Driving view
Written by | Lei Lei
The new BMW iX3 and X3 went on sale in Chongqing on December 17. Taking the new BMW X3 as an example, the new car canceled the xDrive28i model, that is, the model with a 2.0T medium-power engine is now gone, and an xDrive30i 2.0T high-power model was added.
The new BMW X3, as a very important mid-term redesign, has already been unveiled at the Chengdu Auto Show. The Chongqing listing has two purposes, one is the end of the year, let the bimmers get together to chat about the car, increase each other's feelings, and secondly, take this opportunity to pass on the changes of the new model to consumers.
What are the new upgrades?
The biggest change in the appearance of the new BMW X3 is the grille and light cluster style, and the larger front grille is a design trend of recent BMW models, while enhancing the recognition of the front face of the car.
The new car has blackened the light group in front of it, which is matched with the white model to enhance the sense of sportiness. Of course, if the blue or black body is combined with the blackened headlights, the sense of movement will be stronger. The new car also offers a choice of obsidian suits and M sets, if you want to be aggressive, you can choose a night suit with more dark and bright decorative pieces, and you can choose a normal M suite if you want a sense of fashion.
In addition to the front lights, the rear tail lights of the new BMW X3 also adopt a new style, and the red LED light strip is more recognizable. However, it is precisely because of the shape of the headlights that the new X3 looks a little small at the rear.
The new BMW X3 does not look like there is any obvious change in the car, but friends familiar with BMW know that BMW's redesigned models will almost always be optimized in some places that are not obvious or invisible, and the new BMW X3 is no exception, the new model optimizes the position of the brake pedal, which is smoother than before. At the same time, the central control screen was replaced by 12.3 inches, and the ID7 system integrated in the screen also supported the later OTA upgrade.
Of course, there are fewer optimizations, and the new X3 xDrive25i model eliminates parking assistance, reduces radar by 4, and eliminates altitude display. Seeing these configurations canceled, the owners of the old BMW X3 may have laughed.
The gearbox is optimized and makes it more silky to open
In terms of power, the new car canceled the original xDrive28i model and only offered xDrive25i and xDrive30i models. The xDrive25i model is still powered by 184 hp and has a maximum torque of 300 Nm, while the xDrive30i model has a maximum horsepower of 252 hp and a maximum torque of 350 Nm, matching the classic 8-speed manual transmission.
Regardless of whether you have a stronger need for power, I recommend that you choose a more powerful xDrive30i model, the reason is very simple, xDrive25i model power and 3 Series exactly the same, but the body weight is more than 200 kilograms heavier than the 3 Series, equivalent to you driving a 3 Series with three passengers on the road all year round, the power is enough to use, but the taste of driving up does not need to be said. Therefore, if you are not very strict with the budget card, you will not be wrong to choose xDrive30i directly.
Compared to the low-power xDrive25i model, the xDrive30i is not only able to cope with daily commuting, but the power explosion in the middle and rear section is much stronger than that of the xDrive25i. Even in congested road conditions, the abundant low torque guarantee allows you to easily cope with a variety of traffic jams, and this model with a high-power engine will not make you feel weak under any circumstances.
In addition, here to emphasize the BMW driving mode, BMW X3 provides ECO PRO, COMFORT and SPORT three modes. ECO PRO mode I prefer to call it lazy super fuel saving mode, in this mode, the throttle is more sluggish, there will be some delay in power response. When you press the throttle for a distance and then release the throttle, the engine will enter taxi mode to ensure the fuel economy of the vehicle, which is very useful when driving downhill and for long straights.
The throttle of comfort mode is relatively normal, not hurried, which is the mode that most people use every day. If you're too lazy to adjust the driving mode, just keep using Normal mode.
In sport mode, you can feel the temper of this BMW X3, at this time the accelerator pedal and gearbox will enter a more aggressive state, and the steering wheel feedback will become heavier, making you feel more driving. Moreover, each shift will bring you a certain sense of impact, and this sense of sportiness is rarely given by models of the same level. Of course, the gearbox will only give you an impact in this mode, and the rest of the mode is basically smooth.
It is worth mentioning that the new BMW X3 seems to optimize the smoothness of this 8-speed manual transmission at low speeds. The old X3 will have a sense of frustration and turbulence when switching between 2 and 3 gears frequently in congested road conditions, and this problem does not exist on the new model now.
『 Final Remarks 』
Overall, at the same price, the BMW X3 has always been a relatively easy to open and easy to use SAV. After the launch of the new BMW X3, the terminal canceled the previous "pragmatic" xDrive28i model, which may make some consumers feel a little regretful. Now, you either choose the xDrive25i with weak power and low configuration, or spend a higher price to choose the rich xDrive30i model, although some configurations will not be used when selling cars in a few years, but for the sake of high-power engines, at present, you can only choose to compromise.
But what the author wants to say is that now the entire industry due to the shortage of chips, X3 terminal discount is not large, xDrive30i models are now landing more than 500,000, for this price, I want to say, if you are not in a hurry to use the car, you may wish to wait, wait for half a year after the chip supply to return to stability, the car supply is sufficient when the fork is not too late.
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