This BMW X3 is Paul Maric's pick of the bunch! Paul tests out the 2023 BMW X3 xDrive30d, the six-cylinder diesel that gives you punch and efficiency. But, is it starting to feel a little dated in comparison to its peers? Only one way to find out!
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More BMW content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/bmw
More BMW X3 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/bmw/x3
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:00
Interior: 03:44
Infotainment: 05:13
Safety Tech: 06:57
Practicality: 08:23
On the Road: 11:44
Performance & 0-100km/h: 16:53
Verdict: 18:49
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
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#bmw #x3 #review
Hardness tester, noise and lane keeping results: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/121Auf6HGvaBqRToYcuAz94alin7Sw55SpOPECBDlnKE
More BMW content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/bmw
More BMW X3 content: https://www.carexpert.com.au/bmw/x3
Skip Ahead:
Intro: 00:00
Exterior: 01:00
Interior: 03:44
Infotainment: 05:13
Safety Tech: 06:57
Practicality: 08:23
On the Road: 11:44
Performance & 0-100km/h: 16:53
Verdict: 18:49
We review every new car on the market, bust car myths, cover the latest car tech and answer your burning questions.
Whether you need new car advice, purchase validation or simply love learning more about new cars and technology, we are your car experts.
Subscribe to Car Expert: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DvMhvy3H7ntEgn9n3xQcQ?sub_confirmation=1
You'll find us dropping new video content three times a week. If you'd like to ask a question about one of our videos, simply leave us a comment. If you'd like to give us any feedback on our content, feel free to email us, or alternatively, hit us up on social media.
Finally, we want this channel to grow with your support and feedback. If there's anything you don't like or would like to see us change, we'd love to hear from you!
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#bmw #x3 #review
Category
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MotorTranscript
00:00 G'day I'm Paul, so the BMW X3, we haven't driven one in a while and I thought, you know,
00:04 let's get behind the wheel and see if it is still any good.
00:07 We drove the Porsche Macan recently so I thought, time to get back into this.
00:12 Now this is the diesel, the 3.0 litre diesel, it is 6 cylinders and it is kind of where
00:18 I reckon the pick of the bunch is for the diesel engines.
00:20 It's called the xDrive30d, it's priced at just over $100,000, these really have crept
00:26 up in price.
00:27 I remember when the X5 was $100,000 but that's too expensive though, the entire range kicks
00:32 off at just over $80,000.
00:34 This competes with things like the Mercedes-Benz GLC, the Porsche Macan, the Audi Q5, there
00:41 are a few premium cars in that little segment there.
00:43 Today we're going to do a detailed review of this car so if you do want to skip ahead
00:46 to other parts of the review you can use the timecards on the screen or if you're on YouTube
00:50 you can scroll down and use the chapters below.
00:52 If you haven't done so already, subscribe to our channel and press the bell icon, that
00:55 way you can find out every single time we drive a car that I haven't driven for a while.
01:01 So let's talk exterior design, you've got eight colours to pick from, all but white
01:04 is going to set you back a staggering $2,000, they are expensive colour options.
01:09 On the design front, X3, I just think it is a really classy looking car.
01:14 It kind of looks like a mini X5 and it still has all the right proportions, it doesn't
01:18 have an enormous grille like some of the BMW range, it really does look quite good.
01:22 It is worth keeping in mind that for a little while there some of these cars were despecced,
01:26 they reduced the prices to account for the spec that was missing during the semi-conductor
01:30 crisis, so if you do head in to buy one today, just check to see which features it has because
01:35 this particular car won't have some of the features that you'll be able to get today.
01:38 They have just released a new X5 and I think the design direction they're heading in with
01:42 that is actually really good, so I think that when this comes up for a facelift it will
01:46 probably follow the same trends.
01:48 So, big kidney grille up the front here, you have a camera nestled in there for your 360
01:52 camera, vents down the bottom here for cooling as well.
01:55 The thing I find interesting with BMW is have a look at that bar that sits across the front
01:59 there.
02:00 It is odd that they chose to have that exposed in the sense that you're able to very clearly
02:04 see that, so yeah, interesting design choice but I guess it's good, it gives you a bit
02:08 of an idea of the structural integrity of the car.
02:11 BMW logo up the top here.
02:13 This particular car has an option pack that includes a laser light.
02:16 If you want to see how laser lights actually perform in comparison to other headlight technology,
02:21 we have shot a video before that compares all of that.
02:23 You can watch that by clicking up there and that'll give you a little rundown of it.
02:27 Around the side here, this does come standard with 20-inch alloy wheels but this particular
02:32 car has the 19s which are a no-cost option.
02:35 On the outside you have a machined finish and then piano black on the inside.
02:38 The 30D also comes with the M Sport package as standard, so you get the M Sport brakes.
02:42 I do like the idea of the 19 a little better.
02:45 This does have adaptive damping but with the 19 you have a little bit more rubber to play
02:50 with there and it means that the ride should actually be not too bad.
02:53 M badge just here that joins the M badge on the wheel and the M badge on the brakes.
02:58 Up the top here you have an indicator built into the wing mirror with a camera on the
03:02 side there as well.
03:04 Over here you have roof rails.
03:06 This particular car has a panoramic roof as well.
03:10 No privacy glass but come around to the back with me.
03:12 In the back here you have a set of full LED taillights.
03:16 X-Drive 30D to signify the spec.
03:18 This car has the optional tow package, 2,000 kilo brake towing capacity, an X3 badge off
03:23 to the side here as well.
03:25 Look, I just think that this is still a really good looking car and I do hope that when it
03:29 comes time to facelift this in line with the X5 and it gets the new interior and all that
03:34 sort of stuff that they do keep some of this design because I think it is a very smart
03:38 looking vehicle.
03:39 So let me know what you think in the comments section below.
03:41 Do you think it looks good?
03:42 Do you think they need to overhaul it?
03:43 Let me know what you think.
03:45 So we're inside the X3.
03:46 We'll start off with the key.
03:48 So you've got unlock, lock, boot and then also a button there to switch lights on.
03:54 You have the M logo on the side and then brushed aluminium there as well.
03:57 It's a proximity sensing key so you can leave that in your pocket.
04:00 Once you're inside you've got a push button start just down here.
04:02 I actually really like BMW interiors.
04:04 I think they mix tech with style and classiness and I think this is no different.
04:09 I mentioned earlier that they released the X5 facelift and that has the curved screen
04:15 and I think that really is a big step forward as well and it doesn't go sort of too crazy
04:19 on the tech front but it brings all of the latest and greatest tech into the cabin and
04:23 I think that once this gets that update it's going to look really cool as well.
04:26 For the moment you have this slightly older setup here with iDrive and the two separate
04:30 displays.
04:31 Now in terms of your materials all of this stuff is soft to the touch.
04:35 You can get different inlays here as well depending on what you want to go for but most
04:39 of this feels fine.
04:40 There is a lot of piano black down the bottom here and then across this centre section as
04:43 well.
04:44 Not a huge fan of it because it does mark easily but thankfully it's not on these main
04:47 touch surfaces.
04:49 In terms of the actual touch points though that is sort of pretty soft there in the centre,
04:52 firm-ish on the door.
04:53 How soft is it?
04:54 We've got our durometer, we've tested the main surfaces in this cabin.
04:57 If you want to see how this car compares to others that we've tested before have a look
05:00 at the link in the description below.
05:02 Build quality, what's it like?
05:05 Feels really nice and solid in our door test.
05:12 Sounds European.
05:13 So let's talk infotainment.
05:14 You have a 12.3 inch infotainment screen up the top here.
05:18 So it's a touchscreen which means you can move through the menus pretty easily and you
05:22 also have the iDrive controller down the bottom here.
05:25 It's all pretty straightforward to use and the good part about this system is that it
05:29 has an excellent voice recognition system so you can tell the car to do what you need
05:33 to do.
05:34 You can also then pass voice commands through to your smartphone as well to better process
05:38 those which is cool.
05:39 On the radio front you have AM/FM/DAB digital radio.
05:43 It's all plumbed through a 12 speaker sound system.
05:46 You can get a Harman Kardon branded sound system as well if you want some more beats.
05:49 The standard one is pretty good as it is.
05:51 In addition to that you also have inbuilt satellite navigation.
05:55 So this system works really well as well.
05:57 Nice and quick, easy to use.
05:59 Again voice recognition does all the work for you.
06:02 In terms of other interesting things, smartphone ring, you have both Apple CarPlay and Android
06:07 Auto.
06:08 Apple CarPlay is wireless, this is what it looks like.
06:11 Full screen integration there, very, very impressive.
06:15 And this is what Android Auto looks like.
06:16 It is wireless as well.
06:19 Full screen integration there too so all pretty straightforward and easy to use as well.
06:25 You do also have a screen here ahead of the driver.
06:28 This gives you all of your trip computer functions and has a limited sort of customisability
06:32 as well.
06:33 Show you what that looks like when we go for a bit of a drive later on.
06:35 It's also worth pointing out with this car as well that you have connected drive which
06:39 means you can remotely connect into the car using an app on your phone.
06:42 And it's pretty cool because you can take a photo of the car's surroundings and scroll
06:46 around and see what's going on around it.
06:48 So it's a pretty cool sort of feature and I love that we're getting into this sort of
06:52 technology with cars these days and it's exciting stuff for infotainment and connectivity to
06:57 it.
06:58 Now safety tech, you have autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian and cyclist detection.
07:03 You have an auto dimming rear vision mirror.
07:05 One of the things that went missing with the semiconductor shortages was radar cruise control
07:10 so this car doesn't have it along with wireless phone charging.
07:12 That is now standard if you do buy an X3.
07:15 You do have blind spot monitoring built into the wing mirror.
07:18 You also have rear AEB as well so when you are reversing it will slam the brakes on before
07:22 you hit anything.
07:23 You have rear cross traffic alert as well.
07:25 In addition to that on the parking front you have front and rear parking sensors and a
07:29 360 camera.
07:30 I'll show you what that looks like.
07:32 So quality of that is not too bad.
07:34 So that's a view out the front there.
07:36 You can then switch to different views.
07:37 Actually it's a bit hard to read our suitcase there but you kind of get the impression of
07:41 what's going on there.
07:42 You can also then switch around to other views around the car.
07:46 They're not too bad I guess.
07:48 It's a bit hard to see what's going on there.
07:51 That's Eagle's suitcases.
07:53 You do have a couple of cool features though.
07:54 So the Park Assist function allows the car to parallel and perpendicular park but I quite
07:59 like this function here.
08:00 So the reverse assistant, it'll remember the last 50 metres of travel.
08:03 So if you are down a narrow street it'll allow you to back all the way out of that using
08:07 the exact path that you took on the way in.
08:10 If you do want to see how some of that technology works click up there to watch a video that
08:14 we shot before explaining that because it is pretty cool.
08:16 And finally our horn test.
08:19 That sounds very nice and strong.
08:23 Now let's check practicality and we'll start off with connectivity.
08:26 So you have one USB-A port down here.
08:28 You have a 12 volt outlet just there.
08:31 In the centre console here you have a USB-C port as well.
08:34 You should have a wireless phone charger like I mentioned before but because of semiconductors
08:38 this particular car doesn't have it.
08:40 That's where it is if you do have it.
08:42 What about storing your phone?
08:43 So your phone can kind of live anywhere around here.
08:46 You also have very good storage for coffee cups.
08:50 So you can see that fits nicely in there without any risk of de-lidding.
08:54 You can also fit water bottles in there as well because you've got those teeth.
08:58 The water bottle fits inside the door and I think we should be able to get our Whopper
09:02 water bottle in as well.
09:04 Bang, no dramas at all.
09:06 Very impressive storage there.
09:08 On the other storage front just down here near the driver's knee you have a little storage
09:11 slot there.
09:12 Big old centre console there as well and a glove box over here for good measure too.
09:18 And what about your comfort?
09:19 You have dual zone automatic climate control.
09:22 Headed seats are very strangely optional.
09:25 This car has them optioned so you can see the heated seats just there.
09:28 This also has an optional heated steering wheel as well.
09:31 Electric seat adjustment so you can go forwards, backwards, your backrest can go forwards and
09:36 backwards.
09:37 You can lift the front of the seat, the back of the seat.
09:39 You also have bolster adjustment there and seat memory for the driver as well.
09:44 Seats are pretty comfy too.
09:45 They don't have any perforations though so if it is a super hot day you will kind of
09:49 stick to them a little bit but they are quite comfortable with this bottom section extending
09:53 as well.
09:54 Steering offers both tilts and reach adjustment and on the reach test all of this stuff is
09:58 easy to reach while you're driving.
10:00 OK, second row of the X3.
10:02 Look, room is actually not too bad.
10:04 So my seat is pretty far back at the moment and I have adequate knee room.
10:07 Toe room is great.
10:09 Headroom is really good as well so it's pretty comfy space and I think if you have a family
10:12 there's more than enough room here for the kids to move about.
10:16 Map pockets in the back of the seats.
10:17 You also have a third zone of climate control with air vents just here.
10:21 Two USB-C ports.
10:22 You have a centre armrest here that also has two cup holders built into there.
10:27 So the bottle fits into there without too many dramas.
10:31 Goes inside the door as well.
10:33 Now in terms of kiddie accommodation, ISOFIX points on the two outboard seats, three top
10:38 tether points as well and let's try a window test.
10:42 See if the windows go all the way down.
10:45 They're auto up and down.
10:46 Boom, look at that.
10:47 Fantastic.
10:48 Good job BMW.
10:49 So let's talk cargo space.
10:51 Whip the boot open.
10:52 So power tailgate.
10:54 You have 550 litres of cargo space available here just in the standard trim.
11:00 It's actually not a bad setup.
11:01 So load floor is nice.
11:03 There is plenty of width there as well.
11:04 Then you have a bit of storage under here too.
11:06 You might be asking where is the spare tyre?
11:09 Well this has run flats which means it doesn't come with a spare tyre and it does mean that
11:13 you get a little bit of extra storage space in there which I think is pretty good.
11:17 Up the top here you've got 12 volts.
11:19 You have a hook off to the side here, hook down the bottom and also this flexible hook
11:24 here that slides up and down.
11:25 So I'll show you what it looks like with our bags in there.
11:29 So laptop bag in there.
11:31 Suitcase in there.
11:32 It all fits nicely.
11:33 You can expand the space if you do want a little bit more room.
11:36 You've got to lean in for that.
11:38 Drop your second row out of the way and that expands the space to 1600 litres.
11:44 OK, we've just hit the road in the X3.
11:48 Now I really like this engine.
11:49 So 3.0-litre turbocharged six-cylinder diesel.
11:53 It makes 195 kilowatts of power and 620 newton metres of torque.
11:58 It is just such a nice little combo there and it's mated to an eight-speed torque converter
12:03 automatic so no dual clutch here, thank goodness.
12:06 And that all sends torque through an all-wheel drive system so it's able to vary the amount
12:11 of torque it's sending between the front and rear axles but it has a predominantly rear-wheel
12:16 drive feel to it.
12:17 How does all that feel behind the wheel?
12:19 Well it is damn punchy when you lay into it.
12:22 It pushes you right back into the seat and I don't know, regardless of where you are
12:27 in the rev band, you don't have to be going mega quick.
12:29 You don't really have to be doing anything too silly.
12:31 You can just lean on the throttle and it will just push you back into the seat and that
12:35 gearbox is so nice and quick as well that you really cannot catch it napping.
12:39 You just get the throttle in and it just punches you back in the seat.
12:42 So it is seriously good stuff and it is such a shame the world is moving away from diesels
12:47 because I feel like this is peak diesel, this six-cylinder.
12:49 It is an absolutely beautiful engine.
12:51 Now what does all that mean in terms of fuel economy?
12:54 So BMW claims a combined average job just over six litres per 100km.
12:59 We are currently sitting on 7.1 and I have given this a fair old hiding this morning
13:04 so 7.1 litres per 100km is some pretty impressive stuff I reckon.
13:09 So yeah, hat off to BMW for being able to engineer something that is as efficient and
13:14 as fun as this is.
13:15 Let's talk about the ride.
13:17 So this has the benefit of adaptive damping so that means when you are in comfort mode
13:21 it is nice and comfortable but when you do switch to sport it really firms up nicely
13:26 so you do have a bit of variability there between the modes.
13:29 And even in sport mode you have standard plus and individual so you can configure all of
13:33 that stuff.
13:34 The biggest advantage of the ride setup here is the 19s that this is on.
13:38 They really smooth out the ride beautifully so when you are in comfort you don't even
13:41 get a shadow of doubt that you are driving a luxury vehicle.
13:46 It doesn't feel like some BMWs which can be overly firm.
13:49 Even in comfort mode this really has a nice balance there between the two.
13:53 Okay, let's crank the speed up to 130 so we can go for a drive over our sine waves.
13:59 So the sine waves here, we attack them at 130 because it's the maximum speed in Australia.
14:03 It's also the speed you are likely to do if you are overtaking and the sine waves simulate
14:07 a choppy section of country road.
14:10 Oh, that is sensational.
14:12 So excellent body control at the top end there.
14:15 Really nice and smooth as well so they have put a fair bit of effort into the ride and
14:18 handling setup for this.
14:20 What about your road noise?
14:21 So look, with run flats you tend to get a bit more road noise than you would typically
14:25 with any other tyre.
14:27 You do notice that here, especially on course chip roads.
14:29 You get a bit of road noise as the speed picks up and it is worse if you go for a bigger
14:33 wheel but it is bearable here and it's really not the end of the world.
14:37 Let's talk about visibility.
14:38 So I can see clearly down the front of the car there, nice little hoops on the bonnet
14:42 there.
14:43 The wing mirrors could be a little bit bigger but you get enough visibility down the side
14:46 with a blind spot monitor built into those.
14:48 Visibility out the back is not too bad.
14:50 It's a bit of a narrow envelope but it is what it is.
14:53 The reverse camera is great and it's easy enough to park in and around the city.
14:57 Okay, let's put this into sport mode and go for a fang around our track.
15:00 One of the things that BMW prides itself on is, I guess, their cars being sporty and things
15:07 like the X3 are no exception, especially here in the diesel.
15:09 So we'll see if that actually translates to on-road feel as well.
15:14 I'm not loving these tyres.
15:16 So the 19s sit on a set of Pirelli, I'm not going to pronounce this right, Cinturato tyres
15:23 and they don't have a great deal of traction which is a shame because this chassis is sensational.
15:28 This is the same chassis they pull things like the X3 M out of.
15:32 Brake pedal feel is good, the steering feels excellent as well, lots of communication through
15:36 that but yeah, I am noticing here that it is the tyres that are letting a lot of this
15:42 down.
15:43 Let's see what it's like on our back section here.
15:48 This engine is so good.
15:50 You can just lean on it and it gives you all of the torque that you need.
15:53 The all-wheel drive system is great as well so it's got a little bit of that rear bias
15:56 but it's feeding in torque through the front when we need it as well.
15:59 So plough onto that back straight here.
16:03 Yeah look it's actually picking up speed really nicely.
16:07 Yeah, love this engine.
16:09 So yeah look, probably handling is good but not amazing, especially with these tyres.
16:14 OK, our choppy country road, we do this at 90km/h.
16:17 Pop this back into comfort.
16:20 This simulates an incredibly bad road here in Australia.
16:23 We also have a tighter set of sine waves here to see what the body control is like over
16:27 a tighter set of undulations.
16:29 So we'll see what that feels like.
16:32 That's awesome.
16:33 So when the car doesn't have good body control over those tighter sine waves, it tends to
16:37 float and you don't have much control over the direction the car's heading in.
16:41 With that, everything was fine, there was no problems there and even on this really
16:44 choppy section here at 90km/h, which is the speed I'll do all the cars at, it is so nice
16:50 and smooth and comfortable.
16:52 So yeah, good job BMW.
16:53 Time to do a little bit of performance testing.
16:56 We'll kick off with 0-100.
16:57 Let's see what that feels like.
16:58 I'll pop this into sport mode.
16:59 I'm going to put limited stability on as well so we get a little bit of slip off the line
17:07 if we need it.
17:08 That over to sport as well.
17:09 I love all these different settings you can have.
17:11 And it will pound the throttle all the way up to 120km/h to see what that feels like.
17:16 So here we go.
17:17 Oh, fire's out of the box.
17:26 My goodness, alright.
17:27 And there's 120.
17:28 So it had a little bit of slip off the line there.
17:33 If we haven't met that time, I might give it just one more crack.
17:37 So our 0-100 time, 5.6 seconds.
17:41 So better than the claim, which is pretty awesome.
17:43 And then 80-120, 4.18 seconds.
17:46 So that's another really impressive time as well.
17:48 It is an absolute rocket out of the box.
17:50 Once you build up a bit of boost, it absolutely hammers.
17:52 So that was good.
17:53 Alright, let's go do our 100-0 break and see how that fares.
17:57 Okay, we'll dial this up to 100km/h and slam down the anchors.
18:01 Alrighty, so there's 100.
18:03 And here's our braking marker.
18:06 Oh, man.
18:07 It has pulled the brakes off.
18:10 It has pulled that seat belt so tight as well.
18:18 Hazard lights on as well.
18:19 So, alright, let's have a little look here and see how well it stopped from 100.
18:23 So 100-0, 2.73 seconds in 37.9 metres.
18:29 So not a bad stopping effort there.
18:31 And very alarming when that seat belt yokes you in.
18:34 So that's awesome.
18:36 Now our all important reverse speed test.
18:39 Go into reverse, we'll see how quickly it goes.
18:42 That's good.
18:44 Alright, so 50km/h on the dot.
18:52 So the BMW X3, it has been a little while since we drove it, but I love this spec.
18:57 That 30D engine is so good.
18:59 It has so much punch.
19:00 This particular car was let down a bit by those tyres, but with better tyres, the chassis
19:05 is sensational.
19:06 It rides great in and around town.
19:08 It caters well for country roads here in Australia.
19:11 And then with a decent set of tyres, it actually handles like an absolute beast as well.
19:15 So this is an impressive car.
19:16 They have jacked up the price, so do keep that in mind when you go shopping.
19:19 You might be a little bit shocked at how much you're going to have to pay for it, but I
19:23 guess that is the world we're living in at the moment.
19:25 Have you bought an X3?
19:26 What did you end up buying, and did you go with the 30D?
19:30 Let me know in the comments section below.
19:31 If you did enjoy this video, please make sure you like it and you share it with your mates.
19:34 And if you haven't done so already, subscribe to the channel and press the bell icon as
19:38 well so you can find out every single time I get absolutely attacked by flies out here.
19:43 But until next time, take it easy.