BMW: Where Style Meets Substance

Our family loves Top Gear on BBC Canada.   It brings me back many memories of the various European cars that various members of my family preferred including the likes of Renault and Peugeot.  And we can’t forget the Germans.   There is something about German engineering that we all just understand, even if you haven’t driven a BMW, you understand why people like them and own them over and over and over.

Thus I was very keen on getting to check out their X3.   The X3 is BMW’s smallest of their SUV style models.  Small but spacious as it held our family of 5 just fine including dogs and or groceries in the generous cargo space.  There are many similar size and shaped vehicles out on the road right now, but someone appreciative of reliability and sound German engineering would no doubt pick this over the other brands.  Not to mention the fact that from the models of  2006 on, BMW vehicles purchased from an authorized BMW Retailer in Canada are covered by No-charge Scheduled Maintenance for 4 years or 80,000 kilometres, whichever occurs first.  Not bad.

For someone like me who really doesn’t understand engine talk and is really looking for the basics: fuel economy (check), power (check) reliability (check), the BMW X3 has them all.   The Eco Pro stop start system takes a bit of getting used to, but certainly seemed to help with the gas usage in a city plagued by very long stop lights.  We all jumped every time the engine stopped, but it takes a light touch to the gas pedal to get it going again.    The stop/start system was fine even on steep hills, which I hate as our old car has a tendency to roll back.  No problems with the X3.

The biggest difference I noticed between the X3 and other similar models was the styling.   Pretty much every new car nowadays has similar features:  hands free, navigation, back up cameras, sensors, etc.  The difference is that while other brands are keen to SHOW you all these features and make you very aware of them (Ford is a good example), BMW keeps everything very low key and very simple.   The dash is very minimal.    You control most of the features from a dial beside the gear box.  The dash is very plain.  White letters on black.  No fancy animation, no flashy colours.   It feels like the car is saying ‘trust me, I got it.’

While this model didn’t have features like blind spot censors or park assist or the cool looking heads up display, the manoeuvrability and ease of driving gave me enough confidence to manage most conditions.   The rainy weather I experienced during our test drives in Vancouver showed me just how well the auto-wipers and traction control work in less than stellar conditions.  My kids LOVED the keyless entry.   Basically the car just knows you are ready to open the door :).     Keyless entry is every mom’s dream and all cars should have it now.   Speaking of being a mom.  The kids reported that the back seat was comfy enough even with the car seat in the middle.   It was roomy enough for long legs.

Our family enjoyed the chance of experiencing what BMW is all about for a week.  We can all picture this BMW X3 as our 2nd car. The kids are gunning for one of the convertible sports cars now.  Perhaps something like this next?