Auto tested more than 90 cars in 2025. As is tradition, we now re-publish our favourite tests of the year as our six Best Tests over the first weeks of December. We will then present three Auto Special Awards in the Best EV, Best Bakkie and Performance car of the year 2025. And then we announce the overall Best Test 2025 on 19 December. So come back for your daily Auto entertainment!
AUTO BEST TESTS 2025 #1: BMW X3 XDRIVE 20D M SPORT
BEST TEST 1: Turbodiesel is great. X3 is among the best!
The motoring world is on the tail of a horrible thing that will one day be remembered as among the biggest farces in history. They tried to tell us that electrification was the future of the car. That combustion cars, diesels in particular, were history. Defunct. Goodbye.
Well, we failed to adhere to all that nonsense. And all the way through, we countered the lies with our argument: that you cannot really beat a turbodiesel car. Still they carry on. Carmakers are still warning the EU that the industry will die on the Continent unless they reverse their idiot law to force people to only buy electric in future. They won’t.
Fortunately that’s the final straw that will see the end of the ‘electric answer.’ It’s not the answer. Never has been. Never will be. It’s more an alternative. If you want an EV, there it is. If you want a hybrid, there it is too. And a petrol car, and a diesel. It is only right to choose. And BMW realises that.
Turbodiesels have come a long way
Fresh on the threshold of a whole new era, BMWs will fundamentally change over the next few years. But you’ll still be able to choose petrol, hybrid or electric. And lo and behold… diesel too. In fact Munich, amongst others, is finally flat out developing its next gen diesels again. We can’t wait. Especially after spending time with this one.
Turbodiesel is a relatively new phenomenon. BMW’s first 84 kW 2.4-liter straight-6 turbodiesel hit the local market in 1983. The fastest diesel sedan in the world at the time, it took a while for the tech to strike a chord, but by the end of the millennium, it was becoming ever more acceptable as the tech improved dramatically, by the model.
It just got better and better. Until the great woke up all but culled it, development stopped and diesels seemed doomed. The market was having none of it though. Some carmakers bent over and killed their turbodiesels off. We argued that it made no sense to do that. What difference do high tech TDs actually make to the climate? Nothing!
20d brings out the very best of the new X3
In fact, in a South African sense and in the rest of the developing world, in other words most of the world, electrification has simply flopped and will likely never even be a starter. There simply isn’t an infrastructure to support it. So turbodiesel remains king. And always will.
Last month, we concluded our BMW X3 30e plug-in hybrid test by saying that car would not have a place if there was such a thing as a 30d version available. There isn’t. But there is a 20d. And here it is. Read that story for how the rest of the otherwise pretty well identical X3 stocks up, but for this purpose, we’ll continue to focus on the engine only.
We’ve followed this development of the BMW 2-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel pretty closely over the years, because we love it. In this case, it makes 145 kilowatts and 400 Newton-metres, aided and abetted by a 48-volt mild hybrid system in the nose of its default BMW 8-speed automatic transmission.
X3 20d better than claimed in most departments
BMW claims 0-100 km/h in 7.7 seconds but strap our VBox to it and run it down the Auto Test strip, and voila! 6.91 seconds. Which is to be expected. BMW always under quotes. Same goes for diesel consumption. They promise 6.2 l/100 km. I don’t think we saw much north of five and a half all week.
Smooth and refined, as ever, with an effortless demeanour, it’s impossible to beat with any other drive mode. Sure, there’s electric and it certainly is ride friendly. But then there’s so much red tape, uncertainty, range anxiety and more to ever really rival this. Need to top the diesel up? Just stop and the pump. Refuel. And you’re gone in five.
The mild hybrid system seamlessly contributes to all that, that 8-speed auto is as slick as ever and the rest of it is quite sublime in probably the best looking X3 yet. Although we still want our buttons and knobs back. Even if this is a pretty reasonable solution.
BMW X3 20d: Long live King Turbodiesel
In conclusion. We remain utterly convinced that this turbodiesel is the pick of the New BMW X3 bunch. Sure, you can have your M50 and there’s the plug-in too, and the rest.
But there’s simply no comparison to this beautifully balanced, wonderful to drive and ultimately still squeaky clean 2-litre TDI. Long live the King! – Michele Lupini
Images & testing: Giordano Lupini
AUTO BEST TEST #1 2025
ROAD TESTED: BMW X3 20d xDrive M Sport
Engine: 145 kW 400 Nm 2-litre turbodiesel I4
Drive: 8 speed automatic AWD
TESTED:
0-60 km/h: 2.96 sec
0-100 km/h: 6.91 sec
0-120 km/h: 9.97 sec
0-160 km/h: 22.32 sec
400m: 14.9 sec @145 km/h
80-120 km/h: 5.25 sec
120-160 km/h: 6.77 sec
CLAIMED:
VMax: 215 km/h
Fuel: 6.2 l/100 km
CO2: 162g/km
Range: 975 km
Warranty/Service: 2y unl./5 y 100K km
LIST PRICE: R1.18M
How does it compare?
Check with Auto's Test Data right here