BMWs have been getting stranger and stranger with every newly introduced or refreshed model, pushing the limits of styling both on the inside and the outside while still delivering the German luxury brand’s signature driving enjoyment. But that ever more unusual wrapper still came with the benefit of high-quality materials, smart packaging and useful features — until now. Behold the X3 M50 xDrive, BMW’s luxury compact SUV, which has been redesigned for 2025. It’s the beneficiary of a reskinned exterior and a new cabin — and it is an absolute mess.
Related: BMW Redesigns X3 SUV for 2025, Starts at $50,675
Why Would You Make It Look Like the iX?
The undeniably ugliest vehicle in the BMW showroom is the iX electric mid-size SUV, and with its own updates for the 2026 model year, it retains that title. But BMW decided that instead of making the iX look like the more appealing prior-generation X3 or the X5, it was going to go the other way and style the redesigned X3 after the iX. The new X3 has a grille and headlight treatment that’s reminiscent of the iX’s, and having a dark paint color like my test vehicle’s matte-finish Frozen Deep Grey does help mask the awfulness of the front-end styling — but not much. The X3’s optional 21-inch wheels help the look some, but the flat-black murdered-out look does not compliment the X3’s styling. Rather, it simply makes it look unfinished, like the primer has been sprayed on but not the color coat.
Thankfully, you only have to look at it as you approach or depart the SUV, so the styling changes aren’t terribly egregious. For the truly awful part, you’ll have to get inside and have a seat.
What the Hell Happened in Here?
The redesigned interior is a hot mess. It starts with a surprising lack of room in front due to a thick door panel combined with an unnecessarily wide center console. You’d think this was BMW’s smaller X1 SUV instead of its X3 given how cramped it is inside. It’s even less spacious and comfortable up front than a subcompact Volkswagen Taos. But the list of egregious missteps only continues from there.
First is the materials quality, which would be questionable in a budget-brand vehicle but is absolutely unacceptable in a luxury marque. Your average Hyundai has a higher-quality interior than what I found in this expensive luxury SUV. All of the plastic trim, all of it, feels cheap, thin and hollow. BMW’s clear plastic “crystal-like” trim is present, and it changes color with ambient lighting changes, but it still looks like chintzy plastic. Simple things like the air vents use a bizarre combination of BMW’s “0-1” touch-sensitive sliders and unusual directional control knobs. The steering-wheel position is comically low even at its highest-set position, and it’s so thick that it’s actually difficult to properly grab — and this is for someone like me who has large hands; if you don’t have large hands, it’s going to feel absolutely massive.
Yet while the steering wheel position is oddly low, the seats themselves are oddly high, with a steep rake to the seat bottom that makes it feel like you’re steering the X3 from your lap. The dashboard slopes down dramatically, but the beltline is high, making the windshield seem curiously small and outward visibility (to the front) less than stellar. This has to be one of the most uncomfortable, oddly arranged driving positions I’ve ever experienced in a modern car. At least there’s sufficient headroom, even with a panoramic moonroof overhead. The same cannot be said for rear-seat legroom; if your front occupants are over 5 feet, 9 inches tall, fitting anyone in the backseat will be a serious challenge. The packaging, space utilization, materials quality and layout of the new X3’s cabin is nothing short of atrocious for a luxury SUV.
Nice to Drive, But So What?
There are two flavors of X3 for 2025: the X3 30 xDrive, featuring a turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine making 255 horsepower and 295 pounds-feet of torque, or the X3 M50 xDrive, packing a turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six-cylinder engine making 393 hp and 428 pounds-feet of torque. The M50’s numbers are extremely robust, and BMW says the SUV can blast from 0-60 in just 4.4 seconds (6 seconds flat for the X3 30).
Dynamically, the X3 M50 is fantastic — quick and responsive, with neutral, well-balanced ride and handling. The snorty character of the snarling inline-six is fun, and the mechanicals of the X3 M50 practically beg the driver to hustle a little bit faster, take a turn more sharply and generally enjoy themselves given what the car can do.
But as the driver, I was so uncomfortable, so oddly positioned, and so unable to properly grip the massive steering wheel or use the ancillary controls that I simply didn’t want to spend time driving it aggressively. It has the goods to be a truly fun and engaging sporty SUV, but the design failures of the cabin make it a place you simply don’t want to spend much time in — not when there are more accommodating, more comfortable, more luxurious, more easily usable interiors in other luxury SUVs that offer the same level of kicks (see models like the Mercedes-AMG GLC43, Audi SQ5, Maserati Grecale and Land Rover Range Rover Velar).
So, it’s a hot-performing little number, this new X3 M50 xDrive, but it’s also surprisingly awful inside, a stunning miss from a longtime market-leading luxury brand that suggests something’s gone very wrong in Munich. The icing on this underbaked cake is the price: My test vehicle rang in at a stunning $76,675, including delivery fee, which is a ludicrous price for a cabin full of absent luxuriousness and unacceptable quality. BMW can make much better cars than this — and they still do. The latest X3 is not the brand’s best effort, to say the least.
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