BMW X3 review

The X3’s driving environment looks and feels quite different than it used to. You sit only medium-high, in a comfortable and widely adjustable seat, but in front of one of BMW’s latest-generation ‘curved display’ instrumentation and multimedia consoles, which brings a big extra hit of widescreen digital tech appeal.

This uses BMW’s latest Operating System 9.0 software; retains an iDrive-style rotary cursor controller; and, thanks not least to some useful shortcut menus and a new QuickSelect menu window, is easy enough to get along with once you’ve learned how to get the best out of it. But it certainly wants plenty of your attention; wants to cater for your every digital want and need; and seldom takes a back seat for long as part of the car’s wider driving experience.

There is, in fact, quite a lot about this interior that wants your attention. The car’s multimedia system is flanked by BMW’s ‘interaction bar’ multi-coloured, semi-translucent ambient lighting strips, which extend to wrap around bolder, feature-style interior door handles and air vents. The textured dashboard upholstery invites your gaze and your touch. Even the storage cubby at the base of the centre stack, with its integrated wireless device charging drawer, is patterned and framed with ambient lighting decoration. 

When you look elsewhere, however, at places and materials to which BMW isn’t directing your attention quite so hard, you will find a few plainer-looking and feeling mouldings and less tactile heft and solidity than the old X3 offered. Your view on this is likely to depend on how much you like all that the X3 has gained, of course, and there’s plenty. But to us, BMW seems to have lavished that little bit too much time, money and attention on the car’s digital and material razzle-dazzle and not enough on the markedly cheaper-feeling bread-and-butter content.

Next to the rotary controller on the centre console are the gear selector – which is a new, reworked design – and a haptic panel featuring some buttons that, among other features, allow you to select the drive modes and set driving preferences. But while it’s nice to have physical controls for these, the implementation on a single panel could be better. It’s hard to find the right place to press without looking, even with a few tiny ridges to aid your fingers, and the text is quite small to read at a quick glance.

The M50’s chunky sports steering wheel – leather-coated and with a racing-style red band at the top – is taken from the 5 Series and features well-positioned physical controls. In particular, the M50 gains bigger gearchange paddles behind the wheel than the lower-spec versions.

In terms of cabin size, the interior is on a par with the previous X3's and feels comfortable and spacious. There are a variety of useful cubbies, although the glovebox is on the small side. There’s a plentiful 570 litres of space in the boot too, so it ticks all of the boxes you would want for a premium SUV.

The M50 has various bits of M Sport-honed styling elements, such as part-Alcantara upholstery, while the entry-level 20 features a dash covered in a material made from recycled polyester, which arguably makes the cabin feel even lighter and more spacious.