The utility of the M3 sedan has been questioned by the one person who has the ability to force a change in our family garage. “Buy an SUV!” is the refrain frequently whispered, recently with more emphasis, by my wife. After recent back-to-back trips to the far corners of SoCal and SoSoCal, I’m ready to admit she has a point. Trip A was a night in the desert wilderness, a sojourn that had us packing a baby stroller, hiking carrier, and portable crib along with the mini-cooler, suitcases, and tote bags. Luggage overflowed the trunk and spilled into the seats. Trip B squeezed four adults around the baby for a day trip to the regional park. Everyone was compromising on room, but rear occupants had it worse, wedged between the doors and baby seat, laps filled with diaper bags, snack-packs and other toddler-distracting accouterments. While all five of us enjoyed the outing, it certainly wasn’t on account of the cramped transportation.
So, when the BMW dealer offers me the choice of a loaner 328i or X3, I am ready to see if the other side of the argument has merit. I opt for the SUV. At least it will make the Mrs. happy for a weekend!
Like the X1 I got on loan a few months ago, this 2016 BMW X3 is optioned in what I’d call poverty spec. The only additional cost item I can see is AWD, as belied by the xDrive28i badge near the front wheels. Decode the BMW, and you learn that a 240 hp 2.0L four-cylinder turbo engine powers all four wheels of this mid-sized SAV…ahem, I mean SUV. The exterior paint is (no cost) flat black, the seats are covered in coarse (no cost) vinyl SensaTec, and the doors and dash sport (no cost) squishy black plastics. There is no navigation, no swiveling HID headlights, and no keyless entry. (The lack of keyless entry is most infuriating because the X3 has keyless start.) The only unexpected luxuries are the power liftgate, Homelink, and auto-dimming mirrors; I’ve surprised that BMW did not charge extra for these too. Maybe they did?
Oh well. To paraphrase an old saying, one shouldn’t look a gift car in the Monroney. Focus, my goal is to see what benefits a midsize SUV will bring to my life.
I drive home from the dealership in—unfortunately typical—LA traffic. My only fun is trying to keep pace with a lifted diesel pickup truck after the light turns green and he races me to the highway entrance. While BMW’s four-banger engine completely isn’t overwhelmed by the X3’s weight, its punch is dulled by the 4200 lbs, and the truck successfully beats me to ramp. I chase him as he double apexes the cloverleaf, but the X3’s all-season tires and standard suspension aren’t really that eager to play in the corners. The SUV’s body control is fine, but there simply isn’t much grip available. I never see the pickup again.
So BMW has built an SUV that drives like an SUV. It’s an honest approach to the segment, right? There are some SUV traits that I can appreciate. I sit high off the ground and, therefore, can better see the traffic patterns ahead of me. The high seating position is paired with tall windows that further improve my outward visibility. (BMW’s smaller X1 did not ride nearly this high, and its raised cowl gave it a bunker feeling which is thankfully missing from the X3.) Other benefits are that the tall tire sidewalls and long wheelbase smooth the highway ride better than my M3 can.
The X3 cuts through the late morning rush hour without trouble, supporting this lane-weaving M3 driver as I dive for holes in traffic and attempt to outsmart the congestion around me. Having maybe saved three minutes from my drive, I arrive home and find the X3 equally adept at navigating the tight confines of my underground parking garage. The steering is light (though largely lifeless), and the turning circle is commendable, so I can properly slot into my parking spot on the first try. A run to the grocery store later in the day proves that the X3 can exit the garage without extra reversing, so long as I use all of the available space between my parking spot, my neighbors’ cars and the concrete support columns. I would have appreciated the optional parking cameras during these maneuvers, though.
The sun rises on Saturday, and we have an SUV in the garage. What shall we do? A trip to the ski slopes and snow? A blast on the beach and over the dunes? Some light off-roading in the desert? Nope! We do what every SUV actually does every weekend and go to the playground in the morning, a midtown restaurant for lunch, and do some grocery shopping in the afternoon. It’s only fair, right? It’s not like my M3 hits the track every Saturday, either. The X3 handles the urban runabout with ease.
We’re more ambitious on Sunday, plotting a route along a dirt fire road that goes deep into the Santa Monica Mountains. It is no Rubicon Trail, in fact, the 328i sedan I was offered could cruise this road too, but we have an SUV and feel obligated to put at least a little dirt under its tires before it is returned. After 45 minutes on Hwy 1, we turn off and find a substantial gate blocking our access to the fire road. Oops. Our day of light off-roading becomes a day of hiking instead. I make sure to clip a few parking lot corners on the way home so that the X3 doesn’t feel completely deprived.
What have I learned in my 100 miles with the X3? For one, the X3 drives like an SUV first and a BMW second: It’s slower and heavier than I’m accustomed to, but still has the precision and control I expect from a BMW. The X3 is also spaciously comfortable and rides reasonably well on the highways, though rippled tarmac does introduce some mild chop into the cabin. While the small engine compromises scoot in a vehicle this heavy, it does not sacrifice fuel economy. The X3 returned a (self-reported) 24.5 mpg on Sunday.
What did my wife want me to learn from my 100 miles with the X3? The obvious: A midsize SUV hauls more cargo and has more passenger room than a midsize sedan. I experimented with this on Sunday night, packing the X3’s 27.6 cubic-foot trunk with a large suitcase, a carry-on suitcase, a Pack-n-Play portable crib, a compact stroller, a baby-carrier hiking pack, a beach umbrella, blanket, and sand toys all without folding the rear seats or compromising rear visibility. The E90 M3 has only 12 cubic-feet of trunk space and would have had the baby carrier and more spilling over into the cabin.
Update: Actually, the full load squeezes into the M3’s trunk too.
For rear passengers, sitting alongside the centrally mounted (rear-facing) baby seat is certainly more comfortable. There may be 10% or 20% more shoulder and hip room, and the legroom is significantly improved too. (A front-facing baby seat would still make the shoulder room tight, though.) The front passengers don’t need to sacrifice legroom to accommodate those in the rear.
I can’t deny the utility of an SUV like the X3. But I can continue to question why “sport” is present in its naming. In no way does the X3 xDrive28i tempt me to carve my favorite canyon roads. While the vehicle might tolerate being whipped through the corners, it doesn’t condone it. And this is a significant problem for me as a driving enthusiast because I want our family’s practical car, the vehicle we are most likely to take on road trips to interesting faraway destinations, to encourage me to explore new roads and reward me when they’re great. Put simply, I love driving and don’t want to ruin this pleasurable activity with a boring car.
So, where does this leave me as a gearhead and family man? Truly sporty SUVs like the Porsche Cayenne and BMW X5M are possibilities, but ones that I view with skepticism given the way they challenge physics with their height and weight. As is fitting for my automotive journalist aspirations, I am most intrigued by fast wagons like the Mercedes AMG E63 (29 cubic feet of cargo capacity!) and Cadillac CTS-V (25 cubic feet!). They should have better driving dynamics than their SUV counterparts, even if they don’t really offer many advantages in weight, MPG, or cost of entry. Or I can always be stubborn and hold out with the M3. They make cargo-box roof racks, you know!
Prologue
(Our time with the X3 was unexpectedly extended into a second weekend, so we took the opportunity to put the SUV on some Mojave Desert dirt.)
It’s our second Sunday with the X3, and I am not going to waste the opportunity. We are taking our annual pilgrimage to the Antelope Valley California Poppy Reserve, as I know the vast desert around the Reserve popping with orange petals and—more importantly for this review—is crisscrossed by numerous unpaved roads. We’ll use our flower spotting as an excuse to go off-road.
Eighty miles of fast highway driving precede our destination. The X3 is a fine vehicle for the trip, as its cabin is quiet and comfortable as we leave urban LA. Mostly we hear hushed wind and tire noise; BMW’s four-cylinder engine doesn’t speak loudly even as I ask it to maintain 80 mph on the long climb into the high desert. The pass we are climbing is a major thoroughfare for heavy trucking between northern and southern California, and its right two lanes are rutted and broken. I usually avoid these lanes in my M3, but the X3 doesn’t penalize me much for using the rough pavement, and I find myself driving on the bumpy far right much more frequently than I usually would.
Highway driving exposes several minor irritations with the X3. First, the I4 motor feels softer and less reactive to my throttle inputs than I’d like. Changing the drive mode from (the default) Comfort to Sport helps, as it limits the transmission to 6th gear (out of 8) and exaggerates the throttle mapping for quicker responses. The second irritation is the bright silver trim around the gear selector; it reflects the harsh, midday sunlight into my eyes. Finally, the X3’s steering is actually too quick on-center, forcing me to be slow and measured with my hand movement. If I am lazy or inattentive, I end up tossing the X3’s weight side-to-side as I make the small corrections necessary to keep my lane.
Once in the desert, we head directly for 160th St W. While the name evokes roads you might find at the northern end of Manhattan, but Mojave’s 160th St W bears absolutely no resemblance to its East Coast counterpart. The tiny, single-lane dirt track has no street signage whatsoever and meanders through the desert scrub along dry stream beds and over rolling hills. It is perfect, my chance to put rubber in the dirt.
Two minutes in, and we reach an obstacle—a dip and rise through a dry creek—which would have stopped the M3 in its tracks. The X3 covers the sandy climb without any detectable slippage whatsoever. This off-roading virgin is exploring uncharted territory, and righteous feelings of SUV superiority are building in my chest. Thankfully, I can only keep my smug, greater-than-thou attitude for a few minutes, as the bubble is popped when a Honda Accord passes us going in the opposite direction.
We make several stops to enjoy the poppy blooms. The bright orange flowers contrast beautifully with the desert sky and also with the flat black X3. There is a slow trickle of pickup trucks, SUVs, and even a few errant minivans on our “street.” Still, being out on the dirt makes for a quieter and nicer experience than we would have had if we’d braved the crowds and traffic at the Reserve’s official entrance. The X3 takes the meandering track in stride. The main challenge is keeping clear of the low brush on the trail’s edge; BMW would not be happy to get its vehicle back with desert pin-stripping.
We are within a stone’s throw of the paved highway when an obstacle not even a Honda Accord could vault appears: A three-foot-high dirt berm separates 160th St W from Hwy 138. This was not shown on Google Maps! I am concerned that the X3 will high-side on the mounded earth, but we are close enough to civilization to risk it. Using all of the tricks I’ve learned in the urban jungle, I slowly approach the slope diagonally—as if trying to clear a treacherous parking ramp in a 911 GT3—and hold my breath. The X3 rides up and over the berm without any protest or scraping. Victory!
While my wife’s objective reasons for wanting an SUV are sound—increased cargo capacity and passenger room—they don’t speak to the emotional motivations that are wound tightly into my love of cars, driving, and exploring the world’s natural beauty. Today though, I have found a reason to want an SUV. Miles and miles of breathtaking California wilderness become accessible once I have a few extra inches of air under the chassis.
Mike's Steering Column 