BMW X3

Frustrating,

I have now had this car for almost a year and have just completed 20k miles. Have I enjoyed them? I am not sure. Ever since day 1, the car has a had a minor vibration to the steering wheel. Initially I put it down to poor balancing, but rebalancing has failed to get rid of it. The vibration is also inconsistent. Sometimes it is there at 60 -70, other time it isn't. I took it in to my local dealer. They said there was nothing wrong and "if you think that is bad, you should have driven the previous model" was their reply. I have come to the conclusion that it is very sensitive to road surfaces!

The car has also totally failed on me twice, both times pulling away from traffic lights. First time all of the ABS and brake warning systems came on. Second time all of the warning lights relating to transmission failure came on and the engine management system put the engine into "limp" mode. On each occasion turning off the ignition and restarting cleared the problem.

My major gripe is the poor mpg that the car delivers. My car is automatic and despite very careful driving, I have never managed to get over 40mpg. This is way short of the 50mpg figure BMW use as part of their advertising for this car. I regularly managed over 50mpg in my 58 reg, 320d series hard top convertible.

Some bits of the car I love. Easy to drive, fantastic auto box, the panoramic sunroof, reversing camera, the connected on-line facilities, sat nav and the electric tailgate.

So that is way I summed it up as "frustrating". It is great to drive with a good driving position and some nice toys (costly though - typical BMW!). However it continually disappoints in terms of the poor mpg and wheel vibration.

Report as offensive