BMW X5 M Competition 2020 Review - International

Tipping the scales at just over 2300kg, the BMW X5 M is grossly overweight.

But you wouldn't know it.

Squeeze the throttle and she launches with the thrust of an F14 Tomcat. Indeed, the $209,900 luxury SUV has almost triple the power of the entry-level X5 ($99,900), so hold on to your hat.

It will swallow five people and their luggage, no worries, while launching them into orbit with flippant ease.

At full noise, bodies are squeezed into the plush, power-adjustable Merino leather sports seats, scenery flashes past in a mottled blur, the rising crescendo of the V8 engine blending another intoxicating ingredient into this addictive mechanical cocktail.

It comes as no surprise that the BMW X5 M Competition is fast.

After all, it's powered by a berserk, 460kW/750Nm petrol V8, with a pair of turbos bolted on for good measure.

It has a top speed of 290km/h and, with a little help from launch control, will rip to 100km/h in 3.8sec.

That it is loud is almost a given, its bespoke exhaust system with quad 100mm tailpipes helping focus the engine's bassy battle cry, which peaks at an ungodly 7200rpm.

But its ability to carve up corners with the deft agility of a low-slung sports car? Well, that is a surprise.

Part of the cars uncanny ability to feel smaller and lighter than it actually is comes down to the massive brakes and feather-light steering, but the clever all-wheel drive system and intelligent rear differential also play a pivotal role.

As the AWD gubbins work their magic, deciding where to channel power, when, and with how much intensity, makes the BMW X5 M feel nimble. In a 2310kg package? Yes, in a 2310kg package.

You can read all about the nitty gritty of the BMW X5 M Competition in our price and spec story, which also reveals that only top-spec 'Competition' versions of the X5 M (and X6 M) will be sold in Australia. But after slinging the BMW X5 M Competition through the hills near Prescott, north of Phoenix, Arizona, I couldn’t stop laughing.

Not in the same way I cackled when launching the Jeep Trackhawk from every set of traffic lights in the sketchy Northern suburbs of Melbourne. That was throttle induced mirth.

I laughed with unbridled glee because of how the X5 M Competition’s all-round ability and exceptionally balanced chassis made me feel – not just the insane propulsion provided by the V8 engine.

The way the Beemer tracks through bends, the mid-corner speed it generates and the ease with which drivers can tap into its almost bottomless reserves of performance is remarkable. The big heifer seems to defy physics and somehow, curiously, is rewarding to drive fast.

Brakes? Very impressive. Colossal 395mm front and 380mm rear brake rotors are chomped by six-piston calipers up front and single-piston calipers at the rear. The giant stoppers deliver reliable deceleration with only a hint of fade felt after serious abuse. When you're dealing with 2300kg of mass, there's some things you just can suppress.

Overall, it's not strenuous or exhausting driving the barmy Beemer in full attack mode – just a lot of fun.

BMW M has somehow managed to banish body roll, the X5 M's flat attitude through corners gifting the staggered 21/22-inch front/rear wheels (shod with ultra-wide 295/35 front and 315/30 Michelin Pilot Sport 4 S tyres) abundant opportunity to generate supreme grip.

Okay, so the steering is nothing to write home about, best described as light and shopping-centre-ish. That said, it's way more direct than regular X5 models' steering and has a shorter ratio so your arms won't be crossed up.

Fuel consumption as tested was 13mpg, which is about 18.0L/100km. That figure is far above BMW's claim of 12.5L/100km, but not as bad as I thought it would be given the whipping it copped.

Consider how tall this vehicle is, how high its centre of gravity is, and how heavy it is. We're talking about a machine that weighs more than 2300kg with just one passenger and no luggage, and is 1750mm tall. It shouldn’t be able to navigate a round-about, let along carve up a snaking canyon road.

Yet it blasts through corner after corner with the pace and poise of a sports coupe, and instills similar levels of confidence in the driver.

While the X5 M Competition is not the world's fastest SUV – that honour goes to the likes of the Lamborghini Urus, Tesla Model X and Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk – it lives up to BMW's claim of being a balanced machine.

Axel Theiling, the powertrain head honcho at BMW M, told me that bragging rights were not the goal for this product.

"We don’t focus on the maximum power, we don’t focus on the minimum 0-100 time, we don’t focus on one particular number. It has to be a complete package," he said at the launch in the USA, where the X5 is built (although its V8 engine is shipped over from Germany).

On the road, the BMW M powertrain chief's input can be felt – there's no doubt this is a rapid SUV, the eight-speed automatic transmission modulating the V8's ruthless power with finesse. With 460kW (or 625hp) on tap at 6000rpm, the BMW X5 M ain't messing around; nail the throttle and things get wild.

But as Theiling explained, the goal with the new model was to create an all-rounder, not just a straight-line missile. A big part of the X5 M's supernatural dynamic ability is its intelligent all-wheel drive system, xDrive M, which is backed-up by a pair of capable deputies, the active M rear differential and adaptive M suspension.

The adaptive suspension has three modes – Comfort, Sport and spine-shattering – while the all-wheel drive system has two modes, Normal and Sport. In combination with the active M rear differential, which can split torque between the right and left rear wheels, they gift the BMW X5 M with agility and swiftness.

"We're not looking at winning a top-speed competition against any competitor," added Daniel Schmidt, head of product management at BMW M.

"We want to create the best possible high performance SUV. In this respect we always try to find the best solution technically, with lateral not just longitudinal performance," he said.

The most impressive element of the chassis, for mine, is the masterful all-wheel drive system, which tempers the intensity of the 460kW blown V8 with elegant ease. According to BMW M's chassis techno boffins, it can shunt 100 per cent torque to the rear axle, and almost that much to the front axle when required.

In other words, grip levels are always high, not matter how ungracefully you crush the accelerator pedal.

There's so much adjustability built into the X5 M – it’s like a giant rubber band. With magnetic powers. And a really loud voice.

Oh, and the transmission has three shift speeds too. In fact, there are six adjustable systems in total, which can be tweaked individually on the big 12.3-inch infotainment touchscreen, via toggle buttons near the gearstick, or saved to a pair of presets accessible via a pair of bold red buttons on the steering wheel.

Below is a precis of the modes available:
Powertrain x3
Suspension x3
Gearbox x3
Steering x2
Brakes x2
Exhaust x2

There are countless permutations on offer here allowing you to have soft suspension but mighty power, or a quiet exhaust note but firm brakes. If you want that sort of thing. Speaking of the brake adjustment – only the second time it's been offered after the BMW M8 Competition – the setup works well, the firmer setting suited to spirited driving with more bite earlier in the pedal stroke, the softer setting good for cruising and urban duties.

Although we tried to take a shortcut at one point and came across a hard-packed dirt road, which the car coped with, it's not intended to be an off-road vehicle. It's predictable on gravel and AWD system is very savvy but the big wheels and firm suspension do not mix with rutted, washed-out, pot-holed dirt roads.

No expense has been spared inside the new BMW X5 M Competition, with almost every surface covered in something that's nice to touch.

Merino leather power-adjustable sports seats are very, very comfortable and come with inflatable side bolsters which actually work when you’re throwing it into corners with wild abandon.

The infotainment system is very good, channeled through a large 12.3-inch touchscreen. You can tool around with gesture control, voice control and iDrive rotary dial control as intuitively as the touchscreen, and everything looks gorgeous in vibrant high resolution.

The large 12.3-inch digital instrument panel looks great too, and has a unique 'M' mode that doubles down on the rev counter, adding two – three if you include the head-up display. The latter also does a brilliant job with sat-nav instructions, its immense size and detail making navigation of foreign places easier than taking pots shots at vegan apologists.

There's a wireless phone charger, regular USB and USB-C ports, a panoramic glass roof, soft-closing powered doors and all the latest adaptive driving doodads available today, including automatic lane change, adaptive cruise control, lane keep assistant, parking assistant, the list goes on.

Safety systems are top-notch too, with all the requisite airbags, control systems and a solid passenger safety cell contributing to a five-star ANCAP safety rating.

Standard audio equipment includes a 16-speaker Harman / kardon setup, worth 464 Watts. For $7400 you can upgrade to the bonkers 20-speaker Bowers and Wilkins stereo, which triples output to a whopping 1508 Watts. However there are so many speakers that they replace the holy sh*t handles above the side windows – items that shouldn’t be deleted in a car like this.

Apple CarPlay is offered but not Android Auto, which is tipped to arrive on some Aussie BMW models mid-year. There's other minor issues too, such as no USB ports in the back seat. Quad-zone climate control means that back seat occupants can adjust their own temperature and while the rear seats aren’t as form-fitting as the front, the leather quality is just as schmick and there's plenty of leg and head room.

Boot size is unchanged from its predecessor (which is disappointing) but is big enough at 650 litres expanding to 1850 litres with the 40:20:40 splitting rear seats folded down.

Warranty is three-years/unlimited kilometres, so make sure you go for a few interstate drives and crank up the odometer!

There's no capped price service program per se, instead a BMW service inclusive (BSI). It costs $4134 for the basic or $11,188 for the Plus package (the latter includes replacement brake pads and discs), which lasts for five-years or 80,000km.

It's been popular, with the BSI customer take-up rate of 89.2 per cent in Australia for 2019, up from about 80 per cent in 2016.

Overall, the BMW X5 M is suitably luxurious and bedecked with enough pretty ornaments and cool technology to almost justify the extreme price.

While there was no race track element in this launch, despite several features designed specifically for such endeavours, the contention was made that most customers will never take their BMW X5 M to the track. A fair argument, as these cars will be used as everyday conveyances – albeit ones with supercar power and the kind of luxury usually reversed for monarchs.

It feels odd to pelt around corners at warp speed in something so big and heavy, yet have so much fun (and not fear for your life!). But with SUVs accounting for more than 60 per cent of BMW's sales in Australia, such vehicles are inevitable as customer desires change.

In spite of my old-school views that SUVs are useless lumps of metal that needlessly clog up our roads, I thoroughly enjoyed thrashing the pants off this machine. BMW's big, overweight, high-riding chunk of machinery does things that would bamboozle most quantum physicists.

The BMW X5 M Competition is morbidly obese, but as I've said before, you wouldn't know it.

How much does the 2020 BMW X5 M Competition cost?
Price: $209,900 (plus on-road costs)
Available: May 2020
Engine: 4.4-litre eight-cylinder twin-turbo petrol
Output: 460kW/750Nm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel: 17.9L/100km (as tested)
CO2: 286g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star ANCAP (2018)