2012 BMW X3: Couple Notes on Luggage
August 23, 2012
I never got around to sharing all my thoughts from my 3,000-mile road trip in our long-term 2012 BMW X3, so here's another installment. Let's talk about luggage. Of course it's no surprise that a couple rollaboard bags (one carryon-size, one a bit larger) fit in the X3's cargo bay, but early in the trip, we noted they had a tendency to slide around and bang into the seatback and tailgate.
Then, we got a little smarter and pulled the X3's stretchy cargo net over the bags and attached the net's clips to the four tie-downs. If I'd thought about it a little more, I would have adjusted the positioning of the tie-downs on their tracks so that the net would have covered the bags a little more securely. Even with this suboptimal arrangement, the bags were prevented from sliding.
One more note, you'll notice there's no protective strip on the X3's rear bumper. I have no doubt I could get one as an accessory from a BMW dealer (although a source tells me BMW doesn't offer an official OEM bumper cover). For now, it's a minor annoyance that our long-termer doesn't have one -- we had to be hyper-diligent to make sure the bags cleared the bumper when loading and unloading to avoid scratching the paint.
Erin Riches, Senior Editor
