I am addicted too
 

Yasoo Coffeeman!.

I test drove both, and you cant beat the X3 for its handling and solid feel. So agile! I just bought one last week.

I agree to an extent the X3 has the edge on driving dynamics for sure, and the 3.0i to the size is perfect but I cannot dismiss the hideous interior, it feels so cheap BUT the materials fit is perfect, just cheap quality, I keep saying if they had made the interior like the X5's or even the new 3 series with soft touch materians, more alloy and wood treatment and not so many hard surfaces I would be driving one now, and I mean that, the exterior looks funky to me thou but the body-color bumpers are better, and in my opinion they are not built well, they rattle after a year, thats not quality to me!

You must have had an experience with an '04. We have an '05 and the interior quality and materials are every bit as good as an X5. The only significant difference between our X3 and X5 is the wood in our X5 (which I hate... wood is for the 'retirement village' crowd IMO). As for rattles after a year, where did you ever get that idea??? It's solid, solid, solid.

the Loaner car i JUST returned was a 2005 3.0i msrp'd at 42,500 so it was loaded and even had PDC it wasn't luxury to me at all

I disagree on that. Black plastic bumpers are very good against scratches and dents etc. Especially if you're living in a city like Manhattan, people parking on braille method. And personally, aestethic wise I liked them better too. The other shiny version looks and probably behave so fragile for a 4x4 vehicle.

I loved the interior. My expectations for a "Sport" utility are not, and shouldn't be too high. Of course I would look something else with a 5 or 7 series sedan. Compare apple to apple.

But c'mon it's a superb "jeep" on the bottom line...No? :)

I totally agree with you. I love the two tone look. The drak plastic works really well w/ my mysticblue. :)

We have the same problem with city parking in SF. The rear bumper on our 2003 325i was all marked up after just over a year of ownership. All those cars with license plates mounted on the front bumpers would back in to our rear bumper, damaging both the paint and the plastic. At least with the black plastic bumpers, the damage is less visible.