Yes, yes. We know we’re a little late with this story, but to tell you the truth the logistics just did not work out for us to get a hold of the new X3 until now. We’ve always loved the X3. It has been a perfect balance of off-road and on-road performance. But let’s take a look at what the X3 still does well before we dive into what is new in this car.
We’ve always loved the X-series for the way they handle, the X3 especially. Perfectly waited steering wheels, flat-ish cornering (for a car this large), torquey engine and a size that is big enough to feel substantial but small enough to feel comfortable with in congested urban situations. The new X3 does all of this and does it even better.
So what is new? There have been a few cosmetic changes to begin with. The front end gets a new bumper, revised headlights and a revised kidney grille. The headlights now follow the design theme of the bigger X3 and merges with the grille. The kidney grille is now in a contrasting colour that will look really good on darker coloured cars. On the side the silhouette is the same. The only changes are the turn indicator that has moved to the mirrors from the fender and the all new 18-inch light alloy wheels. At the rear there is a new bumper and a fresh tail lamp cluster.
The major change though is to the engine. The 1995 cc engine now makes 190 bhp and 40.8 kgm of torque with is close to 6 horses and 2 kgm more than the older motor. It is mated to an 8-speed ZF torque converter which is mighty quick with the shifting. The X3 never feels starved for power and when you start driving spiritedly, is quite the brisk performer. The company claims it will do the 100 kph run 8.1 seconds which is plenty quick for a car that weighs 1820 kg. The major change however is in the refinement of the engine. The previous X3 had a motor that was a bit agricultural when it came to NVH. The motor was really loud and you could hear the noise inside the cabin when you’re sitting inside. The new motor is an all aluminium unit that has been redesigned heavily, so the cabin is almost silent when the car is running. In fact, the car is so good, that the NVH is almost petrol engine like.
The BMW X3 xDrive 20d is priced at Rs 55.58 lakh for the xLine and Rs 50.33 lakh for the Expedition (ex-showroom, Mumbai). With the changes that have been done, the X3 now becomes more of a threat to the equivalent Q. We’ve always loved the X3 and with the added refinement it becomes a sweeter deal.
