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The X3 was first launched in India around 2007 or 2008. The car created a segment which didn't exist at that time- the compact luxury SUV segment. The X3 built a reputation about having a bone jarring ride, bad looks, being overpriced. So when the new facelift X3 was launched in 2011, it didn't really get that much of a good response in India. But then when it was launched, it started to make the Q5 seem like an old school bus at that time. The 8 speed gear box, great ride quality, better engine and definitely better features made it a great buy but the Q5 was already so much popular that the X3 barely made a dent in its sales. Now lets leave the History and come to the present. X is the name I have christened her with. In 2011, one of our family friends bought the X3 in the x-line trim. We sat in his car and were amazed with the space it offered, the features and to all of us at that time, the funny looking gear lever! We went for a drive and were amazed with the sound insulation. He then put it in Sport mode and let it rip! All hell broke loose until the limiter kicked in at 95 kmph. We were amazed at the acceleration it offered. That was the time we realised that this was gonna be ours someday. But at that time we couldn't afford to take such a HUGE financial hit so we bought a Skoda Rapid ambition TDI and a Toyota Etios GD.
The cars are still with us but we are trying to sell the Etios- 13000 done so guys anyone wanna buy it contact me ( I know that I'm gonna get yelled at by the MODS for posting this but please) Fast forward to 2015 and we are moving to a new location. So when we went to see the property I was amazed at the cars that were standing there, the house next to us had an A6 , next to that Q5, next to that 520d next to that Q7. We were amazed! Thats when we realised that a Mahindra XUV just isn't gonna cut it here, thus started the search for a new luxury car. We started with a humble budget of 30 lakhs, we wanted an SUV so no sedans but still tried a few.
Requirements were -
Badge value
Looks
Engine
Features
SPACE- the biggest requirement
Ride Quality- should be comfortable
Handling- should be good for occasional spirited drives.
The only cars that came into that budget were Q3 and A3 so checked them out. Found both of them to be too cramped and we returned home sad. Thats when my Mom came up with the idea to go for a used car! Thats when I switched on my iMac desktop and began the search for a new car. Saw some great Q5s at a good price so decided to first check out a Q5 at the showroom then go to check out any of the used cars. Went to the showroom only to find some huge celebration going on. Thats when I noticed that Audi had renamed their models from 2.0 TDI to 35 TDI. They had called all the Audi customers for a feast and a look around for the new models. We went and checked the Q5:-
Badge value- present
Looks-good
Engine-good
Features-Good
SPACE-NONE! Car was failed!
Ride Quality- good
Handling- Like a boat
Also Q5 didn't seem to pull the heart's strings. It didn't really make me feel special when i sat in it.
Q3-
Badge value- present
Looks-OK
Engine-OK
Features-OK
SPACE-Worse than Q5
Ride Quality- Better than X1 but not more than Q5
Handling-Good
Verdict-Failed due to space.
Then it was time to test the Q7!( it wasn't in our budget but just for the sake of seeing it i went and sat in it)
Badge value-Present
Looks-good
Engine-good
Features-good
SPACE-great
Ride Quality- great
Handling- Super bad!
Verdict-Out of our budget so failed but is a great buy for those who want space and comfort and practicality of 7 seats with the luxo badge value.
Time to test the BMW stable-
I know that i said no sedans but was so much in love with 3 series that i did test it-
3 series(320D)
Badge value-present
Looks-great
Engine-great
Features-great
SPACE-good
Ride Quality- Hard but acceptable
Handling-great
Verdict-Great car, makes it to the finals.
5 series(520D)
Badge value-present
Looks- good
Engine-OK( same engine as 3 series)
Features-good
SPACE-Not more than the 3 series
Ride Quality- Soft
Handling- Like a barge
Verdict-Good car but not for us. I don't really see a point spending more many when i get the same engine, space, and 3 series drives better BTW.
Then came the X1
Badge value-present
Looks-Front- good, side- OK, back- hideous
Engine-great
Features-good
SPACE-OK
Ride Quality-Super Bad
Handling-Super good
Verdict-Didnt make it to the finals primarily because of the ride quality and because my dad has always HATED X1
Then came the X3
Badge value- present
Looks-great
Engine-great
Features-great features even on the base model.
SPACE-Great
Ride Quality-great
Handling-good
Verdict- When we had sat in our friends car in 2011 we knew this was for us. Car chosen!
Now came the tedious task of finding a good deal. The facelift had already come and there was no point spending so much money on the car which is nearly the same except for the front headlamps and alloys. So searched for nearly 3 days for very long hours. Then one day- found a good deal for a 2012 manufactured X3 registered 2013. done just 10699 kms! Asking price 39,00,000 Rupees. Went to Delhi to check the car out. All was good except for the asking price and the interiors. They were in an Orange colour which looked really bad. After much negotiating he came down to 36,50,000 rupees which was WAY outta our budget so we decided to leave that deal and search for another car. After two days found a GREAT deal- 2013 manufactured X3 registered 2014 done just 9659 kms! Asking price was 35,00,000 rupees. Told the guy to come over and show the car to us. He gladly obliged. Within 2 hrs. he reached and I got to see the car in flesh. The car was in absolute prestige condition except for a scratch on the right-side bumper. Except for that the car was absolutely fine. We took a test-drive and found the engine to be fine. Then we finalised the deal, but only on one condition, that we will get the car checked from BMW Bird Automotive gurgaon. He agreed. Next day the car was sent to be checked and found completely ok. We finalised the deal at 31,50,000 rupees. And there came X to our house on 28th Jan 2015 at exactly 5:23 PM. We did the Puja and the car was safely parked in our old house's garage. We shortly moved to our new house and everyone parks their luxe cars outside so did we. Now that you know the story, lets get down to some
specifics:-
X3 Q5
Length- 4,652 mm vs 4,639 mm
Width- 1,884 mm vs 1,880 mm
Height- 1,713 mm vs 1,650 mm
Wheelbase-2,810 mm vs 2,807 mm
BHP- 190 vs 174
CC-1998 vs 1965
Torque-400 NM vs 380 NM
The X3 beats the Q5 marginally in ALL the specs and yet is an entirely different animal. Anyways , the ODO stands right now at 9777 kms. Pics in next post.
The cars are still with us but we are trying to sell the Etios- 13000 done so guys anyone wanna buy it contact me ( I know that I'm gonna get yelled at by the MODS for posting this but please) Fast forward to 2015 and we are moving to a new location. So when we went to see the property I was amazed at the cars that were standing there, the house next to us had an A6 , next to that Q5, next to that 520d next to that Q7. We were amazed! Thats when we realised that a Mahindra XUV just isn't gonna cut it here, thus started the search for a new luxury car. We started with a humble budget of 30 lakhs, we wanted an SUV so no sedans but still tried a few.
Requirements were -
Badge value
Looks
Engine
Features
SPACE- the biggest requirement
Ride Quality- should be comfortable
Handling- should be good for occasional spirited drives.
The only cars that came into that budget were Q3 and A3 so checked them out. Found both of them to be too cramped and we returned home sad. Thats when my Mom came up with the idea to go for a used car! Thats when I switched on my iMac desktop and began the search for a new car. Saw some great Q5s at a good price so decided to first check out a Q5 at the showroom then go to check out any of the used cars. Went to the showroom only to find some huge celebration going on. Thats when I noticed that Audi had renamed their models from 2.0 TDI to 35 TDI. They had called all the Audi customers for a feast and a look around for the new models. We went and checked the Q5:-
Badge value- present
Looks-good
Engine-good
Features-Good
SPACE-NONE! Car was failed!
Ride Quality- good
Handling- Like a boat
Also Q5 didn't seem to pull the heart's strings. It didn't really make me feel special when i sat in it.
Q3-
Badge value- present
Looks-OK
Engine-OK
Features-OK
SPACE-Worse than Q5
Ride Quality- Better than X1 but not more than Q5
Handling-Good
Verdict-Failed due to space.
Then it was time to test the Q7!( it wasn't in our budget but just for the sake of seeing it i went and sat in it)
Badge value-Present
Looks-good
Engine-good
Features-good
SPACE-great
Ride Quality- great
Handling- Super bad!
Verdict-Out of our budget so failed but is a great buy for those who want space and comfort and practicality of 7 seats with the luxo badge value.
Time to test the BMW stable-
I know that i said no sedans but was so much in love with 3 series that i did test it-
3 series(320D)
Badge value-present
Looks-great
Engine-great
Features-great
SPACE-good
Ride Quality- Hard but acceptable
Handling-great
Verdict-Great car, makes it to the finals.
5 series(520D)
Badge value-present
Looks- good
Engine-OK( same engine as 3 series)
Features-good
SPACE-Not more than the 3 series
Ride Quality- Soft
Handling- Like a barge
Verdict-Good car but not for us. I don't really see a point spending more many when i get the same engine, space, and 3 series drives better BTW.
Then came the X1
Badge value-present
Looks-Front- good, side- OK, back- hideous
Engine-great
Features-good
SPACE-OK
Ride Quality-Super Bad
Handling-Super good
Verdict-Didnt make it to the finals primarily because of the ride quality and because my dad has always HATED X1
Then came the X3
Badge value- present
Looks-great
Engine-great
Features-great features even on the base model.
SPACE-Great
Ride Quality-great
Handling-good
Verdict- When we had sat in our friends car in 2011 we knew this was for us. Car chosen!
Now came the tedious task of finding a good deal. The facelift had already come and there was no point spending so much money on the car which is nearly the same except for the front headlamps and alloys. So searched for nearly 3 days for very long hours. Then one day- found a good deal for a 2012 manufactured X3 registered 2013. done just 10699 kms! Asking price 39,00,000 Rupees. Went to Delhi to check the car out. All was good except for the asking price and the interiors. They were in an Orange colour which looked really bad. After much negotiating he came down to 36,50,000 rupees which was WAY outta our budget so we decided to leave that deal and search for another car. After two days found a GREAT deal- 2013 manufactured X3 registered 2014 done just 9659 kms! Asking price was 35,00,000 rupees. Told the guy to come over and show the car to us. He gladly obliged. Within 2 hrs. he reached and I got to see the car in flesh. The car was in absolute prestige condition except for a scratch on the right-side bumper. Except for that the car was absolutely fine. We took a test-drive and found the engine to be fine. Then we finalised the deal, but only on one condition, that we will get the car checked from BMW Bird Automotive gurgaon. He agreed. Next day the car was sent to be checked and found completely ok. We finalised the deal at 31,50,000 rupees. And there came X to our house on 28th Jan 2015 at exactly 5:23 PM. We did the Puja and the car was safely parked in our old house's garage. We shortly moved to our new house and everyone parks their luxe cars outside so did we. Now that you know the story, lets get down to some
specifics:-
X3 Q5
Length- 4,652 mm vs 4,639 mm
Width- 1,884 mm vs 1,880 mm
Height- 1,713 mm vs 1,650 mm
Wheelbase-2,810 mm vs 2,807 mm
BHP- 190 vs 174
CC-1998 vs 1965
Torque-400 NM vs 380 NM
The X3 beats the Q5 marginally in ALL the specs and yet is an entirely different animal. Anyways , the ODO stands right now at 9777 kms. Pics in next post.
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