First Drive: BMW X3

It was hardly a surprise: we just completed a gruelling five-hour off-road section of the Sahara, including a short sprint across a section of the Paris-Dakar Rally. The BMW X3s had stolen a march across the rocky, compacted desert floor, the sand baked so hard in the unrelenting sun that it was more like ridged concrete. From time to time, we came across the welcome relief of soft, deep sand dunes, where, with traction control turned off and the car in Sport mode to maintain high revs, we had alternately floated and churned at high speed through deep drifts of red sand, hurling the SUVs up slipping slopes and crashing down the other side, spinning one way, twirling the other, as across northern Africa we slipped and bumped and grated.

We spent two gruelling 12-hour days driving south from Marrakesh, up and over the Atlas Mountains, to the Algerian border, across dry lake floors the size of cities, finding blissful but brief ribbons of new tarmac strewn like dark tinsel across the arid ground. Occasionally the monotony was punctuated by camels, donkeys, small towns, mosques and groups of children inexplicably walking hand in hand with school bags along the side of a track seemingly leading nowhere.

Remarkably, the entire desert adventure was done on fully inflated road tyres. Never, in 15 years as a motoring journalist, have I driven across sand and been told to keep tyres at normal pressure (deflating the tyres slightly gives you more grip). BMW just shrugged and said the X3 could cope fine on its Pirelli run-flats. And it did: only one of our group of 10 cars got stuck in a dune in two days – the rest suffered nicks and tears to side walls from the rocks, although, with the exception of our ruptured tyre, the rest made it all the way either with the side wall intact, or by running the cars at 50mph on the semi-flat run-flats.

It was a remarkable and worthwhile adventure: while Land Rovers earn their stripes by climbing up inclines at crazy angles, the BMW proved its value through sheer endurance. Mile after mile (500 to be precise) dust storm after dust storm, through the heat and the dry river beds, past the cacti and the goats, the X3 rumbled on, at eye-watering speeds as we struggled to keep pace with our local guide who sustained a merry 40mph-70mph through the worst of it. The cabins remained peaceful, the Harmon and Kardon stereo pumping out finely balanced notes. The cars were covered in sand at the end of it, number-plates invisible, and we had been shaken to bits, but, aside from one little rattle somewhere below the cabin, there was nothing to say what these family SUVs had been through.

We tested the 2.0-litre diesel (20d xDrive) and 3.0-litre diesel (30d xDrive).  New for this model are two petrol engines, to meet customer demand in the UK – a 20i xDrive and range-topping M40i xDrive; both arrive in the UK in December and weren’t available to test. The sole transmission is the eight-speed automatic; uptake of the manual in the UK has been too low.

Of the two diesels, the 3.0-litre is by far and away the pick of the bunch. The 20d sounded surprisingly gruff on start-up and lacked any discernible oomph, even on down-changes. The 30d has plenty, as attested when we had to make a late sprint for the return flight home. 

Exterior and interior design changes are barely noticeable, but the optional panoramic sunroof is now 25cm longer, you can store stuff under the boot floor which opens with a gas strut, there’s a newly designed sports seat, cooled seats are now available, cup holders are larger, steering wheels have new designs, and there’s a digital cockpit available on higher trims, with gesture control for adjusting volume, fiddling with satnav etc, although you still look like a loon doing it.

Slightly odd, non-linear steering feel aside, the X3 rides and drives brilliantly. The four-wheel-drive system is biased towards the rear, to the tune of 60 per cent, but can send power any which way it wants, depending on conditions. There is 50:50 weight distribution, and on the road it even manages some of the settled, concise handling of more dynamic BMW coupes.

What remains, however, when the tech talk has drifted into the wind, is a five-seat family SUV, with a pleasing amount of leg room for adults, which took the Sahara desert in its stride. That’s not bad for a car from a brand which has built most of its reputation firmly on tarmac.

The numbers:

Engine: 2,993cc V6 diesel

Transmission: 8-spd auto

bhp/Nm: 261/620Nm

0-62mph: 5.8sec

Top Speed: 149mph

Price as tested: £54,950 (from £44,380)