BMW X3: Baby Bloomer

The X3 takes the X5 idea - reasonable off-road capability but optimised for on-road driving with a sporting edge - reinterpreted in a one size-class down. It is based on the platform of the 3-Series, but suitably strengthened and enlarged. There is full-time four-wheel-drive, courtesy of the excellent xDrive system, which near-instantly apportions drive to the axle with the grip to use it the best.

Our test car came with the bigger 3.0-litre straight six unit with 231 bhp on tap, but a smaller 2.5-litre engine is also available. There is Dynamic Stability Control and Hill Descent Control, all designed to give the X3 tenacious grip and secure control in less than favourable conditions.

The X3 looks like, well, a shrunken X5. Inside the feeling is typical BMW. Controls are spot on and feel the way they should with proper directional movement, resistance and indents. Instruments are easy to read at a glance and communicate the proper and necessary information.

The display for the navigation system is one of the most thoughtfully positioned of the lot, rotating up out of the top centre of the dash, so it's visible to driver and navigator but nestled unobtrusively halfway down in the recess where it stows when not in use.

The driving position is akin to the 3-Series but since this is a SUV, oops, SAV, one sits higher in the supportive and well-bolstered front seat. As in most premium cars, the range for adjusting the seats is vast, with people of differing heights can get down to comfortably ensconcing themselves at the wheel. While the driver and front passenger seats are well supported, the rear passenger seat is flat and pretty firm, in many ways like a bench on a small town railway station.

X3 is a striking experience, for the most part a quite pleasant one, quite different even from other premium SUVs in its class like the Lexus RX330 or the Infiniti FX35, both of which tend toward the luxury end of the scale, while the X3 turns two-lanes and the occasional twisty dirt track into a fun drive.

For this, semi-extreme type of driving, the Steptronic automatic is the transmission of choice. It frees the driver to focus on braking, accelerating and steering through the fun parts, yet can be held in a specific gear if the incline or traction so dictates, or invites.

The exhaust note that initially sounds pleasingly sporty becomes an irritating drone after a while at constant speeds. Wind noise reaches levels surprising for a BMW and enough tyre rumble penetrates the cabin to suggest the desirability of some additional sound-deadening materials.

Braking is sure, with solid pedal feel allowing equally linear, smooth, gradual stops when desired, unlike many over-assisted systems increasingly popular on high-end cars and SUVs.

The high and fully adjustable driving position, simple and reasonably smart dashboard all make this an easy car to drive and manoeuvre and standard park distance control and various optional items help this process. The adaptive headlights that steer into a corner to improve the view are of great help when driving on twisty bits at nights.

With agility on pavement and the ability to deal happily with less-than-perfect roads and weather, the X3 is the BMW for the driving enthusiast whose interests are not totally urban. Overall fit is to the marque's standards, but the interior could have been livelier.