So how's the X3 like off-road? The Answer.

[AzNMpower32]

Yesterday, me and a friend packed up our bikes and headed out to Green Ridge State Park out in Western MD, a huge park about 90 minutes from Washington DC. Did about an hour of mountain biking before giving up (cuz it's absolutely exhausting for us city-dwellers ). Great bike trails though, and the park isn't crowded at all and the trail is great.

But there was a second reason I'd picked the park: it was one of the few places where I could find a place to take the X3 off road. And by off-road, I don't mean like "gravel road". I mean like, a specialized ORV (off-road vehicle) trail meant for ATVs. However, registered vehicles were permitted so I just took the X3 on the road.

It ended up being a bit more than I had bargained for. It was uneven, hilly, protruding rocks..........yea all the stuff you'd imagine an ATV trail to be. I used Hill Descent Control (HDC) no fewer than 10 times in a 5 or 6 mile stretch before I turned around because doing the entire 18 mi. loop would take too long. Progress had to be slow to minimize any damage; I was doing about 5-10mph tops.

xDrive handled the trail just fine, and DSC intervened only twice, once on a slippery uphill and another time when I plowed over a mud puddle. The trail is fine for our X3 non-sport. However, I wouldn't recommend anyone with the sport package and/or low profile tires go anywhere near this trail. Of course, I'm preaching to no one cuz I guess this is one X3 in 100000 that has seen real off-road stuff.





Sorry the pics are bit lousy since I left the camera at home and took these with my cell phone.

I think this trail would be impossible if it had just rained. In the dry, this was already probably 85% of the X3's off-road abilities. Never got stuck or bottomed out the suspension, but based on the street tires (with 45k miles of wear) and 55-series sidewalls on the tires, this was enough. ABS frequently stepped in when individual wheels broke traction. Great fun though!

Of course, the X3 was quite dusty and the wheels filthy but I gave it a wash this morning