BMW X3 3.0i

[Tom]

Boy, have we got a darling little German family car to show you! It's handsome, it's poised, and it's six-cylinder powerful. It attacks roads like a sports car, just chews them right to pieces. You also get four-wheel drive for better asphalt adhesion. It's really something!

This blue thing? No, no, no, that's just the new BMW X3. We're talking about the BMW 325xi sport wagon, base price of $32,845, and a humdinger of a quality automobile. Put down the magazine right now and go call a dealer. He has plenty.

Whadja say? You want us to shut up about the 325xi because you bought this magazine to read about the X3? Okay. Fine.

But maybe you don't really want to hear about the X3. Conventional wisdom says if you really wanted a true sport-utility, you wouldn't be talking to BMW. And if you really wanted a BMW, you wouldn't even think of buying an SUV.

Except for those 43,000 or so people who annually motor off in a new BMW X5 sport-ute. Worldwide, the X5's success is encouraging BMW to sink its tires deeper into the SUV swamp, especially since Americans treat all station wagons as if they come standard with tuberculosis. We're less at ease with this latest BMW, however. The X3's flaws are glaring, especially from a company known for clipping the perfection apex tighter than most.

More specifically, we like the idea of the X3 better than the vehicle itself. Our ears pricked up when BMW invited us to sample what is essentially a smaller, lighter, less expensive X5. Gosh, just saying that feels good. Plus, the X3 is assembled in Arnold Schwarzenegger's hometown of Graz, Austria, not by BMW, but by a subcontractor, Magna Steyr Fahrzeugtechnik AG & Co. KG. Armed with that fact you can suck the air right out of the room at your next dinner party.

The X3 is certainly lighter. Towed by the same 225-hp, 3.0-liter inline six as that in its bigger brother, the X5 3.0i, the 4095-pound X3 weighs between 600 and 700 pounds less than the X5. It is certainly cheaper, too. Although prices weren't finalized at press time, the X3 should start at about $32,000 for a base 2.5i with the 189-hp, 2.5-liter inline six and top out just north of $40,000 for a fully loaded 3.0i with the 225-horse six like the one pictured here. The 2004 X5 starts at $40,995 and is hurdling safely over $60,000 equipped with the bigger engine, the 4.4-liter V-8, and all the boxes checked.

Smaller? Just by gerbil whiskers. The X3's wheelbase is less than an inch shy of the X5's, and the X3's black-plastic bumpers are only four inches closer together. The width and height differences are minimal as well. The X3's seating space offers more rear-seat headroom and legroom. Compared with the X5, the X3's cargo hold is actually bigger by 30 percent with the rear seats folded (almost) flat, 26 percent with the seats up. The unloved 325xi wagon is significantly tighter in every respect, especially in the back.

We also like that BMW spliced the 3-series' curve-straightening DNA into the X3, including the same basic front-strut, multilink-rear suspension with some extra structural beefiness for off-road duty. The X3 also debuts BMW's new xDrive, a nifty single-speed torque-transfer coupling with a microchip-administered multiplate clutch pack that constantly varies engine thrust between the front and rear axles from 100 percent rear to 50/50. Combined with brake-based traction control and a hill-descent function that works the brakes to control downward velocity, the xDrive is a more flexible doohickey than the planetary gear differential and its fixed 38-percent-front, 62-percent-rear torque split found in the 325xi and the '03 X5 (the '04 X5 also features xDrive).

If the X3 never rose up from the paper, we'd be quaffing schnapps in its honor. The doubt creeps in out on the road. The otherwise supple 3-series suspension has been radically hardened in the X3, kind of the way they harden ICBM silos. Shod in the rear with the 45-series, W-rated rubber of the optional Sport package, the X3's ride is hard-edged, concussive, and insufferable. Hit a craggy, undulating section of road, and the X3 bucks like a mare with Little Richard's pinky ring stuck under the saddle. Do it at speed, and the X3 is almost as good as a guillotine for testing your neck joints.

The ceaseless shuddering of our test vehicle did its best to separate interior panels from the walls and the seats from their mounts. A few squeaks and rattles took carcinogenic root and were spreading. Base versions of the X3 are slightly better with 55-series, H-rated tires all around and spongier shocks, but only slightly. The X3 clomps down the road, and BMWs shouldn't clomp. Those who commute on glassy-smooth freeways may never be bothered by the X3's ride, but everyone else will be.

BMW's Ultimate Driving Machine mantra and the ceaseless quest for the intergalactic lap-time record at the Nürburgring are surely behind the X3's crusty suspension. No question, the X3 handles twisties with Bavarian aplomb. The xDrive takes its directions in part from a lateral-g sensor. As the X3 bends into a corner, the clutches sling more engine output to the rear axle. The strategy frees up the front tires to concentrate on the vital job of turning the car. The X3's rack is a bit numb and isolated, but the nose darts crisply and without the pushy understeer that plagues most four-wheel-drivers. It even rewards bold drivers with a little tail wagging and pulled a no-arguments 0.88 g on the skidpad, the highest grip we've ever measured for an SUV.

The quickest X3, the one with the 225-horse engine and six-speed manual, isn't poky, either, although the inline six from the 330i has to work harder to keep the X3's 4095 pounds moving. We saw 60 mph zing by in 7.4 seconds, a few ticks quicker than a 325xi wagon (0.3 second), and a lot of ticks (0.7 second) quicker than an X5 3.0i. The X3 constructs a quarter-mile in 15.5 seconds at 87 mph, a half-second faster than the wagon, and then stops from 70 mph in 157 feet, the same as a Mitsu Evolution.

That's great, except that on back-to-reality roads the rigid suspension never rests, never submits to a firm set. It keeps the body bouncing around and the driver making continual course corrections to stay on path. Sitting several extra inches above the roll center doesn't help the steady drain of confidence, or the steady drain of color from your face. Several drivers felt a rising ball of motion-related nausea after thrashing the car down curvy roads.

As long as the X3 remains parked, we have fewer problems with it. The dashboard's mix of geometric and organic shapes, accented by broad swaths of battleship-gray plastic, looks like a Z4 cockpit that's been through the penny squeezer. Hard surfaces with deep graining abound, and the door handles are just rough black plastic. BMW charges a bit less for an X3, and it's intended to have some sport-ute toughness, so we accept the thrifting.

There are touches of epicurean taste: French-seamed double pleats grace the optional leather sport seats, and the silver accents of electrocoated plastic sport a weird fingerprint pattern that somehow works. The navigation screen motors into the dash when not wanted, a feature we'd gladly pay extra for in the 5- and 7-series.

Those with seat time in an X5 will feel right at home behind the X3's yoke. The buckets sit high off the floor, the knees bent more sharply than in a car, and the pedals stepped on more than into. The rim of the three-spoke sport steering wheel is python meaty, the six-speed shifter knob light to the touch. Back-benchers will enjoy good knee- and headroom, although the flat and firm seatback can't be adjusted for rake and tends toward the vertical. The bottoms are shallow and formless, so expect rear-seat passengers to act like unsecured rolled-steel coils during suspension workouts.

During our time with this truck, we never explored anything more rigorous than a dirt road, even though BMW engineers claim that it will endure much rougher treatment. The lack of underbody shielding bodes ill for serious slick-rock crawling, although a tow-truck driver would surely be grateful for your call. A BMW spurting its fluids could be the inspiration for endless bar jokes.

So, should you just forget about off-roading and go for the 325xi wagon instead? The X3 does have more space along with cargo-floor rails for an add-on bike rack if you require such things. The xDrive is neat and not available on the wagon. To BMW, we say, get thee to it. When a company like BMW starts reserving its best technology for its trucks, it's time to start building bomb shelters.

Here's the solution, BMW: Ease up the damping on the X3 so passengers don't feel like kernels in a Jiffy Pop, or slip the 3.0-liter engine and xDrive into the 325xi wagon.

Until then, if you still want an X3, perhaps it wasn't really a BMW you wanted after all.


COUNTERPOINT

RON KIINO
I might have thought more of the X3 had I not driven it back-to-back with a Subaru Forester 2.5XT. Yes, the Bimmer is ritzier, offers more niceties, such as a power liftgate and hill-descent control, and handles and brakes in a league above, but it's more than two seconds slower to 60, a lot harsher in the ride department, and about 15 grand more on the bottom line. And as far as I can tell, it doesn't offer any real advantage in rear-seat space, cargo room, or all-weather traction. By itself, the X3 is an able performer, but next to the Forester, it simply seems like an inflated 3-series wagon, in both size and price.

PATRICK BEDARD
I've seen sillier cars. There was an angry, slotted Bizzarrini GT back in 1968 that scraped its belly on the ground like a skulking lizard. The AMC Gremlin, a subcompact created by chopping the useful space out of the compact Hornet, was pretty silly, too. But this BMW X3 is the 21st-century record holder. Especially with the sport-suspension option and six-speed box, BMW seems to have combined the worst features of sports cars and SUVs—the jarring ride, fast-wearing tires, and dinky cargo area of the former with the excessive weight and precious pricing of the latter. For $41,000 you get a sports car on stilts. Mondo silly.

LARRY WEBSTER
A BMW sport-ute had me skeptical from the start, but I grew to appreciate BMW's first effort, the X5. I once used an X5 to tow my race car—at a very comfortable and fast velocity—and once at the track exploited the car's flexibility by using it for a handful of not-too-slow demonstration laps around the course. I couldn't have done both in the 5-series wagon. But I don't think the X3 is any more useful than the 3-series wagon. Plus, the X3 gives up plenty of performance, and it's the worst-riding BMW I've ever driven. Sure, the X3 has a roomier interior, but from a driver's standpoint, it's not even a contest—I'd take the wagon version.


C/D TEST RESULTS

ACCELERATION (Seconds)
Zero to 30 mph: 2.0
40 mph: 3.6
50 mph: 5.1
60 mph: 7.4
70 mph: 9.7
80 mph: 12.4
90 mph: 16.6
100 mph: 21.2
110 mph: 28.3
120 mph: 38.4
Street start, 5-60 mph: 8.5
Top-gear acceleration, 30-50 mph: 11.7
50-70 mph: 11.6
Standing 1/4-mile: 15.5 sec @ 87 mph
Top speed (governor limited): 132 mph

BRAKING
70-0 mph @ impending lockup: 157 ft

HANDLING
Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.88 g
Understeer: minimal moderate excessive

FUEL ECONOMY
EPA city driving: 17 mpg
EPA highway driving: 25 mpg
C/D-observed: 15 mpg

INTERIOR SOUND LEVEL
Idle: 43 dBA
Full-throttle acceleration: 75 dBA
70-mph cruising: 70 dBA

BMW X3 3.0i

Vehicle type: front-engine, 4-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 5-door wagon
Estimated price as tested: $41,000 (estimated base price: $36,000)
Options on test car: Sport package (includes sport suspension and tires, 18-inch wheels, sport seats, and exterior trim), high-performance wheels and tires, sunroof, leather seats, navigation system, Cold Weather package (includes heated seats and ski bag), and xenon adaptive headlamps
Major standard accessories: power windows, seats, and locks; remote locking; A/C; cruise control; tilting and telescoping steering wheel; rear defroster and wiper
Sound system: BMW AM/FM radio/CD player, 10 speakers

ENGINE
Type: inline-6, aluminum block and head
Bore x stroke: 3.31 x 3.53 in, 84.0 x 89.6mm
Displacement: 182 cu in, 2979cc
Compression ratio: 10.2:1
Fuel-delivery system: port injection
Valve gear: chain-driven double overhead cams, 4 valves per cylinder, hydraulic lifters, variable intake- and exhaust-valve timing
Power (SAE net): 225 bhp @ 5900 rpm
Torque (SAE net): 214 lb-ft @ 3500 rpm
Redline: 6500 rpm

DRIVETRAIN
Transmission: 6-speed manual
Final-drive ratio: 3.64:1
4-wheel-drive system: full time with automatic front-axle engagement, no center differential, and open front and rear differentials with brake-based traction- and hill-descent control

Gear ... Ratio ... Mph/1000 rpm ... Max. test speed
I ... 4.35 ... 4.9 ... 32 mph (6500 rpm)
II ... 2.50 ... 8.6 ... 56 mph (6500 rpm)
III ... 1.66 ... 12.9 ... 84 mph (6500 rpm)
IV ... 1.23 ... 17.4 ... 113 mph (6500 rpm)
V ... 1.00 ... 21.4 ... 132 mph (6150 rpm)
VI ... 0.85 ... 25.2 ... 132 mph (5250 rpm)

DIMENSIONS
Wheelbase: 110.1 in
Track, front/rear: 60.0/60.7 in
Length/width/height: 179.7/73.0/66.0 in
Ground clearance: 8.0 in
Drag area, Cd (0.35) x frontal area (29.4 sq ft, est) 10.3 sq ft
Curb weight: 4095 lb
Weight distribution, F/R: 49.8/50.2%
Curb weight per horsepower: 18.2 lb
Fuel capacity: 17.7 gal

CHASSIS/BODY
Type: unit construction with 2 rubber-isolated body crossmembers
Body material: welded steel stampings

INTERIOR
SAE volume, front seat: 51 cu ft
rear seat: 45 cu ft
cargo, seats up/down: 30/71 cu ft
Practical cargo room, length of pipe: 125.0 in
largest sheet of plywood: 37.5 x 71.0 in
no. of 10 x 10 x 16-in boxes, seats up/down 16/40 cu ft
Front-seat adjustments: fore and aft, seatback angle, front height, rear height, lumbar support, thigh support
Restraint systems, front manual 3-point belts; driver and
passenger front, side, and curtain airbags
rear manual 3-point belts, curtain airbags

SUSPENSION
Front ind, strut located by 1 lateral link and 1 diagonal link,
coil springs, anti-roll bar
Rear ind, 1 trailing arm and 2 lateral links per side,
coil springs, anti-roll bar

STEERING
Type rack-and-pinion with variable power assist
Steering ratio 18.9:1
Turns lock-to-lock 3.3
Turning circle curb-to-curb 38.4 ft

BRAKES
Type hydraulic with vacuum power assist and
anti-lock control
Front 12.8 x 1.0-in vented disc
Rear 12.6 x 0.9-in vented disc

WHEELS AND TIRES
Wheel size/type F: 8.0 x 18 in, R: 9.0 x 18 in/cast aluminum
Tires Michelin Diamaris Radial X; F: 235/50WR-18,
R: 255/45WR-18
Test inflation pressures, F/R 32/32 psi
Spare high-pressure compact on steel wheel

 

[landshark]

RUMBLE SEAT DAN NEIL


Suspension of disbelief
BMW's pursuit of a sporty ride makes the new X3 compact ute more like the ultimate blending machine
By Dan Neil

January 14, 2004

Trying to tell BMW how to tune a suspension is like telling Savion Glover how to tap-dance or telling John Ashcroft how to be scary. But when it comes to the new BMW X3 compact sport ute … wait, there's a helicopter over my house.

Look, I'm just a humble shade-tree mechanic, unschooled in computer-modeled suspension kinematics, but I know when my fillings are coming loose. The 2004 compact ute X3 rides like an old door being dragged down a dirt road.

Our test model — the X3 3.0i with sport-calibrated suspension (I use the term "calibrated" advisedly) and 45-series Dunlop tires — spazzed and trembled at the slightest imperfection in the pavement and was sent into palsied fits by the 10 Freeway. And the impacts sent through the seats by speed bumps felt like the unwanted attentions of an amorous moose.

BMW calls the X3 an SAV, which stands for "sport activity vehicle." That activity is going to your chiropractor.

The main culprit is the sport suspension and, in particular, the low- profile performance tires. To be fair, the X3 is fantastically agile on asphalt, with truly ludicrous amounts of lateral grip, knife-edged responses and heroic brakes. I, for one, think those are wonderful things. I get misty at the mere mention of lateral grip.

It's also quite quick. Our six-speed, 3-liter tester accelerated like a middle-school kid with a snoot full of Ritalin: zero to 60 in about 7.4 seconds. Triple-digit cruising is dangerously easy.

But you can only go hellbent-for-leather once in a great while, whereas the X3's thrumming, tympanic ride is with you every minute you are in the car. Like tinnitus.

It only goes to prove that it's hard to make a sport ute — even a little one — the ultimate driving machine.

Let's lay a little groundwork, shall we?

A car's suspension carries the weight of the car to the wheels, typically through four coil springs, one on each corner of the car. The springs absorb the kinetic energy from bumps in the road, and the shock absorbers or struts stabilize the car body by dissipating the spring energy so that the car body doesn't flop around as if it were atop four Slinkies. The suspension members — like the familiar "wishbone" or A-shaped unit that is pretty easy to visualize — are there to keep the wheels in position and as nearly upright as possible as the car maneuvers.

There are millions of variations on this theme — MacPherson struts, leaf springs, torsion bars, short-long arm, trailing links — but the idea is to allow the tires to follow the contours of the road while the car body goes along undisturbed and, when the vehicle maneuvers, to ensure that body motions are controlled.

The problem with SUVs is that they have high centers of gravity; in other words, they are top-heavy. The greater the vertical distance between the center of gravity and each axle's roll center — the imaginary point around which the vehicle body rotates, or "rolls," when cornering — the more body roll the vehicle will exhibit. This distance is called roll-couple; anyone who has ever overloaded a wheelbarrow only to have it tip over understands the concept.

The X3 rides on a slightly stretched and widened version of the BMW 3-Series platform. The suspension is nearly identical: upfront, MacPherson struts (units comprising a coil spring around a hydraulic damper); and in the rear, multiple suspension links, including a large alloy upper link carrying the spring. Big antiroll bars lace both sets of wheels together. All things being equal, the X3 should have something of the 3-Series' wonderful balance between performance handling and compliant ride.

But all things are not equal. The X3 is almost 10 inches taller than a 330xi sedan (with all-wheel drive) and weighs 540 pounds more. To control all this extra weight swinging aloft in the rigging, BMW's chassis gurus were obliged to put the most aggressive set of springs, shocks, antiroll bars and tires they could countenance on the X3.

The result: forbidden moose love.

In a way, I find BMW's unwillingness to compromise on performance admirable. Like Porsche — which betrayed its long-standing sports car ethos to build the moneymaking Cayenne SUV — BMW entered the SUV market (with the X5 in 2000) not out of any great love for the category but because it was a cash cow that Munich desperately needed to milk. The X5 has sold like Bavarian strudel, about 38,000 in North America last year, and is in many ways the template for a whole generation of street-tuned SUVs such as the Infiniti FX35/45 and the Volvo XC90.

The X3 comes in two flavors: the 2.5i with the 2.5-liter, 184-horsepower straight-6; and the 3.0i with 3 liters and 225 horsepower. Both of these free- revving, hard-pulling engines are found in the 3-Series, and both can be paired with the five-speed Steptronic automatic and six-speed manual transmissions.

The X3 2.5i, with a base price of $30,300, is a timely and expedient niche filler for BMW. It is priced about $6,000 below the X5 3.0i, even though it is only marginally smaller. The X3 is considerably more space-efficient than the X5. The new model also amortizes the cost of much of the design and tooling for the 3-Series.

BMW was so keen to get the X3 to market that it farmed out the assembly to the Magna Steyr company in Graz, Austria, which will produce a whopping 75,000 vehicles annually.

I predict the world's consumption of BenGay will skyrocket.

Anybody who takes the X3 for a flog up a canyon road will notice the car's crisp turn-in characteristics — which is to say, as you steer into the corner, the front tires bite and the X3 tracks right where it's pointed. And should you exceed the front tires' substantial mechanical grip — if the car is understeering — the X3's new xDrive will lend a hand.

This full-time AWD system uses an electronically modulated multi-plate differential to shift power forward and aft depending on the amount of wheel slip the digital brains detect. Under normal conditions, the torque is split 40-60, front-rear. But as you go sailing into a corner and the front wheels begin to slide, the system reduces torque being sent to the front wheels, so their available grip can be devoted to turning instead of propelling the vehicle.

My only complaint is the halfbeat it takes for the system to cogitate. I found myself making mid-corner steering corrections as the front tires suddenly gained extra purchase. In fact, the sport-endowed X3's stuttering ride means you have to constantly tend the tiller lest you hop and skitter off course.

The xDrive system, like Audi's Quattro system, is designed to give the vehicle more of an all-weather profile. Combined with BMW's highly evolved cybernetics — stability, traction, anti-lock, and electronic brake force distribution systems, as well as a new hill-descent control feature — the xDrive offers substantial assurance that the vehicle will stay on the road.

But beware of over- confidence as you bash up toward the ski slopes. The limiting factor is the 18-inch Dunlop gumball tires. These tires stick to dry pavement like a morals charge sticks to a politician but are highly suspect on ice and snow. And off-road? Well, I didn't hazard to take the X3 into the backcountry; however, given the limited wheel articulation, due in part to the big antiroll bars, I reckon the X3 won't be doing the Rubicon Trail anytime soon.

And, frankly, I'm not crazy about the car's styling, either. The nose looks long and droopy. BMWs should have taut, close-coupled fronts with short overhangs wrapped around the front wheels. The wheels look tragically tiny, like stunted limbs. Taken at a glance, the X3 looks gutless and neutered.

In the bizarre, want- it-both-ways world of sport-tuned SUVs, I still consider the Infiniti FX35/45 the best offering on the market. But with Los Angeles being the land of propeller- heads, I'm sure many BMW partisans will eagerly line up for the X3.

Their chiropractors will thank them for it.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Times automotive critic Dan Neil can be reached at dan.neil@latimes.com.

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

2004 BMW X3 3.0i

Wheelbase: 110.1 inches

Length: 179.7 inches

Height: 66 inches

Curb weight: 4,023 pounds

Powertrain: 3.0-liter dual-overhead-cam inline-6 engine with variable-valve timing; six-speed manual transmission; all-wheel drive

Horsepower: 225 at 5,900 rpm

Torque: 214 pound-feet at 3,500 rpm

Acceleration: Zero to 60 mph in 7.4 seconds

EPA rating: 17 miles per gallon city, 25 mpg highway

Price, base: $36,300

Price, as tested: $43,920 (includes $695 destination charge)

Final thoughts: The Anvil Chorus of cute utes

Source: BMW of North America

 

[ariper79]

I just wanted to be the only person with a post of less than 45,000 words on this thread.

 

[Average Jae]

how about put up a link and give us the cliff's note ver? jk.. but long threads are a bit boring.. add pics and stuff like the real mag article!! and i'll erm just look at pics