high beams I think have a great center throw, but they take 2 seconds to fully power up to 100% (typical gas discharge). So that flashing thing that you have to do sometimes while passing… underplays itself. Audi Q3 was better here I think. What I am saying is that when I stand in front of the car and get the high beam on me, for 2 secs or so I can look straight on the road but after that it becomes just impossible to look straight. In BLR city traffic when those autos try to kill your confidence by sticking their nose in – this still is a great tool to help (sorry but I cant accept if I am doing 40km/h and an auto wants me to brake to standstill coz he wants to take his U turn). The flash still helps here.
Per regulations, the Xenons come with headlight washer system and dynamic leveling of lights.

Tail Lights: Again, Q3 is in a totally different class here. X3’s tail lights are very decent signature LEDs but turn indicators are the plain simple bulbs. Really not acceptable. Only X5 with full LED headlights option does LED turn indicators as well. So I think BMW should really get their act together with tail lights and interior lighting.

Interior Lights: Oh Audi Q3 is way way better here – full LED treatment inside and white ambient light inside. I really miss this. I am stuck with yellow bulbs in the car and while they do a good job of illumination, they are no way near the LEDS lights Q3 did. I so miss this. I really don’t understand why BMW doesn’t do a better job here.


Interior Highlights
Kombi – Instrument Cluster


The 2.0D version doesn’t come with navigation and hence it has the basic Kombi instrument cluster. It does change the lights as per ambient light with 2 colors and does have limited amount of graphical pictures for various modes. The first and second pictures are what you see during day time with the digital cluster in blue. At night, the cluster dials change colors along with the digital cluster, 3rd picture. The 3rd picture shows hill decent control activated and the cool part is that the speed is marked by a marker LED on the speed dial as well. The marker LED changes red and green based on armed and active mode. Same marker LED works for cruise control as well. The marker LED travels around the circumference of the dial. Very neat.

Cockpit and Controls


The build quality of the dash is much better and goes well with the class image. I choose the beige nappa leather interior which comes dual tone as shown. My biggest gripe is 2.0D does not come with Navigation and hence it has a 6.5inch but very crisp high resolution screen. There is a balanced amount of chrome sprinkled which enhances the dash very well. The center down console has Auto Hold function, Automatic Electronic Parking brake and the stick shifter which is very futuristic in my opinion. The only confusion I had initially was shifting it forward was R-reverse and shifting it back was D-Drive. The left shift goes between S and Manual and D. The iDrive controller is very easy to operate and very ergonomically placed for operating while driving. When we get the navigation option, it will be 8button instead of 6 today. On the right is the DHP explained in detail in 2nd post and finishing off with the Hill Decent control and Parking distance control.

The radio and A/c is the typical stuff with dual zone and automatic climate control on each sides but the best part is the 8 short cut buttons. This is a really neat feature which allows you to keep shortcuts for calling people, frequently used setting shortcuts etc.

Speaking about climate control – one of the most very well thought feature is the auxiliary ventilation control.


My office doesn’t have covered car park so every day when I get in, my audi used to be baking inside. Here, I can activate the auxillary ventilation at around 1pm and then around 4.45pm every day. Basically what it does is that it starts of the fan at the set time, opens up the vents, (no ac) and lets all the hot cooked up air escape out using the blower. In the evening when I get in the car it is hot but not like 35 degs inside. Really really helps. The system can run 2 times for a period of half hour each time and shuts down immediately if the battery falls below a certain cutoff.

Extended Bluetooth Controls


This model comes with 6NS – Extended Bluetooth connectivity. This allows 2 “active” telephone connections at the same time and in total 5 stored phone profiles. The 2 phones connection is very helpful if you have personal and office phone. X3 also manages data connection via Bluetooth hotspot with any of the 2 connected phones at the same time. The IOS 8 bug causes Iphones to be not so friendly to BMW temporarily but other Androids work great at the moment.

Temporary workaround in iPhone allows you to see - your SMS, iMessages, Whatsapp, Email directly on the screen but only the new ones after the phone is connected to car. This is very convenient to read on the big screen – while waiting on signals or have the car read out the email to you while driving. Awesome feature. Once fixed, you should also see picture id of callers on screen with iPhones. For now, you can only see the crisp album artwork on the screen for your media.

Since there is no navigation, 6NR – BMW apps cannot be installed but that takes the connectivity to a whole new level.

Disclaimer: Calling, texting, iMessaging, Whatsapp ’ing are all the same while driving. This interface allows you to keep your phone in pocket and hands on steering wheel while you do all this but still NOT recommended while driving. To me this is a great way to spend time during our boring office traffic situation waiting 15mins at signals.

I think this covers a good run down of features in the car. Standard stuff like Auto lights, rain sensors, headlight cleaning etc which are standard in these segments are self-explanatory and hence not covered.

Next– In depth look into - Dynamic Handling Package with Driving Experience Control and Electronic Damping Control - The best part of X3.

[araje]

Dynamic Handling Package with Driving Experience Control and Electronic Damping Control

Quite a mouthful isn’t it. For the rest of the post I am going to call it DHP, DEC and EDC to not run out of breath each time. Electronic Damping Control is also called Dynamic Damping Control.

First and for most, these are 3 totally different controls and I am so glad BMW India included them for Indian Edition. Elsewhere in US and UK markets, you have to pay separately for each one of them. Not that they are free here but they are included, that’s what matters.

Disclaimer: the Expedition line (base variant) just as DEC and not the other two. This according to me is the single most reason why you should NOT go for Expedition edition. This featureset as said before, totally changes the character of the car while driving. It is almost being presented with a driving menu – so to speak. Dramatized, but I am not exaggerating. You will see why.

Lets see these 3 components independently by definition first.

Driving Experience Control (DEC): This setting allows you to go from EcoPro -> Comfort -> Sport -> Sport+. Each of these modes have a pre-set - gear ratio change, engine tuning, a firmness setting of your shocks and steering and brakes sensitivity.

Electronic Damping Control (EDC): There is no setting to fine tune. EDC with infinite independent damping automatically and hydraulically adjusts the firmness of “each” wheel’s shocks depending on the road under each wheel. The system also senses what happened to say front left wheel (consider it went through a puddle) and adjust rear left shock as it will also go over it. This is NOT adaptive air suspension as here there is no control on rebound of the shocks which adaptive has. But this system only adjusts firmness. Adaptive air suspension is a totally different ball game. If you see the under chassis of the car, you will see each wheel has its own hydraulic cylinder assembly which takes instructions from some computer somewhere.

Dynamic Handling Package (DHP): This is an extension to DEC. Without this, you can only activate the modes as you like, when you like. But DHP allows you to “configure” most of these modes, thus creating a vast permutation and combination of configurations – remember the driving menu I was telling you. It might seem overwhelming but it’s actually not. Lets see all these with pictures below.

It all starts with just these 2 buttons ( the up and down arrow leading towards sport or eco pro) so that while driving you have no fuss while changing modes. The heart of it is how you do the settings in iDrive and keep them ready. These settings (also with my driving cooperation) fetched me an efficiency of 21 km/l highway (relaxed driving) or 11.6 km/l highway (full bmw character) from this SAV. More about this in my post 3. Ofcourse if you want to be hit by the BMWness of the car then you need to configure it as such and enable it as such and the smile on your face wont go away for a long time.

Eco Pro Mode



This mode is very unBMW-ish, seriously. But if you want to do efficiency then this is your mode. The pickup is sedated, the AC is underpowered and the car lethargic for lack of a better word. But if you enable the full potential of EcoPro then you would get a good mileage. The instrument cluster also shows how much Kms you gained by EcoPro. This Km counter resets automatically when you refuel and is a live counter – increases or decreases as you consume your fuel tank. So if you look at it just before refueling, you see what EcoPro gave you back.

When in day to day bumper to bumper traffic, this is not a bad mode to be in when you anyways cannot exceed 30-40km/h. Best results are on highway where the system continuously keeps giving you tips looking at your driving style and shows a graphic of what EcoPro is doing for you under the hood.

Comfort Mode
This mode brings everything to normal. The AC, pickup, tune are all restored. The suspension firmness is such that it maintains softness and soaks most of the imperfections on the road. In normal city driving this is the best mode. Comfort + EDC give you the best shock absorption and you would be amazed how come you didn’t feel the “thud” as you were getting ready to take it. There are no settings in this mode. However, as you gain speed (say above 100km/h), this mode is kinda useless as it doesn’t hold the car firmly due to soft suspension especially if the road is not leveled or you are taking turns at relatively high speeds on highway. This is not a mode for high-speeds.

Comfort mode’s acceleration pickup is very refined quick but if you want the kick, you can throw the stickshifter gear to S mode and the pickup increases considerably as the car delays upshifts and stays at higher RPMs. This mode is where your wife asks you why are you smiling.

Sport Mode
I call this the BMWness factor mode. This mode is fully customizable. Sport mode can be set to adjust – just Drivetrain (engine tune, pickup, brakes sensitivity and steering stiffness) , just Chassis (stiffen just the shocks) or Drivetrain+Chassis (all of above). See the graphics to make your selection. This is followed by the car picture which shows what is controlled by SPORT. First pic is Drivetrain+Chassis, second is DriveTrain only and third is Chassis only.



When you go from Comfort to Sports mode it uses this selection that you have set already in iDrive.
Drivetrain selection modifies the pickup and tuning and you feel the punch pushing you back as you just gently press the accelerator. The brakes and steering sensitivity adjusts (tightnens) to support this. But remember, all this is done without holding on to the same gear for long time ie, without going to higher RPMs. The same lower RPMs give this retuned performance. Now, Drivetrain selected + stickshifter gear in “S mode” takes it to a serious combination. The car now is in serious business and all of the retuning and sensitivity adjustments along with holding the gear for long time (going to higher RPMs) gives you even more push back as you gently handle the accelerator. Remember this mode is where your wife stops looking at you and starts monitoring the road due to the surge, while you sit there with a left cheek to right cheek smile on your face.

I use Sports mode(drivetrain+chassis) with S gear only on open highways and that gets you in just a few seconds to triple digits. The chassis selection(very much required) firmly plants the car on the road with stiffened shocks. Backseat guys do not feel any roll when you are taking the curves on highways with cruise selected and in triple digits, neither does the car leaves the lane. It stays very planted. The steering and brakes stiffens quite a bit in preparation for this, and thats what I call a change in character of the car.

I use Sports mode (just chassis) with D gear in city on outer ring roads and switch between S and D as situation permits to give me more pickup with stiff suspension. Sport mode (just chassis) with D is essentially Comfort mode but with stiffer suspension mapping.

Another use of just chassis Sport mode with D gear is to go at a decent speed of 20-30km/h on dug up and just covered roads as the firmness helps to eliminate the body roll greatly with EDC also doing its thing. One point to note is that EDC as no ON OFF setting and it works along with all modes.

Sport+ Mode



This is the BMWness fun mode in my definition. The first thing it does is it turns on traction control but deactivates dynamic stability control – this allows the tail to show up when you corner. I have just seen this in videos but I couldn’t experiment this mode much. This mode also has no settings and is all pre-set. I cant write much about this mode since I haven’t fully exercised it but videos show its all about fun stuff with your BMW.

I hope you would agree with me now that DHP with DEC and EDC is really a driving menu for you behind the wheel. Also with almost same torque and power numbers and engine size, EcoPro to Sports+ really changes the character of the car. A 3.0D X3 would take all of these several notches further. We have some fellow BHPians who own 3.0D X3s so they can comment better.

Up next – my long drive using these modes and while it changes the driving characteristics, how does it affect the efficiency.

[araje]

Long drive BLR to Mahabaleshwar on NH4. - experimenting all these modes

So, I was all excited to really spin the car and had been driving about 1200kms in the long boring run-in period. The built-in car manual on Idrive was very clear – 500km for brakes and wheels and 2000km for everything to settle. In this time, speeds < 150km/h and RPMs < 3.5. I asked a couple of BHPians if they really followed all of that and to my surprise all of them advised doing it and hence I made up my mind for 2000kms.

Since I knew that I had to work through the run-in, I decided to spin out to Mahabaleshwar and maintain a rule that I will co-operate with the run-in on the way to Mahabaleshwar but drive it like the car wants to be driven on the way back. BLR to Mahabaleshwar one way is 900km so I knew I would finish the run-in on the way to Mahabaleshwar but still drive it with the restrictions. The idea was to see the difference efficiency wise.

BLR to Mahabaleshwar – Drove in EcoPro mode, speeds around 110-120km/h, no sudden acceleration, Use of cruise mode when possible and using coasting as much and as much as possible. On the way, I kept monitoring the EcoPro internals and the car gives ample feedback of what it is doing in EcoPro. Some screen shots – see yellow circles. My wife tried her level best to take photos while the car was in motion but it still didnt do much justice to the graphics. The representation however is very crisp when you see the screen.



The first picture shows EcoPro is handling the AC. The second picture shows the car is coasting. The third shows the brake energy is being recuperated as I was braking.

I found that coasting was the single most biggest contributor to EcoPro efficiency as the numbers kept increasing while I was doing so and reduced as I was not doing so.



With this, I was able to clock 21km/l with using coasting and it dropped to 17.6 km/l when not using coasting. Ofcourse just enabling coasting doesn’t help and you need to coast in your driving as well. Note my average speed – you have no idea how boring it was for those 4-5hours when I was driving that way. By coasting you tend to further reduce your speed.

Well, returning home was the most amazing part of the journey. Drove in Sport (just chassis) + D, then in Sport (drivetrain and chassis) + D for most of the time and when situation permitted just left shifted the shifter to S making it Sport (drivetrain and chassis) + S mode. The best part was the ease of left shifting the gear to give the car that extra topping of S gear to any of the DEC modes configured with DHP. Shifting in S to D and S was just left and right sifts of the gear shifter. Speeds - I am out of disclaimers so cant mention them in this context. The Sport(drivetrain+chassis) + S mode was the best mode in my opinion.

Ofcourse – as expected all this took a beating on the efficiency and it went straight down to 11.4 km/l.



I don’t know if I will ever drive like the run-in period on highways again until my next new car but I think I will try to stay in the middle of these 2 extremes with occasional bmw-ness thrown in as the car demands

Well, hope you liked all this narration.

I plan to keep this thread alive with how things go on. I do have some retrofit plans and infact at the moment already in touch with some companies such as bimmertech to understand the pros and cons of doing retrofits. I am also sending a lot of feedback to BMW India to see if I can do a clean retrofit without upsetting the BSI and warranty. At the moment BMW India is just showing me a carrot, as expected with their point being they don’t have the license to do anything until its officially passed on to them. Well I do understand their position. Lets see how this story unfolds.

This is the behind the scenes peek of the my car involved in the making of this thread

Thats it for now friends. Thanks for reading and your comments in advance.

[ajmat]

Note from Mod

Going live - Thanks for sharing

[sandeep108]

It really seems that you are very enamoured with your new drive. Surprising that there is such a huge difference that you feel between the Q3 and X3 (though probably Q5 needs to be compared with X3?). Even though BMW is toning down their vehicles, seems the driving DNA is still BMW, unless you go with the odd models of the other two germans.

[Akshay1234]

Great review Araje. I completely agree about the way the car changes at the press of a button. From a soft cruiser to a corner carver (for SUV standards). Sad to see they haven't added features with the LCI, what retrofits are you planning besides navigation? I wish I had those LED fogs on my car - time to look for a retrofit lol.

[Nicky]

Superb detailed explanations with pics.
I really enjoyed reading your review.
Great choice of car.
Enjoy the drive and be safe.
Comparison with Q3 certainly gave out good info even though not in same class.
I also feel LED treatment to tail lamps would have been nice addition.
Keep the updates coming in.

[dhruvritzed]

What happened to your Q3 and how much did pay for this car,also the discounts offered??

[nishchal316]

One beauty you have got there. Did you consider the Q5?
I've driven the X3 one and my god the way this thing unleashes , its just amazing how quick this big suv is. Also the handling is amazing. I found it much more spacious than the Q5

[araje]

Originally Posted by akshay1234

Sad to see they haven't added features with the LCI, what retrofits are you planning besides navigation? I wish I had those LED fogs on my car - time to look for a retrofit lol.

Hey Akshay. Navigation, rear view camera and automatic tail gate operations will be standard on 3.0D and I am told that they are planning to add automatic highbeam assistant but that is not clear. This is all in the air until the actual announcement is made. It is sad 2.0D wont have these features - not that they cant, its just that its BMW India's decision. That's what irritates me.

I am negotiating 609-navigation, TPMS system and SurroundView camera retrofits with bimmertech. These are all available for LCI X3. SurroundView will add upto 5 cameras to your car. Awesome - but need to see the logistics of this. I dont think its a straight forward path - like you just give the car, pay and get it done.

Originally Posted by Nicky

I also feel LED treatment to tail lamps would have been nice addition. Keep the updates coming in.

Seriously. If you see the US and UK user base, this is the most criticized point. These markets have an option to do Full LED headlights while building the car. Even with those, they have bulbs for turn indicators. Unbelievable.

Originally Posted by nishchal316

One beauty you have got there. Did you consider the Q5?
I found it much more spacious than the Q5

I did try the Q5. That was my natural path going from Q3. But I seriously didnt like Q5. Yes its a little refined but it doesnt have the driving character that BMW has. One thing that put me off was the base variant of Q5 doesnt do bluetooth audio streaming Bluetooth only does calls. Also these options of DHP equivalent are in their top most variant way over my budget. And lastly - the screen is mediocre compared to BMW's idrive screen and resolution.

[Sathish uk]

Great post, in detail. i enjoyed reading it. the X3 is a complete package fun with economy.

[slackyboy]

Wonderful crisp review of the BMW X3. Thanks for the detailed info about the car. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Having test driven the car i must say you have made a wonderful decision in going for it. Happy motoring!!

[shibujp]

Originally Posted by araje

With this, I was able to clock 21km/l with using coasting and it dropped to 17.6 km/l when not using coasting. Ofcourse just enabling coasting doesn’t help and you need to coast in your driving as well. Note my average speed – you have no idea how boring it was for those 4-5hours when I was driving that way. By coasting you tend to further reduce your speed.

Great review with an explanation of the features in real life situations.

How do you coast? Do you take your foot off the accelerator completely for a few seconds? Wouldn't the car's speed drop in such a case. Or do you do this in situation like into a curve, preliminary to braking etc?

Drive on,
Shibu.

[araje]

Hey Shibu. Well you are right - you can coast only when you can and the conditions are right. One way to coast in your driving is when you know you have to brake to reduce speed or to stop, you can let go of the accelerator and let the car do its thing and only brake as required. Other way is you keep your foot on the accelerator and in the end work the brakes more. The later is where you won't get much results. One great way to coast is when you are headed downhill. Keeping the car in neutral isn't safe but if you enable this option you are still in D mode but coasting.

Do note that when you are coasting, your speed is relatively slower.

Glad you liked the review.

[morphin1]

Congratulations on the new buy bro.
This is an excellent car and for some reason is not very popular. But if you look at it, the car is a complete package.
I specially love the ground clearance on this. It is a monster