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BMW X3 vs Lexus ES

What's the difference?

VS
BMW X3
BMW X3

$86,100 - $128,900

2025 price

Lexus ES
Lexus ES

$53,999 - $77,900

2023 price

Summary

2025 BMW X3
2023 Lexus ES
Safety Rating

Engine Type
Turbo 4, 2.0L

Inline 4, 2.5L
Fuel Type
Premium Unleaded Petrol

Premium Unleaded/Electric
Fuel Efficiency
0.0L/100km (combined)

4.8L/100km (combined)
Seating
5

5
Dislikes
  • Panoramic sunroof doesn't open
  • Gear selector seems fiddly
  • Strictly a five-seater

  • Dated interior, fiddly controls
  • Firm ride
  • Road and engine noise at speed
2025 BMW X3 Summary

If you’ve ever wondered when cars will stop getting bigger…continue to wonder. Because if you’re BMW, it hasn’t happened yet.

The new, fourth-generation BMW X3 is here now and as well as being bigger in every dimension apart from height, it also ushers in revised versions of existing tech, a standardisation of what was once optional and has brought hybridisation to every model in the new line-up.

Just as the 3 Series was once BMW’s bread-and-butter model, in the SUV age, at least some of that responsibility must fall at the X3’s feet. So it’s an important model and one that BMW must get right. At the same time, the new X3 brings into the spotlight the latest corporate design language and BMW, as much as any carmaker, knows how risky that can be.

The brand also understands how divisive the latest interface technology can be, but has elected to fit it to the X3 anyway. That’s faith in the product, right there. But will punters be of the same opinion?

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2023 Lexus ES Summary

What’s the closest thing we have to a modern-day Holden Statesman/Caprice?

If, like General Motors, you obliterate Australia’s Own from existence altogether, you’re left with time-honoured rivals also made in this country, like the Ford Fairlane, Chrysler by Chrysler and Toyota’s Crown and Avalon.

But they’re also all in history’s dustbin (well, the American ones, anyway), leaving the humble Camry as the sole living nameplate with any connection to Australian manufacturing.

And since the Lexus ES is a close relative, we’re going to take a fresh look at the latest version, with a view of it as a bit of a survivor of a bygone era – where aspirational vehicles were created from normal family sedans.

Just like the Fairlane, Crown and of course, the Caprice.

Launched in mid 2018 but facelifted in 2021, we test the ultimate version of the seventh-generation ES, the 300h Sports Luxury – or SL, if we’re to make yet another tenuous connection to long-gone Holdens.

Let’s go!

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Deep dive comparison

2025 BMW X3 2023 Lexus ES

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