2011 BMW X3 - Review

Marty Padgett

85,322 views November 8, 2010

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2011

OVERALL RATING 8
out of 10

Attention, Glenn Beck and the rest of right-tilting America: this is the new, camera-ready face of legal immigration.

The 2011 BMW X3 is a newly minted citizen, and clearly, it went overboard studying for its naturalization exams. How else would it know offhand, the easy path to success blazed by other tailored-for-America products?

If you missed it in civics or marketing class, cheat off our paper. Make it bigger, make it faster, make it richer--but don't make it too off-roady.

The new X3 ticks all those boxes, from its un-knobby tires to its gently curved roof. It's grown in almost every dimension, and gained a great new interior with more second-row seat room. (It's almost the size of the original X5, now.) It looks fantastic, inside and out. It's fast enough to blur any memory of its stiff-riding, cheap-cabin ancestors. It has all the hallmarks of a big U.S. splash, down to the patriotic tug on the heartstrings, now that it's assembled in South Carolina, alongside the X5 and X6...

UPDATE2011 BMW X3 Recalled For Steering Sensor Issue

A voluntary recall for a safety defect in the electric power steering system affects certain BMW X3s manufactured between April 27 and June 8, 2011. Read Update