BMW X3 2.0d
Now Fitted With BMWs Excellent 2.0-Litre Diesel Engine, The X3 Looks A Decent Package. Andy Enright Reports
Imagine sitting in a product planning meeting at
BMW. Coming up with ways to improve cars like the 3 and 5 Series models would have to be a pretty tough brief. Dreaming up profitable cars in new market niches, on the other hand, surely has to be simplicity itself. First set a base price of, say, £15,000 so as not to cheapen the brand image.
Then set out to find the most profitable market segment above this price in which the company is not represented. Build a product for that market with all the usual BMW inbuilt excellence and you have a car like the X3. To guarantee success, fit the car with the most popular engine in your entire line up. How can this sort of logic fail?
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In a number of ways actually, many of them hinging on pricing. The
BMW X3 has garnered a rather unwelcome reputation as being virtually as expensive as its bigger brother, the X5, although the 2.0d diesel version we examine here does a lot to demolish that perception. Priced at £26,180, this entry-level car ensures that an X3 is now available for little more than a decently specified diesel-engined
Land Rover Freelander or
Nissan X-Trail - and in certain instances less.
Perhaps BMW should have introduced the 2.0d as the first X3 to hit these shores with the more expensive 2.5 and 3.0-litre models arriving later.
As it stood, all that happened was that the public became a bit confused. Why was the X3 almost as expensive as the X5? The real reason for the X3 lies in the fact that BMW has been rather overtaken of late in the prestige 4x4 sector. Vehicles like the
Porsche Cayenne and the
Volkswagen Touareg have opened up performance and engineering advantages that BMW cant answer with the X5, hence the need for an all-new model appearing in 2006. With the X5 shifting significantly upmarket, the X3 will mop up the sales of those who want a 4x4 with a blue and white propeller on its bluff bonnet but who arent willing to shell out fifty or sixty thousand pounds.
The X3 2.0d is for those buyers who didnt buy BMWs "same size as the X5 on the inside but smaller on the outside" argument but instead merely wanted a smaller sticker price. Its powered by the same 150bhp 2.0-litre diesel found in the 1 series and the 3 series and although in this guise it has a fair bit more weight to lug, it still generates very impressive figures. Much of this is due to the engines inherently strong torque.
With 330Nm of torque available from just 2,000rpm, the X3 2.0d can pull strongly from virtually idle and doesnt require thrashing to get the most from. Should you give it everything, the X3 will accelerate through 60mph from standstill in 10 seconds flat and will run on to a top speed of 123mph. Leave the lead boots at home and you should be able to average 39.
2mpg. Company car buyers may well be interested in the X3 2.0d as carbon dioxide emissions are rated at a reasonable 191g/km.
"Perhaps BMW should have introduced the 2.0d as the first X3 to hit these shores"
The bulk of buyers will doubtless be the sort of young, affluent twenty and thirty-somethings that you see in lifestyle magazines. They haul jetskis about, strap snowboards to their roof bars, have perfect teeth, glowing tans and no dandruff to speak of. This being England and not California, the X3 is more likely to be seen on the school run or clogging the car parks of IKEAs up and down the country. The 2.
0d model is, like the rest of the X3 range, hugely colour sensitive and youll need to choose your options carefully if youre not to make a costly error. The first rule of X3 ownership is under no circumstance choose a colour paler than Mocha Brown. Silver works great on most BMW models but an X3 in Silver Grey looks awful. The reason why is that theres a huge amount of black plastic cladding on the car and it makes the X3 look a little bargain basement never the look owners are tilting at.
Specify an X3 in Black Sapphire with the 18-inch Star alloy wheels and it looks seriously handsome. Silver Grey with the standard 17-inch wheels and it looks a little sorry for itself. The X3 feels every inch a BMW from behind the wheel. The front suspension has been set up to offer a livelier handling balance and the steering features a snappy ratio that makes jinking from lane to lane simplicity itself in spite of the elevated ride height.
The relatively small turning circle of 11.7 metres helps when making three point turns in tight confines. Drive an X3 hard over swooping country roads and youll feel the benefits of these changes. Imagine it half way between an X5 and a Three Series Touring and you shouldnt be too far off the mark.
Although most small 4x4s understeer determinedly when pushed hard into a corner, the X3 is, thanks to BMWs xDrive system, made of sterner stuff. This system distributes drive to the axle which most needs it in a split second. Working in conjunction with ESP stability control and DSC traction control, xDrive calculates the cars yaw rate, the steering angle and vehicle speed, this system keeps you on the straight and narrow. Theres even TSC (Trailer Stability Control) that monitors any pendulum effects caused by towing a wayward trailer and alerts the stability control system accordingly.
Although few will ever take their X3 off road, BMWs baby 4x4 superficially looks fairly adept; its fording depth, ground clearance and angles of ramp and departure being very little different to the surprisingly effective X5. Your ambition will be limited by the tyres, however, and BMW offer no option of gnarlier rubber. Hill Descent Control is fitted as standard but if you need such a system to get down such a gradient in the first instance, its highly debatable whether the X3s road biased tyres would afford you the grip to make the return journey back up. Perhaps BMW missed a trick when rolling out the X3.
UK buyers in the compact 4x4 market have rarely placed much store on big, powerful petrol engines. The 2.0-litre diesel version of the X3 makes the car a good deal more attractive although its worth remembering that few will pay the £26,180 asking price, instead cranking it nearer the £30,000 mark with various options. Quality doesnt come for free however, and the X3 is undoubtedly the best compact 4x4 on sale today by a country mile.
The 2.0d is the most attractive X3 too, which is about as sound a recommendation as youre likely to receive.
FACTS AT A GLANCE
CAR: BMW X3 2.0d range
PRICES: £26,180-£28,380 - on the road
INSURANCE GROUP: 15
CO2 EMISSIONS: 191g/km
PERFORMANCE: 0-60mph 10s/ Max Speed 123mph
FUEL CONSUMPTION: (combined) 39.2mpg
STANDARD SAFETY FEATURES: Twin front, side and window airbags, ABS, DSC, ESP
WILL IT FIT IN YOUR GARAGE?: (length) 4565mm
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