from mwerks.com

Whether you know it or not, MWerks is one of a handful of sites run by a group of European car enthusiasts. Other sites in the group focus on Volkswagen, Volvo, Audi and even Saab, and, just as with MWerks, all of those sites are also run by die-hard enthusiasts of their respective brands. This house-of-Euro-fanboys makes for an interesting office-place dynamic.

That's why we decided it might be fun to get a little intra-mural energy flowing by putting three different vehicles together and sharing the collective results across all three of the relevant sites. Two of them — the Volvo XC60 and the Audi Q5 — are brand new, while the aging BMW X3 helped define the small luxury crossover segment when it debuted early in the current decade. Can the old BMW still go toe-to-toe with the new metal from Audi and Volvo? We took all three to their natural urban habitat — pothole-ridden, traffic-heavy downtown Chicago in this case— to find out. We promise we'll do our best to remain as unbiased as possible, because as a whole, our team's loyalties all cancel out.

Visually, the X3 is from a different time. While it, like the others, rides on a car-based platform, it was conceived at a time when designers believed that buyers still wanted their crossovers (that word wasn't even being used yet, actually) to look like real sport-utilities. Instead of looking like a tall hatchback, the X3 borrows more from the G-Wagen and Range Rover school of design. It looks bold and adventurous, while the Volvo and Audi have flow and grace as their major themes.

Looks, however, can be deceiving. Despite its chunkiness, the X3 is 86 pounds lighter than the XC60 and 90 pounds lighter than the Q5; additionally, it has the shortest length of the bunch and is just barely taller than the Audi. The Q5 and the XC60 must have been using the same Crossovers for Dummies book because in addition to being within four pounds of one another, they're the exact same length (182.2 inches, though the Audi rides on a 1.3 more inches of wheelbase) and are separated, power-wise, by just 11 horsepower. The Audi has a slight lead in every passenger space measurement, while the Volvo boasts a bit more cargo space. The X3 splits the two for passenger space but, thanks to those squared-off edges, has a group-leading 71 cubic feet of luggage room with the seats down.

Though the space inside each of these crossovers is within inches of one another in every measurement, the atmosphere of each couldn't be more different. The X3's seating position can only be described as Land Rover-like. The seat is mounted high, while the window line and hood are low, providing a commanding view of the world outside. The Q5 feels the most like a traditional sedan, while the XC60 provides the up high, yet cocooning feel we've come to expect from more and more current crossovers. Three vehicles, three personalities. The BMW is for those who want a full view over everything; the Audi is for image-conscious sedan owners looking for added space and utility; the XC60 provides a bit of both.



The XC60 also delivers the most interesting cabin. While some of the materials (the rubbery steering wheel and some door trim come to mind) aren't up to the same tactile standards as those in the Audi, our tester came with two-tone leather upholstery and a gorgeous optional slab of curved wood along its unique floating center stack. All of the Volvo's buttons, save the navigation controls hidden on the back of a one steering wheel three o'clock spoke, are laid out in a simple, logical manner. Scandinavian minimalism has never looked better. Well, mostly. We do have to complain about the high count of different textures in the cabin. The dashboard material matches nothing else and while the two-tone seats are attractive, one color is made up of smooth, soft leather while the other comes from, we assume, the hide of a narwhal that washed up on the coast of Sweden. Still, the seats are comfortable, the design is attractive, and the optional Dynaudio system is incredibly clear, provided you don't overload it with bass notes.

read the full story at: mwerks.com