Having spent 40000 miles behind the wheel of a rear-wheel-drive F3x Series and now nearly 10000 miles in an X-Drive F3x I thought I would talk about my experiences of how they differ from a driving perspective. Both cars have been M-Sport models and both cars came on 19 inch 442m wheels although the 4 Series RWD I later changed to 20 inch 405m wheels. Neither car had/has adaptive dampers so we are talking about the standard fit springs and dampers on both. For context, my cars get a variety of uses with a little town driving, a lot of A-Road and Motorway driving and some spirited but not extreme countryside drives in between. I don’t like to push limits on the road but I would expect any issues I write about to be exaggerated if you do.

In the UK at least, the BMW 3 and 4 Series of the F30/F31/F32/F33 and F36 generations come with a variety of setups and in non-adaptive guise in M-Sport trim cars come with 2 of them. Rear wheel drive cars come with the M-Sport suspension which has more sporty dampers and shorter springs leading to a 20mm drop in ride height but X-Drive cars make do with the standard SE spec set up. I would like to tell you why that is but I don’t have a clue and cannot find much mention of it online so if you do know then please share with me in the comments.

Knowing of the hardware differences I always expected the X-Drive car to feel a bit different to the rear-wheel-drive model but I was surprised at just how different they were. That raised ride height immediately made you feel like you were sitting higher which I think was exaggerated by the switch from a 4 Series Coupe to a 3 Series saloon and it does make a significant difference aesthetically as the X-Drive cars just don’t appear to sit right. There is far too much of an arch gap.

The X-Drive four-wheel drive system is heavily rear biased and the F3x cars do still feel rear wheel drive for the most part, although it feels less obvious thanks to those suspension changes no doubt. In a corner you can feel the car push from the rear a little before things begin to feel more neutral as you start to reach the limits of grip with the front wheels start to provide some drive. Under gradual inputs you never feel the system doing its thing and it just seems to deliver bucket loads of traction and confidence. If you are more hammed fisted at slower speeds then the rear does start to step out and you feel the front wheels step in more sharply but it is an almost instant change and just adjusts things so that you can power out of the corner providing you are in Sport Plus mode with the stability control slackened off a bit. This rear bias does make the BMW’s feel quite different and a lot more purposeful than its rivals from Mercedes 4matic and even more so, Audi’s Quattro cars.

I’m very conscious writing this,  that it could sound like I am being overly critical of the X-Drive cars which isn’t the case. The X-Drive cars are fantastic and still very good to drive and have that all important BMW feel so please bear that in mind as you read this and I am trying to explain the differences rather than highlighting negatives.

I always found the M-Sport suspension on my 4 Series to be a great set up for daily use. It felt sporty but wasn’t overly harsh unless you hit particularly big bumps at speed. Body roll was minimal and everything felt progressive and predictable whether you were cruising down a motorway or blasting through country lanes with the suspension loaded up. It was no full fat M car but it didn’t have the compromises you get with a setup as focused as that either. It always felt softer at the back and was clearly rear wheel drive in feel but it never felt overwhelmed by undulations and always felt planted which is important, particularly on cold or wet roads in a rear-wheel-drive car with a load of torque.

 I expected the suspension to feel softer in the X-Drive car and it does under hard cornering but I was immediately aware that the low-speed ride was noticeably harsher despite this. At slower speeds you feel more of the bumps and rough surfaces on the road surface but yet the steering feels less precise and a little vague until you load it up through a bend. On smooth straight motorways and fast A-Roads both of the cars feel composed and are very easy to do big mileage in but where the RWD drive car would remain glued to the road through fast sweeping corners completely unphased by them that vagueness off centre in the X-Drive car means whilst it tracks straight and true on those linear stretches of tarmac in fast sweeping corners you find yourself making little adjustments that weren’t necessary in the RWD car and you don’t really feel what is going on through the steering wheel in the same way. It’s a subtle difference but is definitely noticeable when you go from the RWD car to the X-Drive model. When you really load up the suspension on smooth flat roads this all goes away and whilst you do feel more lean than in the RWD car it still feels purposeful, rewarding and delivers more confidence in the form of that safety net should you need it.

Where the higher ride height and softer dampers really make a positive difference is when towing. I tow a touring caravan several times a year and whilst the 430d RWD was actually very good at towing it the suspension bottomed out with a crash on relatively minor bumps away from smooth motorways. The X-Drive car copes with this much better and is by far the better towing car.

Something I have read a lot about online and probably the biggest issue with the X-Drive cars for me as well is the rather untechnical ‘Floaty Feeling’ you get from the car through undulations, particularly whilst cornering. This is where you really miss the more focused M-Sport dampers as the X-Drive cars struggle to react quickly enough to changes in the road giving a floaty feeling that that eats into the confidence that four-wheel drive supplies and leaves you fearing you will lose grip over crests or bottom out in dips in a way I’ve never experienced in my RWD 4 Series. Over time I have learned to slow things down just a little and work with the feeling and create a flow at which point the car feels back to its best but it is without doubt the single biggest issue with this setup and one I would love to correct.

There seem to be infinite options out there when it comes to upgrading the X-Drive cars suspension from anti-roll bars, lowering springs and more focused dampers through to full and rather expensive setups from some of the most respected specialists in the motor industry. Am I going to go down that line? Probably not in truth. I would want to maintain that daily usability and not risk an uncomfortable ride, rubbing issues and most importantly I don’t have the funds available to start making changes to an already good car. I just wish BMW gave us the M-Sport suspension on our X-Drive 3 and 4 Series of this era because as much as I like my 330d X-Drive I would look harder for a RWD car next time and it might even stop me moving on to a 35D too. If I was to make any changes it would be to try and achieve the ride and handling of the RWD cars with a slight improvement to that higher ride height. Otherwise, I will very happily enjoy my spirited drives at a rhythmic seven tenths instead of my usual eight when the roads get really bumpy.

Whether two or four-wheel-drive these are great cars and now excellent value for money if you buy carefully. If driving pleasure is high on your list of priorities, then these BMW’s are definitely top of the small executive car tree whichever drivetrain you choose. As of yet I have not needed to test the X-Drive in snowy conditions but I have little doubt that if you regularly experience those kind of weather conditions then any loss in handling you suffer from choosing the four-wheel-drive car will be far outweighed by the gain in traction. The X-Drive cars are not bad cars, they are a lot of fun and great allrounders but the rear-wheel-drive cars are a step on once again. Think of them all as M-Lite cars whichever engine they contain. I will be dreaming of the suspension fairies delivering me the perfect set up for my 330d X-Drive free of charge.