BMW X5 xdrive30d Munich’s refined, classy SUV
Even bigger SUV is much overhauled, from jumbo-sized new grille all the way back
Neat detail No 1: when offroading, you can see video images of each individual X5 wheel on the infotainment screen, as if you were outside. Neat detail No 2: a section of the middle row of seats will motor forward before tilting skywards, easing thirdrow access. Neat detail No 3: a button on the lower tailgate drops the entire rear end of the X5 by 40mm.
Indeed, there are heaps of neat details on this car, but don’t let that mislead you into thinking that the core of this latest, fourth-generation X5 hasn’t changed too: almost everything is new, even the carryover engines substantially reworked.
According to project leader Johann Kistler, there were three broad goals. First, to offer a genuinely sporting drive, and to combine this with real comfort and considerable off-road capability. Next came refinement. Third, explains Kistler, was “a high level of driver assistance, but without making a computer on wheels”.
These aims have been targeted within the envelope of a noticeably bigger X5, which has put on girth (up 66mm), length (36mm) and height (19mm), but a higher aluminium content allows the new version to maintain much the same weight on an equivalent equipment basis.
At launch, BMW will offer three engines, starting with the 261bhp 3.0-litre 30d. It’s a straight six rather than the previous four because that’s how they like ’em in America, and it’s expected to account for 65% of UK sales. For slightly more money comes the 335bhp 3.0 40i – also a six – while the current top-of-the-range powertrain is a 395bhp diesel.
All feed power to a wider-ratioed, eight-speed Steptronic gearbox of improved manners. It drives all four wheels, while hill descent control is standard. The xdrive system includes an electronic rear differential lock with the M Sport package that’s expected to take 80% of sales.
You won’t immediately notice much that’s radical when you climb inside, until little details impinge. The instruments are now digital and if it’s a heavily optioned X5, you’ll soon spy the Volvo-channelling crystal gearlever knob alongside – yay – an intelligible idrive controller and a single infotainment screen. A slightly busier head-up display, heated and cooled cup-holders, a thump-tastic 1500-watt Harmon Kardon stereo, laser headlights and extended connectivity are options too.
BMW’S refinement quest is immediately apparent in the diesel’s subdued idle, its efforts barely audible if you let the transmission have its perceptive, unobtrusive way. It’s not all brilliant, though. Flat out, the X5 doesn’t feel as fast as the claimed 6.5sec to 62mph time suggests, and if you shift manually, you’ll uncover sub-2000rpm lag. But once you’re used to the quickened rack of the (optional) Integral Active Steering, you find prodigious grip and excellent body control. What spoils it, slightly, is that the Active Steering’s swivelling of the rear wheels (useful in city manoeuvres) is continuously variable in sport mode, lending a hard-driven X5 a slightly inconsistent feel.
Rear-steer quirks aside, there’s no question that BMW has delivered an agile, driver’s X5. It’s also very capable off-road, a mix of high torque, versatile suspension and trick algorithms keeping you moving along most tracks. It’s still more entertaining as the petrol 40i, the six delivering deliciously cultured sounds and a lightly electrifying gearshift blat at full revs.
The X5’s accommodation is excellent – you’d hope for nothing less in a vehicle this big – though Chinese buyers will doubtless consider the slightly constrained rear leg room ego-dentingly limited. The X5’s flaws are small, however. This bulwark of BMW’S highly successful X model is an impressively complete and satisfying family transport device both on road and off.