As per title. Been thinking of a few cars that I might wish to change the S3 to next year. Spoke to my local BMW dealer Tuesday, and they had an X3 M40i demonstrator in. Champion!
Collected it yesterday. First thoughts when it was driven round was that it sounded fantastic. Probably exhaust trickery, but even so. And that was in comfort mode.
Climbing in, it all felt very nice. More old school with proper switches, buttons, and rotor dial for the Idrive. More Audi A3 than A35 AMG (with all ipads)
Standard seats were very very comfortable and supportive. Better than the S3 SS Seats. Steering wheel was one the border of being a bit too fat, but still felt nice. Seating position was very adjustable, and felt very comfortable when positioned for me. Impressed.
Initial impressions were it was a big car. But once driving it seamed to shrink around me very quickly and felt much smaller driving it than I expected. The car was on the 21" wheels and run-flats. The ride was surprisingly very smooth and comfortable. But I think I'd still spec the 20" wheels and performance tyres. 40 profiled sidewalls may make for an even better ride, and not thump potholes so much.
The biggest surprise for me though, was just how ****** fast it was. Like really surprised. God it can shift. I was expecting it to be S3 fast 296bhp V 355bhp with the added weight of the X3 levelling things up. No way. It'll blow my S3 away in a straight line. But I guess that's what 8 gears allows. Short ratios will always aid acceleration.
Makes me now regret not test driving an RS3, and with 400bhp and DSG it'll be even quicker. I think the new Q3-RS will be even quicker than the X3.
The Harmon Karmon sound system was very impressive too. Good sound. I'd say the Mercedes tech looks far more impressive than the BMW's. But I prefer the BMW layout having buttons over everything having to go through the Ipads, which takes your eyes off the road.
The only thing I didn't like was unlike Audi's DSG where you can pull back on the gearstick to engage sport mode, with the X3 you have to fiddle around for the sport button. So it takes that bit longer to engage sport mode if you're wanting to quickly engage it. Plus with 8 gears the paddles became redundant, not only as they were a bit small, put I was having to constantly flick them to be in the right gear. At least the gearshift was the right way round. Pull back to go up a gears, and push forwards to go down a gear. But as there was very little feel and so many ratio's it was more a gimmick rather than something you would always use. But I'd probably use it sometimes, unlike the paddles.
I handed the car back yesterday felling hugely impressed. More impressed than I expected to. As I have my S3 and my late father's Tuscon at the minute, this X3 is the best of both. Speed of the S3 with the better practicability of the Tuson.
I'm planning on test driving a few more cars, but that X3 is one hell of a car. Top of the list so far
Collected it yesterday. First thoughts when it was driven round was that it sounded fantastic. Probably exhaust trickery, but even so. And that was in comfort mode.
Climbing in, it all felt very nice. More old school with proper switches, buttons, and rotor dial for the Idrive. More Audi A3 than A35 AMG (with all ipads)
Standard seats were very very comfortable and supportive. Better than the S3 SS Seats. Steering wheel was one the border of being a bit too fat, but still felt nice. Seating position was very adjustable, and felt very comfortable when positioned for me. Impressed.
Initial impressions were it was a big car. But once driving it seamed to shrink around me very quickly and felt much smaller driving it than I expected. The car was on the 21" wheels and run-flats. The ride was surprisingly very smooth and comfortable. But I think I'd still spec the 20" wheels and performance tyres. 40 profiled sidewalls may make for an even better ride, and not thump potholes so much.
The biggest surprise for me though, was just how ****** fast it was. Like really surprised. God it can shift. I was expecting it to be S3 fast 296bhp V 355bhp with the added weight of the X3 levelling things up. No way. It'll blow my S3 away in a straight line. But I guess that's what 8 gears allows. Short ratios will always aid acceleration.
Makes me now regret not test driving an RS3, and with 400bhp and DSG it'll be even quicker. I think the new Q3-RS will be even quicker than the X3.
The Harmon Karmon sound system was very impressive too. Good sound. I'd say the Mercedes tech looks far more impressive than the BMW's. But I prefer the BMW layout having buttons over everything having to go through the Ipads, which takes your eyes off the road.
The only thing I didn't like was unlike Audi's DSG where you can pull back on the gearstick to engage sport mode, with the X3 you have to fiddle around for the sport button. So it takes that bit longer to engage sport mode if you're wanting to quickly engage it. Plus with 8 gears the paddles became redundant, not only as they were a bit small, put I was having to constantly flick them to be in the right gear. At least the gearshift was the right way round. Pull back to go up a gears, and push forwards to go down a gear. But as there was very little feel and so many ratio's it was more a gimmick rather than something you would always use. But I'd probably use it sometimes, unlike the paddles.
I handed the car back yesterday felling hugely impressed. More impressed than I expected to. As I have my S3 and my late father's Tuscon at the minute, this X3 is the best of both. Speed of the S3 with the better practicability of the Tuson.
I'm planning on test driving a few more cars, but that X3 is one hell of a car. Top of the list so far
