Spent the morning comparison driving the RX330, MDX, and X3. Amazed at how
different they were.

The RX330 was by far the most impressive. Smooth, nice handling, good
storage, and very comfortable. About the only negative that really jumped
out were the lack of side bolstering in the seats. My wife loved this car.

The MDX was surprising in that I expected it to be a somewhat larger version
of the RX330. In fact, it seemed like a smaller version of our Yukon XL.
Felt a lot bigger than the RX330 and much more truck-like to drive. The
seats felt really strange. Just uncomfortable.  Storage space was great. It
made the worst impression.

The X3 was the one I wanted to like and hoped my wife would. First thing I
noticed was the upholstery looked like leatherette. The salesman said it was
leather. Most vinyl-like looking leather I have seen. The auto tranny was
strange shifted slowly and unexpectedly, like there was something wrong with
it. This was the 3-liter (like my 330i E46), so it good power, but the
transmission screwed up the effect. Seats had the same weird last two inches
of the seat missing near the seat back that my E46 has, but were otherwise
fine.Storage space looked comparable to the RX330. I think the new 325ix
Touring when it comes out in a couple of months would be a better choice
than the X3 unless one really is going off-road.

The RX330 walked away from the others, in our opinion.

- GRL