MacGuffin
Forum Addict
- Joined
- Mar 29, 2008
- Messages
- 8,329
- Location
- Wilhelmshaven, Germany
- Car(s)
- '17 Ford Mustang GT Fastback
Weather forecast said that winter was coming. And it came, with a vengeance. Well, at least according to our lights. We hardly ever get more than 5 cm and is usually comes overnight and stays until around mid day.
Not this time, though. We still have 10 cm of snow outside -- and I reserved a rental for the weekend. Yikes!
I did the reservation a week ago. For some reason I said "try to get an AWD for me". Maybe it was intuition, I don't know. But Thursday came and with it the snow.
Naturally I was worried about what car I'd get and thought of maybe cancelling the reservation. So I drove there Thursday after work and was greeted by chaos.
"We have trouble serving all customers, because many cars are damaged in accidents and many customers didn't bring cars back in time due to the weather", an obviously stressed man told me. "Please come back tomorrow, then I can tell you, if we have something for you."
So Friday came and when I arrived at the rental, the only car with AWD was an Audi A6. Hmmm, nice but I already had that three times.
"Nah, I put aside an X3 for you," the man said grinning, when I asked. "It's in the back yard".
"An X3?" I asked a bit disappointed, because I wasn't too keen on getting an X3. It always looked too much like the little brother of an X5 to me. The man just grinned and said: "It's got the 3.5 liter engine."
My brain processed the input for a second, then spat out "286 HP!!" as a result.
"Okay, I'll take it!"
The 3.5 liter diesel is the top-of-the-range model of the X3, having 14 HP more, than the strongest petrol version and of course lots and lots more torque.
580 Nm from 1750 rpm on, to be exact. This means the nearly 2 ton heavy SUV will go from 0-100 km/h in 6.4 seconds and will reach 240 km/h top speed. And what do I pay for it? ? 136,-- for the weekend, including fully comprehensive insurance.
I thought about all those misfits in their FWD and RWD cars out there, probably still with summer tires on, and had an evil grin on my face, when I was handed the keys
Judging the X3 as a car, I admit, will always be a bit overlapped by the performance of the engine, which is really brilliant, btw. I broke out in chuckles every now and then and I fear some of those even made it on my videos :lol:
It used to be the most powerful 6-cylinder diesel in the world -- no idea, if it still is. I think Jaguar has an equally powerful one by now.
Anyway, the initial impression of the X3 interior was: "Ah, I can tell why this is ? 7000,-- Euros cheaper, than the X5 with the same engine." Rather cheap looking plastic dominates the center console, the aluminium applications change nothing about that. Not really a good thing for a car, that costs ? 53.300,-- in its basic version and is easily up to ? 70.000,-- with a few additional extras on board. That's about what the car I have is worth.
However, equipping an X5 in the same way, gets it close to ? 90.000,-- and it's not really much bigger. Feeling a bit dizzy?
Plastic fantastic dominates the center console. This needs more flair for sure.
The figure 260 on the speedo isn't an exaggeration. I reckon the car will be able to make that downhill and with a bit of back wind.
I really don't like those monitors, that flap open, when you press a button. What's the point? It's one more moving part likely to break at some point in the future.
The cheap looks of the interior aren't mirrored by the build quality at all. In fact, this car feels like a rolling bank vault. There is absolutely no rattling, no fizzing, no other noises. Not even with the huge panorama roof, which usually is a source of some noises on bad roads in other cars.
I like those panorama roofs. I can report, that the ice on top flew off at 210 km/h. But don't worry, there was no one following me
The ride quality is fine and the leather seats are excellent. The steering gets a bit heavy at times, especially when you brake down from higher speeds and want to turn off. It's obviously one of those adaptive steering systems, which, however, needs a moment to adapt from hard to soft again.
Gearbox and engine make a perfect match, changing gears happens instantly, when you put your foot down, and there is hardly any turbo lag. It's almost unspectacular, how easy and quickly the car acclerates. No need to criticize anything there.
Noise insulation could be a bit better, though. The sound of the engine gets through clearly, which is nice, because it sounds a bit like a petrol V8. But unfortunately you also clearly hear the noise of the engine of the bendy bus two cars in front of you -- which is not so nice. I sometimes wondered if there is a window open a bit somewhere to let the sound in but there wasn't.
Naturally I'm not able to say anything about the handling yet - you need dry roads for that and I doubt I will be able to make a judgement about that until Monday. But it feels nimble and seems to like corners.
Full acceleration on a wet road is possible and really quite spectacular, because there is probably no FWD or RWD car in the world, that can keep up in a straight line with this X3 under such weather conditions.
Acceleration on snow and mud can be a bit tricky, because the power tends to torque-steer the car then and you have to make corrections all the time or lift the foot from the accelerator to catch it again. Nice thing is that you can drift easyliy on snow by putting your foot down, without switching off ESP or using the hand brake.
You feel very safe even on icy, snowy roads and you can have lots of fun with this car, while other drivers are so frightened, that they bite into their steering wheels. The Dunlop snow tires are excellent and are qualified for 240 km/h. I'm going to have to try that out, once the Autobahn has dried out
So what about practicality?
Well, it's an SUV and not much shorter than an X5. So there is loads of space inside, even for people like me. However, the leg room in the back could be a bit better. I hardly fit into there behind the driver's seat, if I'm the driver. And of course the boot is big enough for Coke crates
That concludes my impressions of the first day. More to come.
Not this time, though. We still have 10 cm of snow outside -- and I reserved a rental for the weekend. Yikes!
I did the reservation a week ago. For some reason I said "try to get an AWD for me". Maybe it was intuition, I don't know. But Thursday came and with it the snow.
Naturally I was worried about what car I'd get and thought of maybe cancelling the reservation. So I drove there Thursday after work and was greeted by chaos.
"We have trouble serving all customers, because many cars are damaged in accidents and many customers didn't bring cars back in time due to the weather", an obviously stressed man told me. "Please come back tomorrow, then I can tell you, if we have something for you."
So Friday came and when I arrived at the rental, the only car with AWD was an Audi A6. Hmmm, nice but I already had that three times.
"Nah, I put aside an X3 for you," the man said grinning, when I asked. "It's in the back yard".
"An X3?" I asked a bit disappointed, because I wasn't too keen on getting an X3. It always looked too much like the little brother of an X5 to me. The man just grinned and said: "It's got the 3.5 liter engine."
My brain processed the input for a second, then spat out "286 HP!!" as a result.
"Okay, I'll take it!"
The 3.5 liter diesel is the top-of-the-range model of the X3, having 14 HP more, than the strongest petrol version and of course lots and lots more torque.
580 Nm from 1750 rpm on, to be exact. This means the nearly 2 ton heavy SUV will go from 0-100 km/h in 6.4 seconds and will reach 240 km/h top speed. And what do I pay for it? ? 136,-- for the weekend, including fully comprehensive insurance.
I thought about all those misfits in their FWD and RWD cars out there, probably still with summer tires on, and had an evil grin on my face, when I was handed the keys
Judging the X3 as a car, I admit, will always be a bit overlapped by the performance of the engine, which is really brilliant, btw. I broke out in chuckles every now and then and I fear some of those even made it on my videos :lol:
It used to be the most powerful 6-cylinder diesel in the world -- no idea, if it still is. I think Jaguar has an equally powerful one by now.
Anyway, the initial impression of the X3 interior was: "Ah, I can tell why this is ? 7000,-- Euros cheaper, than the X5 with the same engine." Rather cheap looking plastic dominates the center console, the aluminium applications change nothing about that. Not really a good thing for a car, that costs ? 53.300,-- in its basic version and is easily up to ? 70.000,-- with a few additional extras on board. That's about what the car I have is worth.
However, equipping an X5 in the same way, gets it close to ? 90.000,-- and it's not really much bigger. Feeling a bit dizzy?
Plastic fantastic dominates the center console. This needs more flair for sure.
The figure 260 on the speedo isn't an exaggeration. I reckon the car will be able to make that downhill and with a bit of back wind.
I really don't like those monitors, that flap open, when you press a button. What's the point? It's one more moving part likely to break at some point in the future.
The cheap looks of the interior aren't mirrored by the build quality at all. In fact, this car feels like a rolling bank vault. There is absolutely no rattling, no fizzing, no other noises. Not even with the huge panorama roof, which usually is a source of some noises on bad roads in other cars.
I like those panorama roofs. I can report, that the ice on top flew off at 210 km/h. But don't worry, there was no one following me
The ride quality is fine and the leather seats are excellent. The steering gets a bit heavy at times, especially when you brake down from higher speeds and want to turn off. It's obviously one of those adaptive steering systems, which, however, needs a moment to adapt from hard to soft again.
Gearbox and engine make a perfect match, changing gears happens instantly, when you put your foot down, and there is hardly any turbo lag. It's almost unspectacular, how easy and quickly the car acclerates. No need to criticize anything there.
Noise insulation could be a bit better, though. The sound of the engine gets through clearly, which is nice, because it sounds a bit like a petrol V8. But unfortunately you also clearly hear the noise of the engine of the bendy bus two cars in front of you -- which is not so nice. I sometimes wondered if there is a window open a bit somewhere to let the sound in but there wasn't.
Naturally I'm not able to say anything about the handling yet - you need dry roads for that and I doubt I will be able to make a judgement about that until Monday. But it feels nimble and seems to like corners.
Full acceleration on a wet road is possible and really quite spectacular, because there is probably no FWD or RWD car in the world, that can keep up in a straight line with this X3 under such weather conditions.
Acceleration on snow and mud can be a bit tricky, because the power tends to torque-steer the car then and you have to make corrections all the time or lift the foot from the accelerator to catch it again. Nice thing is that you can drift easyliy on snow by putting your foot down, without switching off ESP or using the hand brake.
You feel very safe even on icy, snowy roads and you can have lots of fun with this car, while other drivers are so frightened, that they bite into their steering wheels. The Dunlop snow tires are excellent and are qualified for 240 km/h. I'm going to have to try that out, once the Autobahn has dried out
So what about practicality?
Well, it's an SUV and not much shorter than an X5. So there is loads of space inside, even for people like me. However, the leg room in the back could be a bit better. I hardly fit into there behind the driver's seat, if I'm the driver. And of course the boot is big enough for Coke crates
That concludes my impressions of the first day. More to come.