X class and amarok not available in the US. Only get non luxury midsize trucks here. If the x class, or (God willing) BMW built a midsize truck, were sold in the US then I would have one of those in my driveway instead of the x3 m40i.
I owned a 2018 zr2 4 door for a little over a year. We had that, a ‘17 X1, and a ‘17 m240i in the driveway. While the truck wasn’t horrible to be in like others have mentioned, the refinement of the transmission and engine tunes were piss poor and made me only want to drive it when I needed something from Lowe’s/Home Depot, or was going off-roading. Otherwise, the BMWs were a much nicer place to be for a daily driver. I will say this, the truck towed fantastically and handled mud, rocks/boulders, small rivers a few feet deep, and trails above any expectation I could’ve had for it. But it sucked in the sand due to the heaviness and narrow factory tires. Living in Florida though, we have more than our fair share of sand when doing any kind of trails so this was a bit of a let down, but could be fixed with new wheels and tires. Being the only midsize truck at the time with a front locker made it the only choice for harder off-roading (for midsize trucks). And it was relatively quick as well for its size. The problems came when cruising when the transmission would hunt for gears and could never find the right one. The DFM only switched to 4 cylinder when coasting. Idling and cruising down the road at 50mph left it in v6 so got the fuel economy of a 15 year old v8 (averaged 17 mpg city/hwy). Ultimately, I didn’t off-road enough to justify the truck anymore. Traded the x1 and the truck for a ‘19 x3 m40i with the tow package. Small trips to the hardware store easily doable (fit 10 bags of soil in the trunk with the seats still up) and large trips I can grab a trailer if need be. Towed a Corolla from IL back down to Florida with ease and still got 22 mpg on that drive, and light off-roading if needed is doable. Most importantly is I get to enjoy the refinement that BMW brings to the entire package that Chevy failed to do.
If I had to do it again, I’d go with the gladiator or ranger in lower trim levels. Strictly because I know the drive train of the Colorado/canyon twins was a huge let down, and the premiums on tacos will never be worth it to me for what you get in the package (manual seats??? Seriously??? And no CarPlay/android auto, but you get Alexa??? What the absolute fuck Toyota).
But again, if BMW made a midsize pickup, I’d be on it in a heartbeat. Hell, make it unibody for all I care. I just need it to carry 500lbs in the bed minimum and tow 5-7k. Both doable with independent suspension so adapt the x3 platform. Take the x3 m40i, chop the trunk space, add a wall behind rear seats, extend the old trunk area another foot or 2 and you have a relatively capable vehicle. Better mpg/power from the B58 than any competitor engines in the midsize segment, specially when towing, better refinement all over, full time AWD makes it a fantastic DD for any environment (rain/snow/sun), and the way prices on midsize trucks are going, selling the top trim with all of these specs at $70k for a true luxury truck makes absolute fucking sense for a business case. The x3 is also manufactured in South Carolina so you could avoid import taxes. If I had the money to do it, I’d turn the one I have now into a working prototype for BMW and do mashups of it against all of the other midsize trucks doing everything they should be able to do just to prove it to BMW. I’d even market it for research to show the client base who’d buy such a vehicle. That’d be the whole supporting business case for them... but alas, I don’t have $100k in disposable income to do such a thing
