2011 BMW X3 Review by Mike Hanley

The BMW X3 may have been a pioneer among compact luxury crossovers, but a number of competitors — including the Audi Q5, Mercedes-Benz GLK-Class and Volvo XC60 — have entered the fray since its debut as a 2004 model. Now, with the second-generation X3, BMW has new metal to take them on.

The 2011 BMW X3 is still the small luxury crossover of choice for driving enthusiasts, but its substantially more forgiving suspension tuning should make the new version far more appealing.

I tested the base xDrive28i, which starts at $36,750; with options, our test car's sticker price was $43,875. For a side-by-side comparison with the competitors mentioned above, click here.

See also:

Text messages
Calling the sender of a text message 1. Select the desired message. 2. Select the symbol. Saving the sender in the contacts 1. Highlight the desired message. 2. Open "Options". 3. &qu ...

Operating principle
With the ignition at radio readiness or beyond, , the following message is displayed on the Control Display: To hide the message: Press the controller. The main menu is displayed. The message i ...

Entering a destination manually
To make it easier to enter town/city names and street names, the system assists you with automatic name completion and entry comparison. This makes it possible to enter different spellings and com ...