Rear Hatch Relase without Power
 

The owners manual makes it sound like its easy to do. The only way I was able to manually open the latch was lay on my stomach with the back seat folded down, remove the rear floor so I could see the latch and work a flat screwdriver into a slot under the latch.

Shining a light into that slot you can see a red item, perhaps plastic, that is the part you push to the side to relase the latch. It wasn't too difficult using the screw driver, but it certainly wasn't intuitive when I first looked at it. The owners manual makes it sound like there is some kind of device out in the open that you would reach out and grab with your hand. I thought I might be missing a part (I bought my X3 used) but stopping by the dealer to look at a new X3, it was the same as mine. Is there a tool BMW provides with the vehicle that your supposed to use?

Thanks,
Chip