boy did car & driver tv just crap on the x3

[winfred]

about the only thing they liked was the 36k base price and interior room, "it feels as though the axles are welded directly to the frame"

[ryan roopnarine]

jesus they repeat things too much...i saw that at least a month ago, and i know it was on at 6 am one day. sad though....worse than the dressed up honda accord deluxe/acura 3.2 review, and those things are just damn transportation appliances. after driving one, i don't see how anybody could want to pay a premium for one of those, aside from reliability reasons.

about the only thing they liked was the 36k base price and interior room, "it feels as though the axles are welded directly to the frame"

[Jr ///M5]

I haven't driven one yet, but just closing the door on one didn't impress me at all. It didn't sound like a BMW.

Overall, I liked it ok......simply ok. Nothing that really "wowed" me. I couldn't get over how cheap the door sounded, even after opening and closing it several times....."This can't be a BMW"

[Mr Project]

I spent 2 hours putting 120 miles on an X3 3.0 in the rockies. My thoughts:

1 - The interior sucks. Really sucks. Low quality and not attrative. Decent interior room, however.
2 - Not enough power, at least in the rockies. Wouldn't go 75 without forcing the manu-matic down a gear and keeping it there. I don't care if it is 8000 feet, if I'm paying $42k.....
3 - It was SIGNIFICANTLY more fun to drive than the 330xi, which I was underwhelmed by. Better steering feel, better balance, less understeer!
4 - The ride was CRUSTY, and this was the non-sport-pack. I can't imagine what the sport pack would be like... this was just tolerable.

Overall, if I had to choose between the 330xi and the X3 3.0i, I'd take the X3 based on the fun-to-drive factor, which was a shock for me (I'm not an SUV fan at ALL), but I was still less than impressed with it.