When you are driving on roads which in altitude terms yo-yo between sea level and 1,000-plus metres in the space of a few minutes, a 3-litre engine mated to a good autobox is handy to have.

And when those same roads are hairpin twisty and sometimes concealing inadequacies that are comparable to Ireland’s secondary road system, a really intelligent suspension is at least desirable.

Then, with some fairly hairy drops all too evident on several parts of the journey, the surefootedness of the world’s fastest-adapting 4WD system is comforting.

But when you round a corner and find the evidence of a rockfall blocking half the road, you thank your spiritual entity of choice that you weren’t in that critical place at the critical time it happened.

Because even in a new BMW X3, you wouldn’t have stood a chance.

Still, rockfalls apart, the mountain roads of southern Spain were a truly perfect place to evaluate a car which BMW says has as yet ‘no competitors’.

And yes, I found it hard to think of something exactly matching the X3 segment which the Bavarian carmaker says it is ‘creating’. But board member Ernst Baumann says there WILL be competitors from others in the premium car area.

“Where BMW has led, others will follow,” he told me, reflecting a certain prideful bias that is understandable from somebody who has just marked 30 years working for his company.

The X3 is part of a ‘product offensive’ which BMW plans will increase its overall sales by 40 per cent over the next five years and turn it into a €50 billion a year company.

They are careful people, these Bavarians, and they have looked carefully into that future. They believe that there are significant growth prospects in the whole premium sector, and they have identified particularly strong growth trends in the ‘sport activity vehicle’ segment that gives them their acronym SAV for the new X3.

It isn’t merely a scaled-down X5, the large luxury SUV which has set the benchmark in its particular class and segment and the success of which even caught BMW themselves by surprise.

The car is 87mm longer than a 3 Series Touring but almost 300mm shorter than the X5.

It will be powered initially by 2.5- and 3-litre petrol engines, and a 3-litre turbodiesel. Standard transmissions are 6-speed manuals, and there is an option of a 5-speed autobox. The range will be expanded in Ireland when a 2-litre petrol version arrives, and a 2-litre diesel is definitely on the horizon.

Off-road capability is by means of an all-new ‘intelligent’ xDrive all-wheel drive system which allows infinite, fully-variable distribution of drive forces between the front and rear axles.

In normal driving, while 4WD is locked into operation until around 20 km/h, most the power is gradually transferred through the rear wheels, at at high speeds is totally so, in traditional BMW style. But where conditions, car attitude, or even an anticipation of dynamic change by the high-tech electronics call for it, a second clutch transfers as much of that power to the front axle as the system deems to be necessary.

It showed itself particularly well in the kind of muddy offroad conditions which a record rainfall over four days around Malaga left us in. But the xDrive also improves on-road performance to the point that suspension control systems such as DSC are not required until a much later point over a conventional AWD.

The feeling was best described as absolutely competent composure in that variety of conditions which I described at the beginning. The ride is flat, and firm without fussiness. The steering precise without being twitchy.

Those are the bald words. The engineerings, so to speak. But a BMW is about something more to those who revere the blue-and-white automotive logo. It is an emotional thing, for many much more than just the pride in ownership of a shiny automobile.

The trick is to keep pulling those emotional triggers. Some of them are visual, and the re-interpretations of traditional design elements such as the double-kidney grille and the ‘Hoffmeister kick’ in the rear side windows do it again.

Inside, the style of the car is surprisingly less avant-garde than have been the recent saloons 5 and 7 Series. The driver’s instruments and controls are simple and clear, and there is a certain understatement about the dashboard. There is no iDrive knob, some will be glad to know.

The X3 is one of those cars that is very roomy without feeling big. On the sides of mountains where wind was funny, and down at high speed on the motorway, the car seemed to me to be particularly quiet.

You can option-dress this car, as always with BMW, to your heart’s delight and your bank balance’s groaning.

Specific items include a panoramic roof, and the Adaptive headlights with bi-xenon beams, that essentially doubles the practical viewing area when cornering. A navigation system is available, using a pop-up screen in the top of the dashboard. For Ireland, still rather useless.

There’s an interesting thing about the top-end engines, 3-litre petrol and diesel. In the 0-100mph sprint, the diesel is only 0.1sec slower than the petrol. But in the 80-120 km/h overtake pull in 4th/5th gear, the oilburner is a full second faster.

More sportiness, then, from the diesel. Well, some of us have said that for quite a while now.

Prices haven’t been fixed for Ireland yet, but think in terms of €55,000 for the 2.5-litre. And even lower later for the 2-litre petrols and diesels. There’s even talk of a 1.8-litre coming down the line.

But you might want to order now. BMW Group Ireland has an initial allocation of just 250 for 2004. And if there was ever a BMW for me, this one is it.