Warning - long!
Having just arrived home from a holiday with some 4WD work I will give you my impressions..
Having owned (and still owning one) a number of Mitsubishi Pajeros / Monteros I like a bit of serious off-road driving.
I believe that for the $$ I should get a nice looking car (albeit with plenty of wash and polish), a tow car, and a reasonable off road car. If I get the odd scratch then so be it - you only live once
Last week I towed a 2+ tonne van to the Flinders Ranges in South Australia and the X towed like a champ - got about the same consumption towing from the 3.0 TD as the Pajero gets around town on its own.
Went on a self drive 4WD tour (Skytrek) which was 60Km and took 7 hours.
The prereqs were for a 4WD vehicle with low range - 6 speed auto sounded close enough for me. Asked the guy at the start if any BMWs had done the course - he said he didnt know BMW made a 4WD!!
This was my first time off-road with the X so I was quite interested to see how the traction control would work, as I figured this would determine whether I got through OK. Remembering to press the DSC button so that 4X4 appears on the dashboard display - I noted that this would need to be pressed again each time after an engine restart.
I agree that the biggest limitation is ground clearance - I had to take some different lines and go very slow over the really bumpy stuff - put the wheels on the high ground sometimes rather than in the ruts all the time.
Climbing up steep rocky hills I was quite impressed with the traction control - you can easily hear and feel the brakes cutting in on the spinning wheel(s).
There was really only one very tough spot - there was a jeep Cherokee some way in front of me and I saw a cloud of dust as he tried to get up this section. I saw passengers get out as he attacked it with more speed and finally got through. I took it slowly at first and FR and BL wheels came off the ground - the traction control tried but gave up. Seems like it works fine for small slippage, but when you seriously get wheels off the ground on steep uphill sections it doesnt have enough braking pressure on the spinning wheels.
Anyway, I kicked out my passenger to take some video, gave it a little more speed (still in 1st gear), and it went up without too much trouble. I watched the next 4WD (a Pajero) try a couple of times before getting out and moving a few rocks - he then got up with a bit of speed also.
I am pretty impressed with the off-road capability other than where decent ground clearance is required. Suspect it will perform nicely on sand - save that for another day.
A few images attached to give you an idea of the terrain - they dont give any idea of how steep it was.
X came out unscathed other than a scratch on one rim from a rock - good excuse to buy some nice wheels for around town
Enjoy.
DS