BMW X3 28i M 2016 new car review

Direct competitors of the BMW X3 are either near-new or have had a replacement announced. BMW has dug out an old party trick to keep itself relevant – more power, and the result is the 2016 BMW X3 xDrive 28i M.

It is not the most powerful X3 you can buy here; that goes to the 35d diesel, but it is also $30k cheaper.

The X3 remains the driver’s choice. Its rear-wheel-drive based platform feels far better balanced from behind the wheel than its front-drive based competitors, and even against the C-Class based, newer GLC it feels the more sprightly, stable and fun of the two.

Everyone else will be happy too, as there is stack-loads of space for five, and decent leather, dual-zone climate control, and heated electric from the driver and passenger seats. The boot, with its 500-litre capacity – 1600 litres seats down – is voluminous for a mid-sized vehicle.

BMW’s iDrive audio system remains one of the best in the market; we stopped complaining about dial controllers years ago, although others are moving further ahead with things like Apple CarPlay.

BMW integrates smartphone functionality themselves very well, and work back the other way with the BMW Connected system promising the ability to communicate back to your car from your smartphone. It will store music on its own, in its 20GB of storage. That is not the end of the package, with other tech niceties as a heads up display and 360-degree parking view system.

The drivetrain is a bit of a honey. BMW have refined their line-up of 2.0-litre turbocharged petrol engines to the point where the diesel is no longer the default option for a midsize SUV. The Twin-Power unit uses a single twin-scroll turbocharger to provide more boost earlier in the engine cycle. Simply, it means less lag.

In this case, the unit produces 180kW and 350Nm of torque. The response feels even stouter than those numbers would suggest, helped by the brand’s eight-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters.

A diesel would probably pass its combined fuel consumption of 7.3-litres per 100km, but by the time you add in road user charges the difference is likely to be negligible.

If there is something we would ask for, it is a little more work on how these new smaller turbocharged engines sound. ’28’ in a BMW used to equate to a sonorous straight-six, the sound of the turbo-four is just flat.

It does have BMW’s ‘eco’ party tricks. It can recoup some braking energy to charge the battery, taking the load off the alternator and like this engine, and its response levels and consequently fuel economy can be tweaked through a range of modes from Comfort to EcoPro.