Sold the Passat, bought an X3
 

So I finally convinced my wife to sell her 1998 Passat, just after it rolled over 100,000 miles. We bought a certified pre-owned 2004 BMW X3 2.5i with 25k miles on it (for $29k in case you're wondering).

Here's the major options:
Silver Gray metallic
Black Leather
Steptronic (it's the wife's, after all)
panoramic (two pane) sunroof
xenons
heated seats
park distance control
premium hi-fi

In order to find a CPO X3 with the equipment we wanted and low enough miles with a good price, we had to travel nearly 80 miles to a BMW dealership in NJ. Overall, I'm happy we did.

The X3 really drives an awful lot like the E46 3 Series that it's based on. At least that's the way it drives up to 8/10ths, then you notice the higher center of gravity, as it rolls into hard turns more than a 3 Series would.
The 2.5 liter gets the job done, feeling as smooth as ever, and it has enough beans to feel peppy, if not blazing fast. The gas mileage is 18 city, 24 highway, so it's worse than the 21/30 of my manual 330i, but the X3 is about 4000 lbs, so it's no wonder.

Back seat room is generous for a car with the E46's footprint (well, the X3 is actually a few inches wider). The cargo area isn't as big as our Passat wagon's was, but with no more baby cribs to cart around, I'll think it'll be big enough for our family's needs.

I drove my 330i back to back with the X3 yesterday, and yeah, my car has a lot more oomph. Plus, I was rushing to get through a light and cranked the 330 through a jughandle (think offramp with a tight 90 degree turn at the end) at 9/10ths yesterday. The 330's summer Michelins just slid a little bit as the car neatly drifted through the corner. The X3 would have felt a bit ponderous and top heavy in the same situation.

It doesn't matter much that the X3 doesn't handle just as well as my 330i, as the X3 is my wife's car, and it handles quite a bit better than the 100k mile Passat we sold.

Looks are subjective, and along with the "harsh ride" (the ride quality seems fine to me) seems to be the biggest knock against the X3. In short, in my favorite color (silver gray) I can dig it. It's not flashy like a Infiniti FX, but my wife didn't want a flashy car, and the FX seems to be overly wide. I'm already worried about my wife misjudging the width of the 73" X3 compared to her old 68.5" wide Passat. Besides, I like BMWs, and Infinitis really don't cost much less anyway.

OK, I think that's a long enough post. Here's some pics....
http://www.bimmerfest.com/photos/data/500/P1010092a.jpg

http://photos.e46fanatics.com/data/500/P1010090a.jpg

http://photos.e46fanatics.com/data/500/P1010086a.jpg

:xoutpost:
The new facelift 2007 X3 is supposed to handle even better. X3 3.0 will be a better comparo to your 330. ;)

You betcha. Since this is my wife's ride, it was difficult for us even to justify spending $30k. She might have been OK getting a CRV or Rav4 if I didn't lobby for something better.

Looking Good! :thumbup:

Fine looking X3, Phil and welcome
to the Board!
GL,mD

Oh yeah, I wanted to mention to you X3 guys that when I test drove this X3, all four door creaked like a mofo. I told the salesman to have the service department put some carboflo on the seals (just like I had read on my searches on x3world) and it worked like a charm. The doors are now dead quiet.

:thumbup:

Great looking X3, congrats and welcome!

Enjoy.

Like it !!
 

Welcome!
I think you made a very nice purchase. Looks so nice. :)

Congratulations, and welcome!

You will enjoy the bimmer much more than the VW piss-ant. I know I have so far!

I was not impressed by VW's build quality. Our old Passat had more rattles, squeaks and creaks from the interior than I could count. I gave up trying to fix them years ago. It didn't help that our turbo blew at 56k miles to the tune of $2k either.

Even still, I was actually considering buying one of the new Passat wagons, until I test drove it back to back with an X3.;)

I test drove the new passat as well. Actually it wasnt so much of a test drive as much as me demanding a free loaner car after my passat stopped starting for the 4th time in 2 months. Its alright, def have to go with the larger engine. But youre right, the build quality just isnt there.

Congrats! X3's rock! I'm on my second and have gotten two others to buy them as well. I had the 2.5 in my first and you're right, it does really well - better than I thought it would.:thumbup:

Congrats and :xoutpost:

Hey Phil,

It's good to see a familiar name/face from the E46 fold at bimmerfest.com... Welcome to the group of X3 owners. We've had our X3 for over 2 years and have been happy with it. We're starting to think about it's replacement (lease up next year) and a Euro Delivery on a '07 X3 is a good possibility!

Nice find... the X3's are holding very good resale (you really can't find one from a dealer for less than $27-28k unless it has ALOT of miles and is a really bad combo) and it looks like you found a nicely equipped example.

Is it just me, or does the X3 seem to have particularly good residual value? I think it's better than the X5! Dealers are charging CPO prices on the X3 that are almost equivalent if not higher than the price of a NEW X3........and a quick look at Blue book shows that my 2+ yr, 30k mile X3 holding over 86% of what we paid for it!! :wow:

BMW 3-series have very strong resale. BMW SAV's have very strong resale. I guess the X3 got a double order of "good resale value"!

Thanks. We've really been enjoying our X3 so far, and have been finding reasons to drive it all over the place. It's also now totaly shined up from top to bottom, tucked safely in our garage.:)

I'm finding it kind of strange how difficult it is to find answers to rather simple questions by searching. There are so many E46 owners on the boards that a simple search on any major site will give you ten different versions of the same answer. For the X3, it seems I need to search all the boards to hopefully come up with one good answer.

try using advanced search you can pick which forum to search in :thumbup:

jb

Thanks, I pretty much know how to use the search, but there's some things that just aren't covered much.

For example, I want to use my floor jack to jack up my X3 to switch my winter wheels and snow tires onto my car. Doing a search on "jacking point" on the X3 forum here gives no results. Do the same search on a 3 Series forum and you get a bunch of results to read through.

I guess it's just a function of 3 Series sales versus X3 sales for the most part. On the flip side, it's kind of cool having a somewhat rare BMW, especially these days, when 3 Series are all over the place. I've noticed people checking out the X3 a bit more than when I'm driving my 330i.

The X3's only been around for three model years. That, and sales are less than the 3-er, so there's fewer to talk about them...

It's ok though. You've found the best place to get what info there is!

here are your jack points
ab wanted me to tell you to BE SURE and set the hand brake, he bent our jack in the garage :damn: $50.00 learning experience

You just gave the reason I'm using a hydraulic floor jack rather than the crappy stock jack. They don't call the stock jacks "widow makers" for nothing. However, the problem then becomes how to jack up the car with a big floor jack which doesn't fit into BMW's little jacking points.

For example, in the first pic below, the spot labeled "B" is an acceptable rear jacking point on an E46 3 Series.

In the second pic, the oval shape is a good place to use as a front jacking point on an E46.

Actually, looking at the X3 more closely, the rear jacking point looks to be the same as the E46. However, I don't see anything good for the front jacking point.

Maybe for the front, I'll do what this guy did and make a block of wood to fit the stock jacking points...
http://m3.madrussian.net/diy/jacking/2.jpg