2020 BMW X3 vs Lexus NX

What's the difference?

Big fast SUVs have long been a guilty pleasure of mine. My brain has been telling me for years, since the first time I drove one - the first-gen Audi SQ5 - that they're silly and wasteful and 'not my kind of car'.

The Europeans - and latterly, the Americans - seem to be playing to an audience of me, convincing my prejudiced head that my try-anything heart is right: over-engined, jacked-up, stiffly-sprung family wagons are as much fun as anything else.

The X3 M is BMW's first full-fat M version of the X3, a car that has never really fired the imagination until this third generation. First we got the very good X3 M40i, now we have a 375kW, twin-turbo straight-six screamer, the M Competition.

Having been on the market since 2014, the NX mid-size SUV quickly shot up the Lexus sales charts to become the brand’s most-popular model.

The SUV-hungry Australian market ate up the premium crossover, which also had the distinction of offering a hybrid powertrain.

In 2020 though, with SUVs popping up left, right and centre from premium and mainstream brands, can the NX still hold its own as an inner-city cruiser?