Categories: Cars

New BMW X3 M50 Poses In Gorgeous Fall Scenery

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