BMW X5 xDrive30d 2013 Review - International

BMW X5 xDrive30d

What we liked:
>> Quiet, comfortable, roomy
>> Reliable handling
>> Strong engine

Not so much:
>> Ultra-conservative design evolution
>> All models are 2000kg-plus
>> Steering isn’t intuitive

Messing with a winning formula isn’t good business. It’s an old rule and BMW applies it to the all-new X5, even if it’s not an old car.

Since it was launched in 1999, BMW’s X5 has found 1.3 million buyers and BMW internally calls it ‘The Boss’, reveals development head, Dr Herbert Diess.

But that hasn’t stopped the release of a redesigned model that probably didn’t need to happen, given BMW sold 108,600 examples of the US-built SUV last year.

The third-gen X5 will arrive in Australia in the last quarter of this year and while BMW has yet to cast in stone its full line-up, the global market will see an X5 range featuring upgraded everything, with some surprises.

Chief among them will be a petrol-electric hybrid with the 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine from the 328i and an sDrive25d two-wheel drive version, but the biggest seller will remain the X5 xDrive30d with a 3.0-litre turbo-diesel engine, as tested here.

M Performance Automobiles (BMW’s halfway brand between the stock models and the M badge) will lead the hitting with the M50d and its tri-turbo inline six-cylinder diesel, while the petrol range will be headed by the turbocharged V8 in the xDrive50i.

With the new X5 being more aerodynamically efficient, every model has better fuel economy than the one it replaces and every model will offer a seven-seat option.

BMW is talking up the X5 as being all-new, with more interior space and more luggage capacity. Sure, it’s heavily upgraded and the interior and exterior designs are all-new, but the architecture it sits on carries the same wheelbase, the same front and rear wheel track widths and the same 85-litre fuel tank in the same place.

That’s not anything to be upset about because the X5’s underbits have dated rather well, but it doesn’t exactly qualify as “all-new” under motoring.com.au’s definition.

BMW didn’t really need to stretch the wheelbase any more than the existing 2933mm and having a front track width of 1644mm and a rear of 1650mm meant it had plenty of stability before it even began.

The interior designers have eked more out of the real estate, though, because there’s 30 litres of additional luggage capacity (up to 650 litres) and that leaps to a 120 litres more (1870 litres) when you flatten the optional 40:20:40-split rear seat.

You still access this with a two-piece vertically opening tailgate, but you can now open and close this from the driver’s seat.

Up front, the interior visuals are dominated by the X5’s new seats and a 10.25-inch version of BMW’s ubiquitous dash-top pop-up multi-media screen that doesn’t, in fact, pop up at all. It just looks like it should, so it’s at odds with the rest of the leather-topped dash’s curves. That’s nothing new, though. BMW does it with everything else, too.

The Bavarians have added luxury to the X5’s resume (not that it wasn’t already at least comfortably appointed), with three different ambient light colours (courtesy of strips of LED lighting in subtle areas). For the rest of the interior, you can specify either of BMW’s new trim lines (Design Pure Excellence and Design Pure Experience), or you can mix them together.

There is practicality, too, at least after a fashion. The front door pockets are Audi-style capacious, capable of swallowing 1.5-litre drink bottles and a laptop computer. The cubby hole beneath the centre armrest has most of its practical space gobbled up by the phone holder and the glovebox is dominated by the owner’s manual, leaving the cupholders and the small hole in front of them as the only other useful space up front.

There is a choice of comfort or sports seats too, and the comfort seats are available as a rear-seat option for the first time. Meanwhile, in the not-so-comfort seats of the optional third row, BMW insists they are not for passengers taller than 1.5 metres.

There are more powerful and more frugal X5 engines out there, but the market has historically run its highlighter pen over the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel as the powerplant of preference. There are good reasons for this, not the least being its strong step-off torque performance and its economy.

There is no reason to doubt the oil-burning straight-six will, once again, be the dominant engine choice in the third-generation X5, especially with an extra 10kW of power (now up to 190kW) and another 20Nm of torque (to 560Nm).

It gets this mostly via electronic fiddles and detail tweaks to its architecturally unchanged engine, but the baseline is that it has common-rail direct-injection and a single turbocharger.

That helps it to sprint to 100km/h in 6.9 seconds (a 0.7-second chop) and a 230km/h top speed, which is more than enough to get you arrested in Australia.

Besides making the X5 xDrive30d faster, it’s also 16 per cent (or 1.2L/100km) more economical, registering 6.2L/100km on the NEDC combined cycle. That’s down to 162g/km of CO2 (or 164, depending on the tyre size), which leaves the less powerful, lighter, rear-drive X5 sDrive25d well within striking distance of a sub-150g/km number.

BMW mates the 3.0-litre turbo-diesel to an eight-speed automatic transmission and all-wheel drive system. All this bolts into an architecture that is modified, but not wholly different. The body-in-white (the core of the architecture) is about five per cent stiffer and a scratch lighter, but all the dimensions remain.

In fact, the biggest addition to the whole thing is the move from old-school hydraulic steering to new-school electro-mechanical steering turning their 18-inch or optional 19-inch wheels.

Its front and rear suspension set-ups are variations on the existing architecture, including its multi-link rear-end, but with a couple of important additions. The X5 now comes with the choice of a Comfort suspension tune, a Dynamic set-up or a combination of both in the Professional package.

Comfort delivers air suspension and electronic damper control and has two damping levels, Dynamic delivers active roll stabilisation to reduce bodyroll and includes torque vectoring, while the Professional takes the best of both.

Take care not to get confused inside BMW’s naming redundancies though, because all X5s still have the rocker switch on the centre console to allow drivers to switch between Comfort and Sport modes. So regardless of whether you buy the Comfort, Dynamic or Professional suspension options, you’ll still have the Comfort and Sport (plus EcoPro and Sport+) modes to fall back on. These still encompass throttle response, steering, stability control, exhaust and transmission settings.

You’d have to be trying very hard to mess your driving up beyond what the X5’s electronic safety nets are capable of fixing. The new model comes with just about every three-letter acronym known to the motoring world.

Under braking, you can set off its ABS, obviously, but also its dynamic stability control (skid-control system), the corner braking control, the dynamic brake control and the automatic differential brake.

Then there’s the brake assist feature, a brake standby feature, a brake-fade compensation feature, a brake-drying function, a hill-start function and a hill descent control set-up -- all just brake-related systems.

On top of that, BMW supplies the X5 with a lane departure warning system as part of an optional driving assistance package, which also includes a collision warning system that brakes the car if you ignore it and plow on blithely towards a crash.

This combines with its optional infra-red camera to identify both errant humans and ignorant livestock to warn you of both and to flash the former with a blast of its LED lighting system.

And there is an active protection system, an option which acts in a similar way to Benz’s PreSafe by figuring out a crash is about to happen, then closing the windows and sunroof, tightening the front seatbelts and raising the front passenger seat to maximise the survival chances of its occupants.

Where BMW treads, its two German rivals can usually be found in lock step, and that’s true here.

Mercedes-Benz’s M-Class has an array of engines and safety features that sound very much like the X5’s, and so does Audi’s Q7. The Q7, though, is ageing and headed for its own full-line overhaul, while the M-Class is much fresher, only being on the market for little over a year.

But that’s not all. If you’re considering the M-Class, you really ought to consider the Jeep Grand Cherokee because they sit on very similar architecture and most consider Jeep’s design team to have done the better job, and don’t forget the Lexus RX and Infiniti FX either.

There’s no word yet from BMW Australia on what the X5 xDrive30d might cost, but given the fierce competition in this sought-after segment, it’s unlikely to depart much from its current second-gen X5 range-opening price of $92,245 (plus ORCs).

Should you get one? Well, if you’ve already had an X5 and enjoyed it, you’ll probably want to upgrade to the new one, and based on our first drive there are no reasons not to.

That’s partly because it will all seem familiar to you, and partly because it’s a touch better in a few areas where the old one was a bit wanting.

There are some issues, however, and the biggest of those is the new electric steering. BMW insists it’s just perfect now, but it isn’t.

It has two major problems: it offers ‘resistance’ feedback to suggest lines through corners that aren’t always appropriate and, in Sport mode, it’s just too light in its resistance.

The quirky part is that, unlike with an Audi, this BMW can’t disconnect the electronic setting of its steering from everything else, so it’s a job lot -- like or lump it. That means if you want the most athletic engine, transmission and damper settings, you have to take the least athletic steering. Odd.

As for the rest of it, you can climb straight out of the old one and the new X5 feels like the most logical, evolutionary step you’ve ever taken.

The interior is a step forward in some ways, with the huge front-door pockets and their abilities to swallow large drink bottles and chunky odds and sods being the biggest of them.

It’s a classier place to be, with curves on the dash and the doors now softening the feeling of chunkiness and the new seat designs soaking up more vibration as well as offering more support. There is also mood lighting (with a choice of blue, orange or white) and the uninterrupted, unshaped roof lining lets you know that BMW fully expects most people to order panoramic roofs.

And the diesel engine is a cracker. It has more power and torque, but it still turns over quietly, with just a hint of potential menace. Cruise off gently and it’s a quiet, easy companion. Hit the throttle and the tone grows suddenly deep and urgent, and so does the performance.

Hitting 100km/h in under seven seconds is no small feat when you’re toting more than 2100kg, yet the xDrive30d seems to do it without much effort. It always feels strong and willing, with slick gearshifts -- especially at speeds below around 130km/h.

Beyond that, BMW’s choice of taller, fuel-saving gears means it doesn’t punch with the same urgency, but those choices have helped it to record an NEDC fuel consumption figure that’s better than some small hatchbacks.

It revs smoothly and easily, well beyond its 4000rpm power peak, and having its torque peak arrive at just 1500rpm means it’s always ready to deliver its strongest punch. It’s a quiet cruiser as well as a comfortable urban companion, with BMW dropping the interior noise levels down by nearly 3dBa at 100km/h.

The xDrive30d’s on-road handling is easy, too, with more grip from its (optional) 19-inch rubber than you’d expect, especially on faster corners where its long wheelbase comes into play. But it trends towards reliable (rather than entertaining) handling and it’s the kind of chassis that’s never going to frighten anybody by doing a single untoward thing. It is nimble enough and confident, too.

Ride quality is the biggest step forward; going a long way towards eliminating some of the jarring notes the old model could deliver over square bumps. It’s a treat these days.

BMW also had an off-road segment for us to try at the global launch in Canada, but we were stuck behind a pilot car at sub-20km/h speeds on a track that would barely have challenged a Corolla. From this, we know the new X5 can get its tyres dirty without exploding, but we can’t tell you any more than that.

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