![]() ![]() These deals guarantee the value of your car after a set period, typically three years or so. The trouble is, a few worthwhile options (bigger wheels, adaptive dampers, Sensatec dashboard, metallic paint and whatnot) will soon tip you over the threshold, so you might as well go for the M Sport at £41,380.Ĭonsider this: around 85 per cent of new cars are purchased, if you can really call it that, on a PCP or lease scheme. Both avoid the extra road tax applied to cars costing over £40k – a deliberate and welcome ploy by BMW’s pricing people. The next model up, the X-Line, is £39,780. It’s engines like this that remind us why diesel is, was, and may continue to be so popular.Īn X3 20d SE, the most basic diesel spec, is yours for £38,880. The benefit of course is that high fifties mpg while cruising. That’s lovely for sailing along motorways, but it struggles to pull meaningfully in 7th or 8th, so you’ll have to shuffle down for instant overtaking. There’s 295lb ft of torque, distributed through an eight-speed, automatic gearbox (ZF torque converter rather than a dual-clutch setup). It actually gets a bit annoying, though it’s more noticeable to the driver than passengers, and if you’re listening to music you won’t notice. The engine itself is so hushed you can actually hear the whine of the turbo’s turbine, like a distant radio frequency. Only above 2,000rpm do you start to notice it, but even then it’s like you’re driving with earmuffs on. In fact, it’s so quiet you sometimes wonder whether it’s actually running, although that might have something to do with the acoustic glazing of our test car (£120 on its own, or included in the £995 comfort package, but worth it either way). This particular engine – codenamed B47 if you’re into such things – is found in other BMWs and Minis, but in this new X3 it feels smoother than ever. The X3 20d will give you 56.5mpg or more if you drive it nicely.Įnough of the politics. ![]() A clean diesel’s CO2 emissions are still way less than a petrol equivalent, and hence fuel economy greatly benefits too, as it always has. The best diesels emit less NOx than the 60mg/km limit for petrol cars. But are they practical changes? A lot of it seemed to be change for the sake of being different.The latest EU6 engines, of which the 20d is one, trap most of the harmful stuff anyway. Stuff like the Crystal Orrefors gear knob and vertical 9.3-inch touchscreen are striking, while the button count has been reduced dramatically. Volvo has tried very hard to break out of the Gemanic definition of interior luxury and design. The XC60 makes its strongest impression before you get rolling. You can put at least some of that down to the Volvo’s 2105kg kerb weight, which is almost 300kg heavier than the Bimmer, and the fact our test loop didn’t offer a lot of opportunities for stop-start running where EVs really save fuel. The drivetrain doesn’t feel as all-encompassing as the BMW (even through it has a 0.5sec faster 0-100km/h claim) or as frugal, averaging 10.8L/100km on our test loop. Let’s hope so, because the bump-telegraphing 21-inch wheels and, under-done suspension and ridiculously over-sensitive brake pedal makes progress sometimes frustrating in the T8. It is said the lesser models in the range are better drives than this one. It shines in comparison to the XC60 though. ![]()
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