If you’re still not sure what to make of the new BMW X3’s design, this massive photo gallery should help. Fresh images of the M Performance model from Slovakia show the hot M50 in a wonderful fall scenery. The sporty crossover happens to be painted in Fire Red, a relatively new color marketed as Vegas Red in the United States.
With no new X3 M on the horizon, this version will remain the cream of the crop. However, it’s not going to be the only flavor of the “G45” with a six-cylinder engine. Next year, BMW will roll out a 3.0-liter turbodiesel variant. It’s not going to serve as a successor to the old X3 M40d, so don’t expect M Performance branding. Consequently, the M50 is likely to remain the only iteration of the fourth-gen luxury crossover with quad exhaust tips.
The two-tone wheels fitted to this car measure 21 inches but they’re not the largest. Yes, you can get an X3 nowadays with 22-inch alloys. The bigger set is available as an upgrade from the M Performance Parts catalog. It goes to show how much larger today’s cars are when huge wheels are not necessarily overkill on a theoretically compact crossover.
Aside from the four exhaust tips we mentioned earlier, the grille helps the M50 stand out. It has a more aggressive design with horizontal bars and an M badge. On the lesser X3s, the kidneys have an unusual pattern with interesecting lines. It’s an odd look we recently saw on the new 1 Series and 2 Series Gran Coupe as well. I guess the grille’s illuminated contour is a design trend we’ll just have to learn to live with.
While the exterior is not a dramatic departure from the old “G01,” BMW radically changed the interior. As with other recent models from Bavaria, it has a strikingly simplified dashboard. At least the rotary knob is still there, which is something we can’t say about the other cars with iDrive 9. The company’s next-gen infotainment coming in 2025 on the Neue Klasse iX3 will skip the dial as well.
The “G45” has some big shoes to fill considering its predecessor was the best-selling BMW in 2023 with over 350,000 units. It finished ahead of the 3 Series Sedan, but once you add the Touring, the 3er still came out on top.
Source: Samuel Zaťko for BMW Slovakia
First published by https://www.bmwblog.com
Source: BMW BLOG
