Sized-up new X5 is a big deal all round Luxury SUV is packed with hi-tech kit

BMW started something when it launched the X5 at the end of the 20th century.

It was the first big off-roader that was designed to drive like a high-performance car on the road as well as be good at climbing over tree trunks and fording rivers.

Porsche’s Cayenne soon followed and since then pretty much every premium car maker has added a sporty, luxurious SUV to its range. Even Ferrari is about to sell one – and since the X5, BMW has added the X1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and X7 to its range.

Meanwhile, the all-new X5 is bigger in every dimension – and a worrying 66mm wider than the outgoing model.

Designers and engineers responsible for the cars think American highways (the X5 is built in Spartanburg, South Carolina) and not quaint villages in Britain.

The new X5 looks enormous and isn’t particularly attractive either. It’s enough to give a Green Party member a coronary.

From launch there are three engines to choose from – the 30d in our test car which is a 261bhp straight-six diesel; the 335bhp 40i,

which is a petrol and unlikely to sell in big numbers; and, finally, the 50d which is also a 3.0-litre straight-six diesel but with no fewer than four turbochargers producing 394bhp. Hybrid powertrain versions will follow.

We’re driving the 30d in xLine trim which, with no options, costs £57,495. M Sport adds £3,500 and you can spot this higher level from its black trim around the windows

and 20in wheels.

Despite the hefty price tag, you do get a lot of kit that’s standard. For example, there’s air suspension front and back for the first time. Its real advantage is felt offroad, but it cushions bumps well on-road too.

It lowers the car automatically at higher speeds and can also be lowered to make loading people and luggage easier.

There are, of course, various optional packages and individual extras such as fourwheel steering and active anti-roll.

If you’re coming from the current X5 to the new one you’ll immediately spot the big difference between the two interiors, and more specifically, the instrument panels.

Gone are the traditional round gauges and in their place a digital instrument pack. I’m not a complete Luddite and, done well, as in Audi’s Virtual Cockpit, digital instruments are excellent. The X5’s are not so good. There’s too much information displayed in too small a space.

For example, the display simultaneously shows your actual speed, the speed limit and cruise control speed with not enough definition between them. An optional head-up display is available but that’s not much clearer.

The rest of the digital display – what BMW used to call iDrive but now refers to as the BMW Operating System – is easy and intuitive to use.

There’s technology in the new X5 that you’d never realise is under the skin – such as drive-by-wire brakes. The feel of them is no different to a conventional direct hydraulic system but BMW has chosen to fit this technology because it will be needed when future automated driving systems are added.

Bigger than ever, more complicated and bursting with even more kit, the new X5 will not disappoint buyers who like this sort of car.

Unless, of course, they’ve failed to measure the distance between their gate posts before placing their order.

Air suspension can lower the car to make it easier to load your luggage