I'm venturing into unknown waters here as the lease on my '02 9-3 Saab is coming due. I've never owned a Bimmer before but certainly appreciate their attributes. So far I've looked at the Saab 9-5 Aero Wagon, a Subaru 2.5 XT Outback, Dodge Magnum Hemi and now, the X3. Yea, I'm all over the place, but want to keep my options open (I may even buy my 9-3, I like it a lot).

Is this built on a 3 series platform? I suspect it's not really applicable for off road, not that I care. Is it's handling more car or truck like?

How is the performance of the X3 with the 6 speed versus the auto trans? How about wet and snow behavior? Do you use snow tires in the winter? How about those of you with families? Is there room enough for 2 kids and the associated junk they bring along? This would be my vehicle, my wife drives a van.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am not interested in an X5 for price and size reasons. Go easy, I'm new here. TIA!

I'm venturing into unknown waters here as the lease on my '02 9-3 Saab is coming due. I've never owned a Bimmer before but certainly appreciate their attributes. So far I've looked at the Saab 9-5 Aero Wagon, a Subaru 2.5 XT Outback, Dodge Magnum Hemi and now, the X3. Yea, I'm all over the place, but want to keep my options open (I may even buy my 9-3, I like it a lot).

Is this built on a 3 series platform? I suspect it's not really applicable for off road, not that I care. Is it's handling more car or truck like?

How is the performance of the X3 with the 6 speed versus the auto trans? How about wet and snow behavior? Do you use snow tires in the winter? How about those of you with families? Is there room enough for 2 kids and the associated junk they bring along? This would be my vehicle, my wife drives a van.

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I am not interested in an X5 for price and size reasons. Go easy, I'm new here. TIA!

Welcome!

I'm almost positive the X3 is built on the 3 series platform but I'm not sure. It handles more like a car, especially with the sports suspension. You can take it offroad.

Some say it has a rough ride, much unlike the X5, however I believe it's all personal preference. It handles very well, very agile and nimble when cornering (I have the sport package, ie. suspension), and is very solid.

I also have the 6 speed manual and I like it. When I test drove the 3.0 auto it seemed to have a lag from the time I pushed the peddle until it engaged, but that was a while ago so you should really test drive one and see for yourself.

Just took a trip to Switzerland and snow tires are a must! The all wheel drive and hill descent control worked wonderfully but without the proper tires the concept isn't really complete in the snow. We will be having our new snow tires and rims put on in the next week or so and it looks like it will cost us close to $2,000.

We've traveled quite a bit in the X3 and have had 2 grown adults in the back seat for long periods of time (one of them being me!) and it was quite comfortable. 4 adults on a 5 day cross country trip with all of our associated gear (suitcases, heavy coats, and items purchased on our trip) fit just fine.

You really need to go test drive one to see for yourself. Take the family and go for a drive. Friends of ours who were also interested in the X3 after we purchased ours even worked it out to take it for most of the day so they could test it out with everyone in the car, highway (autobahn for us) driving, etc. If I could only make a few suggestions...

Get leather, especially since you have kids. The leatherette in the X3 is a combo fake leather with some kind of platic idea that didn't appeal to us much. I think there is a post by someone in here about their child promptly spilling juice of some sort in their new X3 with leatherette and he was wishing they would have opted for the leather because it would have been easier to clean up.

I love my heated seats! There have been times when we have forgotten to even turn on the heater because the seats work so well.

Park distance control has helped me out so many times when trying to get in and out of tight spaces ( VERY common here in Europe and although I've never been I can imagine quite common in NYC). The $700 is worth it, to me at least.

I am truly happy with all of the options we got on our X3. Not a day goes by when I think I could have done without one of them! If you're not financially set to obtain all of these options with the 3.0, consider the 2.5. Try to find a dealership where you can drive both models and see if the difference is important to you.

Here's an inventory of what we got on ours:

2004 X3 2.5i
Cold weather package
Premium package
Sport package
Park distance control
premium sound
privacy glass
Total price: $37,465

Good luck and be careful, once you drive the ultimate driving machine you may be hooked for good!