ISUK

Just read an article in this week's Autocar where they have driven an X3 around Soweto. The following are quotes - "Thin air robs X3 of power" and "In the UK, the X3's 2.5 litre motor musters 192bhpbut here, at 5750ft, it's more like 157bhp and the car feels slothfull".

Sounds like high altitude and thin air is the source of your problems after all.

streak

Thanks for all of the further comments.
Yes it's a known fact that up here at 6000 ft there is about an 18% loss of performance for normally aspirated cars. This is why the turbo diesels peform so damn well in comparison.
I have not tried my car at sea level so dont know if altitude is affecting the turbo as well.
The problem has been reported to BMW and I am waiting to hear their response.

Rasailor, I was told that the software is so clever that it monitors the boost and makes sure that gear changes happen at optimum rpms. However I do find that when driving briskly that the car tends to rev much too high where there is no usebale torque. I would rather see the auto gear changes happen sooner and quicker like in our diesel X5 which has closer ratios.

Streak

rasailor

That's the point!

But in the meantime I'm afraid that's normal with the present software as my loaner (525 dA) this morning (my own is at BMW again for fixing the ususal problems) reacted the same.

I liked the older software much better.

Dirk.xd

I have noticed the same problem on my E46 330xdA. You floor the throttle and for a few tenths of a second nothing really happens.... I have the feeling that I get a better response when not flooring it.. I sometimes think of this as a kind of security thing: the car wonders whether you really want to release all horses, so it gives you some time to reconsider?