[fusionbang]

BMW X3 M40i

Likes:

- Exterior Looks
- Brilliant Engine (B58) with an amazing gearbox (8ZF)
- Luxurious (coming from a highlander) interior with Cognac seats
- Compact yet spacious cabin and boot space
- Panaromic Sunroof
- Adaptive LEDs with Matrix LED lights and auto high beam technology
- 12 speaker Harmon Kardon audio with iDrive 7.0

Dislikes:

- Pricy, almost touching the X5 range
- Bumpy ride (Especially with RFT tires)
- Some features like sunglass holder, 360 deg camera, Adaptive Cruise Control missing as standard at this price point
- No scuff plates for rear doors
- Wireless charging should have been standard
- Comes with summer tires as standard with a staggered setup, being in east coast have to spend another grand to have a set of winter tires or change them to all season tires.

[fusionbang]

Background:

I was happily munching miles with my 2019 Toyota Highlander V6 AWD for almost 3 years and I was liking it for its butch looks, easy maintenance, Toyota reliability and good resale.

Even though it was a 8 seater SUV, it was a pleasure to drive and it could munch miles all day without breaking a sweat. I never had plans to change anytime soon, till I was sure about my visa situation and the time I would be in US.

A meet with some of the TBhpians here in Midwest and a trip to the ultimate driving experience/M track days from BMW changed my thoughts completely and made me think again to buy a BMW while I am here in US, which is definitely not affordable for me back in India. The phrase "You live only Once" was always running in the back of my mind.

I started evaluating the market value of my 3 year old highlander and due to covid the used car market was on a high and I was able to fetch 31000 USD (including tax credit) for a 29000 miles run car, which was not bad considering I had paid 36000 USD in 2018. Hence decided to let go of this car with a heavy heart and take a plunge on the BMW.

Which BMW?

One of the main reason, to start thinking about BMW was the M340i of our fellow BHPian nikhilarni which I got to drive on one of our meets and I was impressed the way it behaved especially on corners and the exhaust note, which were music to the ears. I was owning a 2018 330i earlier and the 245 horses it delivered was itself powerful enough for me. After experiencing the 380 horses on the M340i made me fall in love with the BMW all over again.

Initially started looking at the M340i's available and spoke to few dealers but the prices quoted were exorbitant and there were no discounts available with any dealer nor from BMW. Also the prices were almost touching the price of a premium luxury SUV. While I was researching on the M340i's, came across couple of X3 M40i's at the same price range and thought of giving it a shot as well, considering both come with the same engine. However, was skeptical because the driving pleasure you get from a sedan is completely different from a SUV.

I have a 6 year old and it would be the only car in the household and I had to think through the practicality before deciding. It made sense for me to look at a car with better boot space and rear seat space as a family car and I seriously started looking at the X3 M40i. Also, if I settle here in US, may be I will look at adding a M car in my garage (may be M3).

Below points made me go with the X3 M40i over M340i:

1. Commanding view of the road (those bold bonnet lines )
2. Easy on the back & knees for longer drives
3. Spacious 2nd row, especially with the kid growing older
4. Easy access to boot and spacious compared to the 340i
5. Panaromic Sunroof (my son loves it)
6. Similar features as M340i
7. Perfect Family Enthusiast car

[fusionbang]

Buying and Dealership Experience:

Finding a car on the lot, like it was before here in US was not an option anymore due to this pandemic and the chip shortage across the world. I had to literally call each and every dealer to check if there was a car available and the deals available if they have one.

All the dealers closer to me were out of stock and there were no new cars expected anytime soon. One of the reason for the low stock along with chip shortage was because LCI model was due shortly and the dealers had sold almost all pre LCI models they had in stock.

However, I started looking on cars.com with a radius of 200 miles so that I can pick it up and drive it home. Anyway I had my highlander to be traded and I was okay driving to the dealer within that range. There were only few cars available within 200 miles and I reached out to most of the dealers for the deals and discounts available.

Every dealer quoted almost the MSRP and the lease amount was also way beyond my budget. The market had completely changed compared to one year back, when there were better deals were available. Now it was not even close to what my friends got earlier. And few dealers wanted me to visit them to talk and finalize the deal.

One day, I visited a dealer in Maryland (BMW of Owning Mills) which was around 60 miles away from my place since they had one car available and it almost had all the options I wanted. Only after reaching there I realized that they had added a markup value of 3000$ along with unnecessary add-on like ceramic coating and nitrogen filling.

I was unhappy with the SA not being upfront, which could have saved my time and fuel going all the way from Philly. However, the SA spoke to his manager, also evaluated my highlander and gave a good trade in value on the car. Still I was not willing to go ahead with it and wanted to negotiate on the markup and additional add ons.

Spoke to the manager and he was willing to let go off the markup value but there is nothing much he could do on the coating and nitrogen, because it was already on the car. It was almost closing time for them and there was some back and forth discussions and still something was not adding up in the calculations. There were some discussion with the Finance guy as well to try and match up my budget, which I was not willing to cross. It took a couple of hours of my time to come up with a number and the SA was getting the car cleaned up and filled with fuel for me to take the car home. This is all without a decision made on the finances and if I am going ahead with the purchase or not.

Finally the finances did not add up and I had to walk away from the dealership, spending 3 hours of time almost till 9PM EST.

Some pics of the car which I almost had my hands on. It was one of the best looking cars in all black (just how I preferred). I was looking for a black or white car only, no other colors.

So my search continued and it was a hard job finding a car in my budget and with the options I wanted. I traveled to different dealerships up to New York to find a car and all in vain. One of the dealer was willing to build one for me and it would take almost 6 weeks for the car to arrive. But my family was in India and I wanted to give them a surprise by picking them from the airport in new car, so that option was ruled out too.

One day I was just browsing cars.com and came across this car which a dealer had just posted and the dealer was not far enough from my place. I immediately rang them up and found that the car is available and had just arrived in the lot. Also informed them that I would be visiting them shortly. Visited the dealer, took a quick test drive and it had almost everything I wanted and hence booked it on the spot.

Also, I was having a 1000$ voucher from BMW from the track event I attended in Indianapolis, which was honored and also gave a good trade in value for my highlander. Everything fell in place as expected and I was ready to bring home the beautiful White Wolf.

Drove straight to the temple for pooja and back home. Took it slow with varied rpms to run in the engine and it was fun driving this beast.

Build details:

1. 2022 BMW X3 M40i
2. Alpine White
3. Cognac Interior
4. 19" M Y-Spoke Bi-color Midnight Grey Wheels (Square Setup) - 245/50 R19
5. Premium Package
   • Heads up Display
   • Gesture Control
   • Heated Steering Wheel
   • Heated Front Seats
6. Remote Engine Start
7. Harmon Kardon Audio

[fusionbang]

Performance, Ride & Handling:

<< Engine pics>>

X3 M40i LCI version comes with a 3.0 liter turbocharged inline 6 engine producing 382 hp @ 5800 rpm and 369 lb-ft (500NM) @ 1800 rpm. Also BMW has introduced a 48V mild hybrid assist system in all the 6 cyl engines recently, which provides some additional boost during hard acceleration. This technology has an additional 48V battery which helps in lowering the fuel consumption.

With all this, the performance has been taken a notch above and the car does 0-60 in 4.2 sec (0.2 sec improvement from the pre LCI version), which is not a joke for an SAV and you can feel the push back when you use launch control. Here is a 3 second video of the launch. (Yet to do a proper launch)

https://youtu.be/yjN_8SC0TKk

Talking about the gear shifts, I think the 8 speed ZF gearbox is one of the smoothest I have ever come across and it perfectly blends with this engine for a seamless gear changing experience. Especially, in comfort mode the gear change is buttery smooth.

BMW has electronically limited the top speeds based on the set of wheels it comes with. 19" wheels has a limit of 130mph, whereas the 20" and 21" has 155mph. However, I am yet to hit any of these speed limits on this car. My car came with 245/50 R19 square setup with Pirelli Cinturato P7 RFT All season plus tires.

Ride & handling has been improved on the LCI M40i models, with the Adaptive suspension being standard and it would be active across all the different driving modes adjusting the damping as required, unlike the pre LCI where you had to press a button to drive the car in adaptive mode. This change has improved the ride & handling and you can take the corners confidently. However, the RFT tires take away the smooth experience and the ride becomes bumpy even with a small undulation on the road. I guess changing the tires to a Non-RFT should be the first thing to do, which I did (more about it later) and there is day and night difference in the ride quality.

This car being a rear biased AWD (standard on M40i), handling is always above par and best suited for us enthusiasts, especially in the sports plus mode.

Let's talk about the different modes, I will keep it short

Eco Pro Mode:

This mode is mainly usable on highways where you have to just cruise all day and the car returns a healthy mileage of close to 30mpg (~13 kmpl). It is like a Maruti in BMW avatar in this mode, the acceleration is almost nil and you have to really press hard to get some power and start moving.

Comfort Mode:

Perfect family mode, which gives a balance of power and handling. This is the mode where the BMW feels it is a luxurious car with smooth suspension, smooth acceleration and linear power delivery. You can just floor the pedal during an overtake maneuver and the car does it smoothly. The gearbox helps here by kicking down to the right gear and extract the required power.

Sports/Sports Plus Mode:

This mode is where the car shines and you can extract the maximum out of the car. Those lovely exhaust notes with pops and crackles sounds like music to ears whenever you are in sports mode and I call this a bachelor mode, because I use this only when I am alone in the car

With 6500 miles (~10500 Kms) on the odo, I love it every time I drive this beauty and look forward to the next drive after I park it. I think the saying "You didn't buy the right car, if you don't look back after parking" holds good and I look back at my car every time I park.

In summary, this is a perfect family enthusiast car slotted between the basic X3 30i and the X3M. I personally feel this is a perfectly balanced car for daily usage instead of spending a bomb on the full spec M. May be can have the full M (M3) as a second car in future.

[fusionbang]

Exteriors:

After 3 years of launching the X3 M40i, BMW has made quite a few aesthetic changes to the X3 in its LCI (Life Cycle Impulse) avatar. Pre LCI models had more of a bulging looks in the front, whereas this new model has a tapering nose, may be to improve the driving dynamics.

Aggressive mean look with a chrome surrounded double slat grill with a small M logo. This is specific to the M40i


Can notice the sleek headlamps featuring the Matrix adaptive LED lights. Fog lamps has been eliminated and the headlights do an amazing job of lightning the road beautifully and fill that void of the fog lamps


Front quarter profile showing the 19" M Y-Spoke Alloy wheel. Also can notice the small M logo on the side fender, which was supposedly added by mistake for the initial lots. Recent M40i's doesn't come with them.


Side profile, you can make out how the wheels are covering the brake blue calipers. I wanted red calipers on my car, which is an option BMW provides at no cost when you build one


Rear profile showing the new Pincer claw shaped tail light. Looks gorgeous to me


Beautiful rear stance with the twin exhaust in black. And the X3 badging has a different font compared to the X3 30i, which is adequate. The X3 badging on the 30i is too big in my opinion.


Close up of the new tail light


Picture of the car with parking light in action

[fusionbang]

More Exterior pics after minor modifications to the grill, emblems, tint.

Changing into black grill has changed the stance completely and I love it!


Beautiful M style ORVM's


Notice the 699M 20" staggered wheels


If you had noticed in my earlier pics, the car came with 19" 887M wheels and I swapped them to these 20". More about it in the mod section. Also notice the blue brake calipers.
















DRL's in action

[fusionbang]

Interiors:

New 12.3" Central Information Display. Happy to see BMW retaining the buttons for Climate controls


Love the chunky M sport steering wheel with M badge and heated steering. My car comes with Dynamic cruise control (basic cruise control). BMW should have provided adaptive cruise control as standard at this price point.


Driver side window controls and ORVM adjustment. Also the button in the front is to open and close the boot lid from inside (very convenient)


Buttons to lock and unlock the car along with the memory buttons.


My car is equipped with Harmon Kardon sound system and it sounds amazing


Headlight controls. Notice the individual parking light buttons. This is used to turn on the parking lights individually when you are parked on the highway to indicate the other drivers. I think this is to save some battery, I am not really sure though the actual thought behind this feature


Cup Holder and a place to hold the phone. If wireless charging option is chosen, when it becomes available, it is placed here.


Bird's eye view of the Center console. Also notice the Dark Oak wood trim. I would have taken any other trim, but I was limited to this option, as I had to pick the car from the lot.


Dome lights, love the design of these, this is the similar pattern you get on the welcome carpet lights. It also houses the sunroof controls and the microphone. Also there is a camera here, to recognize the gesture controls.


These are the standard mats provided by BMW. I have changed these to 3D Maxpider mats. Pictures in the mods section

[fusionbang]

Mods done so far:

1. Changing the front grill to all black. Initially I tried to plasti dip myself by removing the grill and dipping the chrome surround, but it did not come out quite well and I could not get the glossy black finish. Hence decided to source the shadow line grill from BMW and installed it. It was an easy 5 min job. Posting a before after pic.



2. Maxpider 3D Mats & Cargo liner











3. Rear door sills from Aliexpress



4. Swapped the 19" M Y-spoke wheels to 20" M Double spoke bi-color wheels. One of the X3 owner on the bimmerforum was looking to swap his 20" staggered setup with a 19". I took this opportunity and swapped the wheels & tires at a minimal cost.





5. Upgraded the tires to Continental DWS 06 Plus

6. Changed the rear emblems (X3 & M40i) to gloss black



7. Thinkware F200 PRO Dashcam (Front & Rear)





8. Tinted the front 2 windows to match the rear



That's all for now, thanks for reading. Will try my best to keep this thread active with regular updates

[fusionbang]

Couple of pics from recent cherry blossom visit:

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[lordtottuu]

Congrats on an incredible machine.

Gosh, the car looks incredible in white. And the black grille really complements the look too!

[Philomath55]

Congratulations on the X3 M40i fusionbang, that is one incredible machine that you got there. Also, the car looks amazing in white with those black ORVMs and gloss black grill.

Congratulations once again and drive safe!��

[jeevadeepan]

Excellent write up and beautiful pictures! The car looks stunning in white with blacked out accents. Love the Cognac interiors that oozes luxury. Power from that inline 6 is addictive. It must be really testing your patience to drive it in eco mode

Wish you many more happy (s)miles with the white wolf!

[vj123]

Congrats again and it was a comprehensive review.

Vehicle looks really sharp with the black grille and badges. How is the ride once you upgraded the wheels to 20".

Looking forward to see the vehicle in person during our next meet.

[fusionbang]

Originally Posted by lordtottuu

Congrats on an incredible machine.

Gosh, the car looks incredible in white. And the black grille really complements the look too!

Thanks lordtottuu!

Originally Posted by Philomath55

Congratulations on the X3 M40i fusionbang, that is one incredible machine that you got there. Also, the car looks amazing in white with those black ORVMs and gloss black grill.

Congratulations once again and drive safe!��

Thanks Philomath55!

Originally Posted by jeevadeepan

Excellent write up and beautiful pictures! The car looks stunning in white with blacked out accents. Love the Cognac interiors that oozes luxury. Power from that inline 6 is addictive. It must be really testing your patience to drive it in eco mode

Wish you many more happy (s)miles with the white wolf!

Thank you so much Jeeva

Originally Posted by vj123

Congrats again and it was a comprehensive review.

Vehicle looks really sharp with the black grille and badges. How is the ride once you upgraded the wheels to 20".

Looking forward to see the vehicle in person during our next meet.

Thanks Vibin. Compared to the 19" is a bit stiffer. But I changed the tires to Non run flat Continental DWS 06 plus, which has completely changed the game. Initially I had run flats and I was able to feel every undulations on the road, but now it is much better and I am loving it