X HITS THE SPOT!
The latest version of the X5 is full of luxurious touches
GOODWOOD estate in West Sussex is known all over the world for the annual Festival of Speed, in which drivers compete to be the fastest up that legendary hill. Ever obstinate, I’m taking a different tack, and descending a hill – at three miles an hour.
I’m putting the new BMW X5’s off-road agility to the test in a forest on the estate. I’ve already driven up a gravel hill, and banked the car at a 19-degree angle (‘We were up to 33 degrees earlier this week,’ my instructor Phil tells me, ‘and that was hairy’). Here in the forest, the terrain is hilly, bumpy and slippery, with a carpet of sodden leaves and deep mud ruts.
More to the point, I’m on regular road tyres, but the X5 takes it all in its stride. Using the hill descent control, you can adjust your speed in increments of one mile per hour with the flick of a switch, and the very second the car determines it is back on level ground, hill descent disengages automatically. When the car detects slippage on any of the wheels, xDrive channels the power to the other three, getting you out of difficulty in seconds. Depending on the drive mode – for the likes of sand, mud and snow – the active chassis also varies the ride height.
When you encounter an obstacle that disappears from sight in front of the car (in my case, a pheasant with a death wish who wouldn’t get out of the way), you simply engage the forward camera to double check it is safe to proceed. Had it not been available, tomorrow’s dinner might well have been very different.
The X5 is 19 years old this year, which is hard to believe, and I’ve always had a soft spot for it, given that it was the first premium SUV on the road (though BMW prefers SAV, or sport activity vehicle, to reflect the fact that it’s a proper road car too). Four years ago, I borrowed one for eight days and drove 2,400km along the Wild Atlantic Way, from Donegal to Cork, and loved the high driving position and the sense of security the car offered, especially crawling over the Conor Pass on the Dingle Peninsula. Heights are not really my thing, and I spent most of that part of the drive deep in prayer.
This latest version of the car has toned down a lot of the original styling cues, not always for the better. The kidney grille has increased in size, adding presence to the front of the car. The crease in the side panels rises sharply in the middle of the rear door and makes the car appear to sit higher on its haunches, and the short front overhang adds urgency to the looks. The big disappointment is the rear of the car, which to my eye looked more Volkswagen than BMW, mass market rather than premium.
Inside, there are lot of tics familiar from other BMWs. Again, I was a little disappointed to see the standard BMW infotainment screen here. It’s an area in which BMW is falling behind, notably when pitted against Audi’s new twin-screen systems, and especially against Volkswagen’s Touareg, which features an absolutely vast screen that’s as big as my first portable television.
Where the X5 scores is on comfort and detailing. As an option, you can add CrafterClarity glass decorations that look like Swarovski crystal to the transmission select lever (the car comes with eight-speed automatic in all versions), the controller, the start/stop button and the volume control button. In what surely is a first, you can also add thermo-cupholders in the centre console, one of which keeps your water cold, the other to keep your coffee hot.
Everything has the feel of luxury, from the optional Bowers & Wilkins Diamond surround-sound system, with 20 speakers and 1,500-watt output, to the Panorama glass roof Sky Lounge that uses LED light spread across the glass surface to illuminate more than 15,000 graphic patterns that look like a starlit sky.
The car will be available here in three engine variants – 260hp xDrive 30d (xLine trim €87,390, M Sport trim €92,860); 340hp six-cylinder xDrive 40i (xLine trim €96,060, M Sport €101,970); and the top-of-therange, straight-six 400hp xDrive M50d (€112,800) that completes the 0-100kph sprint in just 5.5 seconds.
We took the 40i out for a two-hour spin on the roads around Goodwood, passing through bucolic scenery and villages with cosy-looking pubs that made us wish we weren’t driving at all, but settling in for the afternoon with a nice roast and a few beers. At least the air suspension kept us comfortable.
In the past, BMW detractors have joked that most who buy X5s never encounter terrain any more threatening than the Tesco car park.
What this latest version proves is that all those safety and driving aids belie the derision – off-road as well as on, this is a fine car, even at three miles an hour.