BMW X3 long-term test: report 2

The car BMW X3 20 xDrive M Sport Run by Steve Huntingford, editor

Why it's here To see if the latest version of this popular SUV is worth a place on your shortlist

Needs to Combine a refined and enjoyable drive with family-friendly practicality and good real-world efficiency

Mileage 1798 List price £51,985 Target Price £49,995 Price as tested £61,260 Test economy 37.6mpg Official economy 40.4mpg

1 May 2025 – Ready player one

Around a month ago I changed my phone, and it was a right faff – not getting the phone itself, but the process of setting it up once I had it.

Yes, in theory, everything was just supposed to transfer over. However, that wasn’t the reality, and in retrospect I’m seriously grateful that I didn’t opt to switch sides; if I’d jumped from Apple to Android, I suspect my new phone still wouldn’t be fully functional.

Fortunately, moving between cars (and even car brands) is a lot simpler. But it can still be worth spending a bit of time selecting your personal preferences. Take my BMW X3.

Like most modern cars, it comes with a long list of standard safety features, including automatic emergency braking (AEB), lane-departure and cross-traffic warning systems, road-sign identification, and an exit warning function to stop you accidentally taking out Jeremy Vine when you open the door.

What’s more, I added the £2275 Technology Pack, which includes everything from traffic light alerts to steering and lane position assistance.

Crucially, though, with many of these driver aids, BMW lets you select how early they step in, so that they offer welcome help instead of becoming an overly intrusive nuisance. And – as long as you don’t want them off altogether – you only have to do this once.

There’s also the option to customise what’s displayed on the X3’s various screens and the head-up display; personally I prefer to keep the latter at its most minimalist, because I find the busier layouts can be distracting.

For purely aesthetic reasons, I’ve changed the colour of the ambient interior lighting, which is particularly impactful here because the lighting strips are thick enough to be clearly visible during the day (not just at night).

Meanwhile, by saving my preferred driving position I was immediately able to restore this after a two week holiday during which some of my colleagues sampled my X3 for themselves.

Finally, I’ve taken the trouble to download the My BMW app to my new phone. Among other things, this allows me to check the fuel level, find my way back to where I parked (if I’m feeling particularly forgetful), keep an eye on the car via its own cameras and pre-programme the air-con so that the interior is already at a comfortable temperature by the time I’m ready to leave for work.

Best of all, using this app is far from a faff, as evidenced by it currently having a rating of 4.8 out of 5.0, based on 117,000 reviews.

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