The 2025 BMW X3 M50 poses outside Pialligo Estate. Photo: James Coleman.
Looking at the car in the photo today, the acronym is on the tip of your tongue – but don’t say it. According to the press release, the new BMW X3 is not an SUV – it is in fact a ‘SAV’, or ‘Sports Activity Vehicle’.
What’s the difference? No idea, because it still clearly has Sports Utility Vehicle things like a higher ride height, an ultra spacious boot, and seats for five people.
But this title wouldn’t be the only gratuitous, superfluous, entirely not-necessary flight of fancy on this car.
That would be the front grille that lights up at night around its outline – because nostrils never receive enough attention.
Or how about the triangle wedges jutting out across the top of the front doors, complete with X3 badges and full-on ambient lighting to match the equally full-on ambient lighting in the centre of the dash. In Sports mode, all of this comes alive in blue and red like you’ve mounted the roof of a cop car inside.
It comes with other modes too, Expressive and Relaxed which, as far as I can tell, splash the screens with digital art and play weird music. I remain baffled by them.
But rest assured, there is also a lot of substance here.
The X3 is one of BMW’s biggest sellers around the world, and with good reason.
The larger, 5-Series-based X5 might have kicked off the whole SUV thing for the German brand in 1999. But today’s X3 has grown to the point it’s now not only longer and wider than the original X5, but sitting in its place in today’s ubiquitous compact-SUV sweet spot. Sorry, SAV.
To keep a good thing going, the big news for this year’s new model is that it comes with a 48-volt mild-hybrid option in 20 xDrive and M50 xDrive spec, while the mid-range 30e xDrive is a plug-in hybrid with a pure electric range of 91 km.
This is why, when I thought I’d let rip my M50’s twin-turbo six-cylinder engine after stopping to open the boom gate to Region’s underground car park, all I got was fake electronic noise – the engine had decided to switch off.
On the plus side, the hybrid bit is also why I only had to feed said twin-turbo six-cylinder engine once with premium fuel during my week with it (BMW claims an impressively low fuel consumption figure of 8.2 litres per 100 km).
Mine isn’t a full-blooded M, but we’re talking serious power here too – 293 kW, to be technical – so it’s always eager to get about, even in the default Personal mode. The 0-100 km/h run takes just 4.7 seconds, and – when the engine is going – to a dirty, but sophisticated soundtrack from the rear quad exhaust pipes.
The light graphics alone are worth admiring. Photo: James Coleman.
It looks good too – round and sleek and less busy than a lot of recent BMW designs, but still sharp edged.
The interior takes some learning, with a lot of menus to dig through on the touchscreen and even the slider adjustments for the volume of air coming out of the AC vents being touch operated.
But if you thought the latest Grand Theft Auto graphics were awesome, you’ve got another thing coming here – they’re beautifully fine tuned. The sat-nav, for instance, overlays the view from the front camera with pulsating arrows, so you can’t possibly miss a turn.
Maybe some of its a bit gauche, but it is theatrical. Sitting in the X3 is an experience. Video gamers, with their PCs flashing rainbow lights and racing chairs raging colourful angles, would love it.
As a luxury SUV/SAV then, it tickles all the right fancies. But this is where I can’t exactly decide what it is.
The X3 M50 has the style. It’s clearly also got the juice, and the noise, and the stiff ride, and the sharp handling like something half its size – all bona fide sporty things.
So it’s a pity about the steering which, while lighting fast, feels a bit dead. It’s hard to gauge the rise and fall of the engine through your feet too. In the end, you feel a bit left out. More distant than you should in an “ultimate driving machine”.
So, my advice? Get the $86,100 20 xDrive model and revel in it for the utility/activity parts of your life, and – with the $42K difference – a Toyota GR86 for the sports.
Hard to deny it looks good. Photo: James Coleman.
2025 BMW X3 M50 xDrive
- $128,900 (plus on-road costs)
- 3-litre twin-turbo petrol inline 6-cylinder with 48-volt mild-hybrid system
- 293 kW / 580 Nm
- 8-speed automatic, all-wheel drive (AWD)
- 0-100 km/h in 4.6 seconds
- 8.2 litres per 100 km claimed fuel consumption
- 1980 kg
- Not yet rated for safety
Thanks to BMW Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial arrangement with BMW Australia.
