BMW has unveiled its latest X3, on sale in September this year.

The most popular model, X3 xDrive20d, does 50.4mpg on a combined cycle and has emissions of 147g/km CO2.

Powered by a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo diesel engine, it delivers 184hp at 4000rpm resulting in 0-62mph time of 8.5 seconds and a top speed of 130mph.

Other engines will be launched at a later date, but the X3 xDrive20d will account for 80% of sales when other variants have been introduced.

The car is the first in its sector to offer start-stop with an eight-speed auto transmission. The technology is standard on the manual transmission.

Priced at £30,490, it is £115 less than the outgoing model, yet has Nevada leather upholstery, two-zone air conditioning, iDrive controller and colour display as standard, said BMW.

It add that rear seats offer "significant more leg and elbow room compared to its predecessor". Boot space ranges from 550 to 1600 litres.

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