22 years ago BMW launched what was to become a trail blazing new vehicle segment, creating the first mid-sized premium SUV globally.
This week BMW hosted the media to experience the official birth of the new fourth-generation BMW X3 SUV model.
The vehicle range consists of three variants: the 2-litre X3 20 diesel variant, The Plug-in Hybrid X3 30e, and the 3-litre petrol X3 50 variant.
These vehicles are incredibly well designed and dripping with automotive tech, safety and diagnostic sensors that enable advanced driver assist features.
Superb Styling
The New X3 design has embraced a full monolithic design with large open surfaces that give the vehicle bigger presence. The front of the vehicle is bold and very upright, as is the rear end with long sloping lines from the bonnet and through the sloping roof line. The car is slightly longer and wider than its predecessor, but also slightly lower in height.
It is it’s a typical bold BMW face, but modernised and more expressive with a new kidney grille that is a new design but encompasses classic BMW grills with a whole modern take.
What is completely new in terms of design, is the pattern you see in the kidney grille. On the previous generation X# this was only horizontal and vertical lines. For the new generation X3, you have a combination of the diagonal and horizontal.
The front lights on the X3 BMW’s have also been redesigned. they have an inverted four-eyed double light signature in and inverse L-shape is now modernised with the new X3, and with the tail lights at the rear the classic but modern T-shaped tail lights.
.At the rear of the vehicle, the BMW wiz-kids have integrated the rear window into the rear tailgate, in a clever design, that provides for a wider tailgate that makes loading easier.
Data Driven Design
BMW has also used their extensive telematics data from current BMW owner vehicles and took a long careful look at the sunroof usage and found that the majority of people do not open the sunroofs. This has resulted in a sky-roof design but one that does not open. What you do get is a bigger, larger panoramic glass roof that provides a light interior and a better aesthetic view from the exterior perspective.
The inside of the vehicles are modern and well finished surfaces and contain no leather products. The X3 also an impressive widescreen dash display with a cockpit feel interior by creating a full wraparound effect. The display interaction bar extends into both front doors, left and right wrap-around blue LED display that provides a modern feel The LED display lights also turn red when the hazard lights are turned on.
Electric sport seats are standard for all models. There is only one standard seat. It is a sport seat, but the ergonomics have been redesigned.
all variants have the BMW X-Drive tech that is very useful in adverse weather conditions creating a stable and sturdy driving experience that we experience first-hand over the two days of test driving the vehicles in exceptionally wet a slippery conditions and a variety of terrains that included a lot of uneven surfaces over which the vehicles remained ridiculously well balanced and steady.
The Wow Factors
The most remarkable feature of the new X3, in my mind, after having driven all variants over a two-day period, is that these vehicles are perfect for South African conditions. They provide exceptional acceleration, amazing road handling and stability, along with driver assistance driven by extensive vehicle sensors all feeding an AI driven driver assistance program.
We drove through incredibly wet weather, over pothole infested and uneven roads with poor surfaces and not once in two days of driving did the vehicles feel like they were unsafe in any way even for a second.
The height of the vehicle gives the driver great vision and the windscreen display unit is crystal clear and means that the driver does not need to divert their attention from the road ahead at all to have all the data they need to operate the vehicle.
The second wow is the really amazing tech installed in the vehicle. The display is something special with the vehicle using distance sensors that will automatically slow a vehicle down for a slow moving or braking vehicle ahead, and even for traffic circles.
The vehicle uses a sophisticated speed control system that can read the speed signs on the road. Once activated the vehicle can automatically slow, speed-up and react to changes ahead and revert to the normal speed limit once the road ahead is clear.
The navigation system is also next level combining the exterior cameras with graphical turn indicators on the navigation screen that makes knowing exactly when to turn or slow down and what direction you need to be turning to simple.
Watch the BMW X3 Nav Tech at work below.
Family SUV Bliss
The X3 is fully made in SA with BMW investing over R4 Billion in its brand new manufacturing plant in Roslyn Pretoria. The BMW Group have big plans for the new X3 series and are building over 300 of the vehicles daily in their state of the art plant.
The group anticipate that they will exceed their export numbers from 2024 and are looking at a strong growth in local sales as well.
The price-tag of the vehicle is also not out of reach for the mid SUV family market in South Africa, with attractive offering from BMW finance that offers a keen total cost of ownership packages with attractive buy back or trade-in alternatives.
Read More About BMW’s Innovative Price Cut Plan: READ NOW
