BMW X3 SUV

xDrive M50 5dr Auto [2025]

The BMW X3 was less highly rated when it first came out.

It wasn’t manufactured by BMW and smacked of corner cutting - a car put on the market by the company's accountants for the sake of it.

But fast-forward twenty or so years, and the X3 is the brand’s most popular SUV, offering formidable competition to all in its class.

Last year, 350,000 were shifted worldwide - almost 1,000 per day - so the successor - the fourth-generation model - is vital to BMW.

While its underpinnings are largely the same as before, the new X3 is slightly longer and wider than its predecessor.

The shape, including the interior, has also been entirely overhauled. It takes some inspiration from the all-electric BMW iX, albeit not quite to the same extremes.

Speaking of electric, if you’re wondering what happened to the battery-powered iX3, you may be surprised to hear it’s been discontinued in favour of the combustion-engined models offered in the new version.

That may sound at odds with current trends towards electrification, but it’s because the iX3 has been made redundant by a clean-sheet design, arriving next year.

Nevertheless, a plug-in hybrid model is still offered, along with mild-hybrid petrol and diesel variants - and there's the hot version, the X3 M50.

We are not testing the ultra-fast variant today, but we are going to see if this important BMW car retains the appeal of the outgoing model.