[allinon72]

As it happens, life changes quickly and so do your driving decisions. With a 3 month old baby, we just couldn't make the M3 work like we wanted, even with 4 doors. That basically meant it sat in the garage with little opportunity to be driven, so I begrudgingly decided it was time for a change. Lucky for me, the used market is so jacked up right now that Carmax wrote me a VERY fair offer for my F80, which I accepted, but certainly did not prevent me from feeling physically ill as I handed the keys over. To make matters worse, I also gave up my 12' Raptor, which I also loved, just to simplify things in the garage.

Originally I was going to wait until the spring to pick up an X3MC to make sure the world didn't end and also to give me time to find the right one. Well, I made it about a week. I happened to find the right car in the spec I wanted about 5 hours away in Cleveland, OH. After going back and fourth with the dealership, including some rough patches, I was able to get the deal done and drive the car home yesterday.

Main requirements for the vehicle weren't crazy, but inventory is extremely low at the moment so I feel like I got lucky. I required:
- Competition pack
- Executive package
- Driver Assistant Plus package
- Ventilated seats
- Michelin Pilot Sport 4S
- Spare tire kit
- Phytonic blue, Toronto red or Donnington

Since the F80 had a lot of carbon fiber and was very "racey" looking, I wanted a more luxury look to the interior. That said I made a concession on the carbon fiber interior trim. And unfortunately this car does not have the M-stripe seatbelts (Oct 2019 build).

Now, I bought this car without ever driven one, so I was curious about the dreaded harsh ride I keep hearing about. So I purposely left it in Sport Plus the entire 5 hours home, which featured some very rough pavement and construction zones, especially on I70. My thoughts are this - it's firm but rarely felt jarring. Very similar to the F80 with the M Performance HAS kit. Tire pressures were 35. I switched to Comfort a few times just for comparison, and again the coding is very similar to the F80 where Comfort doesn't mean it soaks up the bumps better, it just becomes bouncy with more body roll. I suspect I'll be keeping it in Sport most of the time as a balance.

Now I know highway driving is much different than low speed city driving, so I'll see how things go. I also have more of a tolerance for a firm ride than most, but so far I'm not concerned with the suspension at all.

Anyway, on to the pics.

[heavyD^2]

Congrats. Is that trim real wood? It works with the Tartufo.

[r33_RGSport]

Congrats.
Seems like the builder didn't opt-in on the M belt.
Not a big deal though, I don't even notice it after a month of ownership.

[ando]

Congrats looks great in Phytonic Blue!

[JCHBlueM]

Nice - I just got almost the same exact car except with a black interior.

[19___M2]

Congrats!! Twins Phytonic/Tartufo

[ajfcpajd]

What kind of MPG did you get during the highway drive?

[allinon72]

Originally Posted by ajfcpajd

What kind of MPG did you get during the highway drive?

Right at 24mpg.

[ajfcpajd]

that's not much different than F80 M3. My lease is expiring 1/31 and I just can't deal with the grill on the new M3. Leaning heavily towards an X4M. Appreciate the response.

thank you for your service!

[allinon72]

Originally Posted by ajfcpajd

that's not much different than F80 M3. My lease is expiring 1/31 and I just can't deal with the grill on the new M3. Leaning heavily towards an X4M. Appreciate the response.

Depends - I was always able to get 29-30mpg in my F80. It always impressed me.

[ajfcpajd]

I probably drive too fast. LOL. Usually around 80 on the highway.

[allinon72]

Thoughts today after city driving:

- Low speeds (less than 30mph) on rough pavement is indeed stiff. This is the closest I've gotten to relating to the "it's too harsh" camp. Besides being a tad too over sprung, I believe the fact that the rear subframe is bolted directly to the chassis is harder for an SUV to deal with than a sports car like an F80

- The ZF 8 speed is great, I would put it about 4/5ths of the way to the 7 speed DCT in the F80. Shifts aren't quite as quick and smooth, but it's very close.

- This car is crazy fast, but the throttle response isn't quite what it is in the F80. There is some lag in the throttle at first, which I assume is turbo lag. Methinks that BMW tuned this engine to hold some things back, there's no way that this will remain for the upcoming G80.

Hopefully the F80 comparisons aren't too annoying as it's the only comparison I have.

[floating.spirit]

Originally Posted by allinon72

Thoughts today after city driving:

- Low speeds (less than 30mph) on rough pavement is indeed stiff. This is the closest I've gotten to relating to the "it's too harsh" camp. Besides being a tad too over sprung, I believe the fact that the rear subframe is bolted directly to the chassis is harder for an SUV to deal with than a sports car like an F80

- The ZF 8 speed is great, I would put it about 4/5ths of the way to the 7 speed DCT in the F80. Shifts aren't quite as quick and smooth, but it's very close.

- This car is crazy fast, but the throttle response isn't quite what it is in the F80. There is some lag in the throttle at first, which I assume is turbo lag. Methinks that BMW tuned this engine to hold some things back, there's no way that this will remain for the upcoming G80.

Hopefully the F80 comparisons aren't too annoying as it's the only comparison I have.

Thanks for the "review". Answers all my basic questions. Can't wait to get mine. Color looks great after a bath 🛀

[wishman]

Originally Posted by allinon72

Thoughts today after city driving:

- Low speeds (less than 30mph) on rough pavement is indeed stiff. This is the closest I've gotten to relating to the "it's too harsh" camp. Besides being a tad too over sprung, I believe the fact that the rear subframe is bolted directly to the chassis is harder for an SUV to deal with than a sports car like an F80

- The ZF 8 speed is great, I would put it about 4/5ths of the way to the 7 speed DCT in the F80. Shifts aren't quite as quick and smooth, but it's very close.

- This car is crazy fast, but the throttle response isn't quite what it is in the F80. There is some lag in the throttle at first, which I assume is turbo lag. Methinks that BMW tuned this engine to hold some things back, there's no way that this will remain for the upcoming G80.

Hopefully the F80 comparisons aren't too annoying as it's the only comparison I have.

Keep up the F80 comparisons! My F80 is getting ready to hit the four year mark. Debating whether to keep it and move to new M3 (despite grilles) or go the X3M route.

[AlexFL]

Originally Posted by allinon72

- This car is crazy fast, but the throttle response isn't quite what it is in the F80. There is some lag in the throttle at first, which I assume is turbo lag. Methinks that BMW tuned this engine to hold some things back, there's no way that this will remain for the upcoming G80.

I believe this has nothing to do with BMW holding some things back for G80. This engine has been tuned for high rpm power over low end torque/hp. I bet G80 will have the exact same torque/hp curve. People will feel a bit less lag in the G80 because there will be 10-15% less car weight to accelerate. The positive effect of that modest low end torque is that you can safely add 30% hp without risking to blow up the whole powertrain. And that is the true beauty of S58!

[Will Pwr]

Congrats and welcome to the club....the F80 to F97 club

[sys64738]

Originally Posted by allinon72

Thoughts today after city driving:

- Low speeds (less than 30mph) on rough pavement is indeed stiff. This is the closest I've gotten to relating to the "it's too harsh" camp. Besides being a tad too over sprung, I believe the fact that the rear subframe is bolted directly to the chassis is harder for an SUV to deal with than a sports car like an F80

Welcome to the club :-)

I totally agree that the rear is over sprung. My solution to this was to:

1. Swap from the summer tires to all seasons (yea, yea I know). Stock sizes, but I wish I had gone bigger (or square set up).

2. Install MSS springs (slight drop from stock, maybe 1/2")

3. Reduce tire PSI to 32PSI front, 35PSI rear (try this one out and see if it helps)

I now have M1 set to Sport Plus (engine), Sport (suspension), Comfort (steering). With all 3 of the above, Sport (suspension) feels "just right" to my rear end. A word of warning though - even with all of these efforts, you will feel (and hear) a jolt from the front when going over hard bumps (speed bumps, pot holes, etc). Maybe the bump stops or hard bushings transferring directly to the chassis, don't know.

[allinon72]

Ok so up to this point I hadn't done much driving in Sport Plus/highest Drivelogic setting because of the break in period, but the last few days I have. Thoughts on that:

- WOW this thing sounds fantastic with the valves open and the windows down. The burbles are just enough to be awesome without being overbearing. What an awesome change for the better vs. the F80! Really REALLY makes me glad I got the Competition as well.

- This thing MOVES. Obviously I haven't even gone balls out yet, but even at 60% this thing is even faster than I expected. The power is so smooth and controllable. In my F80 in the most aggressive settings, it was quite a handful.

- This ZF tranny, even in the most aggressive transmission setting, is lightning quick, but with one difference from the DCT I'm used to - it doesn't buck. I can actually sit in traffic in the highest setting and not be constantly babying the throttle. While the shifts aren't quite as fast as a DCT, this is a worthy compromise.

All in all, it's been a great couple days getting used to the car.

[BMWZ4]

Congrats & great color choices!

[BrooklynG87]

Wow absolutely stunning color combo! Love the look of the matte wood with the tartufo seats. Congrats, you're going to absolutely love it!

[allinon72]

First mod - IND painted reflectors. Of course being from IND the paint match is prefect.

[allinon72]

Took another 250mi trip today. Couple thoughts:

- This is my first vehicle with active lane keep, and I'm embarrassed to say that BMW's effort is extremely poor. The car simply ping pongs back and fourth between the lines. I'm quite confident that if I had this on and a cop was behind me, he would pull me over. It's hard to imagine that this is the best that BMW engineers could do. This isn't a big deal for me as I didn't plan on using this much anyway, but I might use it more if BMW made it better via a software update.

- Had one hiccup where we stopped at a rest stop - the car briefly said "key is missing" and Carplay disconnected. I rebooted iDrive and everything was fine with Carplay and obviously the key reconnected because we continued on driving. Gave me a brief scare.

- The wireless charging pad, and thus my phone, gets extremely hot. Anyone else experience this?

- Set tire pressures to 35F/40R and the ride is perfectly fine to me. I purposely avoided telling my wife about the X3M's perceived ride issues to see if she would say anything. She did one time when I was in Sport on a rough patch on the highway, otherwise hasn't really said much. (If I told her about a stiff ride beforehand, she would start complaining about the ride immediately, no matter what )

- Prefer Sport steering mode on the highway to combat some of the wandering and tramlining

- This is the best Carplay experience I've had in any vehicle. Switching between iDrive and Carplay is seamless and Carplay runs very smooth.

Overall I achieved 21.5mpgs on the trip, which was down a bit from the 24mpg I got driving it home from the dealership. Not sure why the dropoff.

Scheduled my break in service as I am now just over 700 miles