EXPOSED Before The Embargo Breaks! FIRST Look At The All-new BMW X3 — Initial Impressions?

LOL, looks like the SAME exact car it replaces and remains ugly as sin. This car is dead on arrival. BMW needs to learn a trick or two from Audi, after all Audi has won numerous awards on design for years. Just look at the new A4, absolutely gorgeous!

Um, please get your nurse to get you a crayon and take you away from the internet

Looks Nice, interior very good looking.

It's pathetic. The styling is worthy of a cheap Chinese counterfeit effort. BMW and Audi are adrift stylistically as each new model looks older and more dated than the one it replaces. Mercedes and Lexus are laughing at this.

Agree with you on the BMW, but disagree with about Audi.

Audi's stylish is critically acclaimed and continues to win renowned design awards year after year. Just look at how astonishing is the A6, A7, and the new A4 and Q5! And the current A4 looks uniquely A4-ish while looking COMPLETELY different and improved from the old model.

You're mentioning Mercedes and Lexus to make your point? That's just hilarious. Mercedes has some of the softest, benign, boring design on the market, both interiorly and exteriorly. And Lexus? Lexus is ugly on the complete opposite side of the spectrum. And their sad sales reflect that. You'd be a fool to be seen driving one of Lexus's newest models.

Shouldn't you be fleecing a customer at the Audi dealer?

I'd like you to explain to me specifically how the A6, A7, A4, or Q5 is astonishing. You can pick the one that best illustrates your point.

Meriam-Webster defines "astonishing" as " causing a feeling of great surprise or wonder". So what great surprise or wonder did any of the models you mentioned achieve vis a vis its peers.

If Lexus has "sad sales" given its volume and Audi is 100K units LESS per year, how would you describe their volume? Abysmal?

If BMW and Audi are adrift, Lexus must be at the bottom of the ocean next to the Titianic.

@jeffgall Say what you will. The spindle grill has been good for Lexus.

The history of high end cars - has been that they traditionally have been styled conservatively - and have only minor changes from generation to generation. However - that has produced a mixed bag. Eventually the cars tend to "blend" into each other too much - making the ability to determine year difficult - and reducing the "desire" to have the newest car every year.

The fact is - Lincoln would not have survived if not for the major and different fourth generation car. And no one can accuse Harley Earle of being conservative. And while Bill Mitchell was less a risk taker - he also produced some striking designs as well.

What is clear for all three German Manufacturers - although less for Mercedes - is that it is time for a really new direction for the whole car - not just grille treatments.The one are that separates Mercedes is that it styles its HGH end Sedan - the S-class - first. And then it allows those new styling cues to spread DOWN to the lower price and size cars. Unfortunately - Audi and BMW do the opposite - styling their mid size sports sedans first - and then moving that style UP to the higher cars. That makes the higher cars less desirable - because by the time they are restyled - the style is no longer even close to being new.

In the sedan wars, the key to being a dominant force in a shrinking market will be to create break-out styling.

And styling is subjective. You may like the way MB and Lexus products look, I may not like having brand badges the size of dinner plates or Darth Vader's face planted on the front of my car.

well.... at least if finally has dual exhaust.

All of the images are of an M40i. Undefined what the base engine will have.

LOL. If that makes you feel better and helps you sleep at night.

I think Audi and BMW are trying to top each other for "laziest car designers". Audi is virtually on the verge of renaming itself Subaru with its bland designs, potent quattro, and raised-station-wagon-looking SUVs. BMW just changes its fronts and rears, spruces up the interior, and calls it a day.

While Lexus designs are not necessarily attractive, at least they are trying to do something different. The LC and LS might change some of that perception, though both are polarizing in their own right. And the LS is, by all intents, not much different than many Asian designs that have already been around for over a decade (Q70, Avalon, etc).

Mercedes seems to be the only Tier 1 brand doing it right. Elegant and high-quality interiors. Elegant and distinctive exteriors. Yes, in some cases (i.e., E-Class) the designs come off a bit overly understated, but they are effective and will have longevity.

What a lovely unbiased comment :) "They see me trollin, they hatin" Lol

"Elegant and distinctive exteriors." The C-Class and E-Class are so unique looking that no one would confuse them for each other said no one ever. Mercedes-Benz might have elegant designs, but to call them unique is ridiculous. The E-Class is nothing more than a smaller S-Class and the C-Class is nothing more than a smaller E-Class.

If that makes you feel better and puts your head to rest at night. LOL
(posted on wrong comment the first time)

Hey, GeniusNut, did I say that they were unique from one another? No, I said they were "distinctive" in their own right. Don't find an argument just to argue.

distinctive: characteristic of one person or thing, and so serving to distinguish it from others.

synonyms: distinguishing, characteristic, typical, individual, particular, peculiar, unique, exclusive, special

Although you couldn't say any of the 3 German luxury brands are adventurous in terms of design, MB has by far the least distinctive design between models. Every. Last. Model. From passenger vans to roadsters all have the same front end design.

LOL. It's called brand identity. Nuttie it's ironic how you use the same arguments against another car company that are leveled against your own sacred brand. You demonstrate incredibly strange behavior that way.

No, it's called lazy

How close is this getting in size to the original E53?

I think they could have done more with this, particularly the front design. It does look better than the car it replaces.

Are we attaching the lights to the grill or not?

I think BMW makes nice looking vehicles, and has for a while, but I am struggling to find how this update looks much different than the past, and maybe BMW didn't think they needed to make much of an update. I have 2nd row of an X3 which seemed rather tight, so if they found a way to improve 2nd row room then I think that would be a nice change.

It looks exactly the same as the old one except they tacked a cheesy vent to the side of the car. The interior went from being bland to having some pretty ugly elements like the weird vents at the corners and the piece of trim next to the center vents that looks out of place.
The Audi Q5 also looks very similar to its predecessor but when viewed side by side it looks different and more aggressive. The interior is also a massive step up.
I am not of the belief that every generation of a vehicle has to be radically different, but there should be some meaningful changes not just a few trim pieces slapped on to make it look different.
This vehicle will have very little success against the Q5 (segment leader worldwide), GLC, and NX without BMWs typical aggressive leases.

The magnitude of this styling failure both in terms of exterior and interior design will be felt across BMW's entire SUV range from this X3 onto the X4, X5, X6 and upcoming X7. The importance of BMW getting this X3 right in terms of exterior design changes and interior quality improvements could not have been greater but BMW served up a disaster.

To make matters worse, this is an M-package X3. How ridiculously bland will a non-M package X3 look on the outside and how cheap will it be on the inside?

It's a known fact that SUVs have been taking marketshare from sedans and the German 3 have all seen how their SUVs have accounted for a much larger percentage of their overall global sales today than 10 years ago and even 5 years ago.

BMW's SUV sales growth in the United States has trailed far behind Audi and Mercedes-Benz. With this pathetic effort, it looks like BMW's SUV sales growth will continue to trail its competitors. This means that BMW will have no chance of catching Mercedes-Benz in the United States and it will continue to trail Mercedes-Benz globally as existing X3 buyers see little reason to get a new model.

Someone sounds a little jealous :)

AUDI = Always Unimpressed Driving It.

Dunno why everyone is bouncing off the walls, I see nothing wrong with this. For a BMW design this is actually somewhat attractive. I mean the face looks like a pig with the big double grille snout, there is dumb plastic trim everywhere inside and out, and the sheet metal origami is really getting old. Other than that it is the best looking X3 ever, and that signifies progress, maybe a glacially slow one, but hey, it could be worse ;)