Model years › BMW X3

2020 BMW X3

This year drew an ordinary 218 complaints for a BMW X3 — the model's median is 96. What they were about is the unusual part: 18.3% of them mention differential, against 6.1% across the other years of this generation.

Generation 3 of the BMW X3, which began in 2018 and ran to 2024. Everything below compares this year against the others in that generation, not against a different car wearing the same name.

NHTSA opened a defect investigation into this model year.

What the complaints were about

• differential — 18.3% of this year's complaints, against 6.1% across the other years of this generation (3×). Owners wrote it as: differential, bolt, rear differential, differential bolt.
• became — 9.2% of this year's complaints, against 3.6% across the other years of this generation (2.5×). Owners wrote it as: became, associated, assistance provided.

Words owners used for the same problem are counted together, so a fault written four different ways is measured once. Grouped by which complaints they appear in, not by a list anyone wrote in advance.

What owners wrote

Consistently breaking differential bolt that hold the rear differential in place, very widespread issue as well as being consistently noted in forums. Also a high number of differential completely failing across all years. Mine failed recently, two other vehic…

The rear differential bolt is a known failure point on these cars. I see it time and time again where there is a clunk noise coming from the rear of the car and sure enough, the bolt has broken on the rear differential and leaves the car undriveable. BMW has s…

Verbatim from NHTSA complaint filings, with identifying details removed.

Recalls for this year

• 20V598000 BACK OVER PREVENTION
• 21V096000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
• 20V152000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
• 19V684000 BACK OVER PREVENTION Fixed free of charge.
• 20V164000 SEAT BELTS Fixed free of charge.
• 19V678000 SUSPENSION Fixed free of charge.
• 20V601000 ELECTRICAL SYSTEM Fixed free of charge.
• 19V738000 STEERING Fixed free of charge.

Showing 8 of 16. The rest are on NHTSA's site.

Own a 2020 BMW X3? What happened to yours?

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How this was worked out

Every year of the BMW X3 was compared against its own history rather than against other cars, which removes popularity and age from the answer — a common car draws more complaints at equal reliability, and an older one has had longer to accumulate them. A year is flagged when it drew at least 2.5× this model's median and at least 50 complaints.

This is a fault record, not a review. Nobody files a federal complaint to say the car was fine, so it shows what tends to go wrong — not whether owners liked it, and not whether it is a good car.

Source: NHTSA complaints, recalls and investigations, retrieved . Look this vehicle up directly on NHTSA's site to check anything here.

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