Automobile 2011

Nineteen-ninety-nine wasn't so long ago that we've forgotten the hullabaloo over the prospect of BMW building a sport-utility vehicle -- and building it in America, no less. But the original X5 was a real BMW after all, a 5-series-based charmer that heroically set up the 3-series-based X3 that followed a few years later. Unfortunately, the X3 proved somewhat less than worthy of its BMW roundel. It wasn't bad to look at and it was difficult to fault in the powertrain department, but road manners were on the iffy side and its lackluster interior was a serious downer. The package improved with a top-to-bottom refresh for 2007, but let's just say there'll be few tears shed over the passing of the first-generation X3.

From the curb, there's no mistaking the entirely new 2011 X3 for anything but an X3, but don't hold that against it. This is a superior vehicle: swifter, more agile, and significantly more refined than its predecessor. The sheetmetal is decidedly more twenty-first-century. The car is stout and handsome from most angles, with a dramatic swoosh on its flanks and character creases all over (the hood alone has six). The kidney-shaped grille openings are larger and tipped forward, and the headlamps are smaller but just as weirdly shaped as the old model's. At the rear, the taillamps are neatly refined, although we could do without the body-color valance under the rear bumper
As a previous owner of a 2004 X3 for 6 years, I will say this, the new X3 is no longer a X3. It is essentially a baby X5.

What I loved about the old X3 is gone. It's simple interior, its stout ride (soccer moms complain all you want), its willingness to please in the corners, and most importantly A MANUAL TRANSMISSION!

BMW truly lost a niche when they dropped that. All of this new "BMW" has put a sour taste in my mouth. As result I'm done. I most likely never buy a new BMW again. In fact my X3's replacement, my E90 will be gone soon.

BMW can call me when you make cars like the E46 or E83 again, then and only then will I return.

As for the reviewers, including the ones in this article, all of the things you mentioned as not being "BMW" in the old X3, you are quite mistaken