BMW X3 review

It hits the basics. It's roomy enough, and the driving position and controls are very good indeed.

The let-down is unexpected: it just doesn't feel expensive. There's a lot of hard scratchy plastics where your hand meets it: door pulls and handles, centre console storage bins. And the ambient light strips look good in photos but in real life resemble the glow sticks you wear round your neck on bonfire night.

Still, BMW taketh away but BMW giveth also. To compensate, the textured cloth on the dash is fresh and feels plush. And the screens, even if you don't like their angular aesthetic, are high in resolution and responsive to the touch.

Plus, huzzah, the rotary controller lives on. That, and several actual buttons, and shortcuts on the screen, make it blessedly easy to operate.

That includes configuring the driver aids. In any case that all works smoothly, so you are less inclined to turn the mandatory systems off, and more inclined to use the other advanced assist systems. Many of which are optional anyway.

Getting comfy in the front seats is easy, of course, though there's not a vast amount of storage space around you. In the back, the footwells are deep so there's enough legroom for the outer two; the middle one might find the bulky transmission hump gives them the hump. Headroom is fine for all. And there's separate rear climate control as standard.