BMW X5 Reviews

The BMW X5 xDrive40d is the last stop up the ladder before things get truly hardcore in BMW's flagship SUV line-up.

Nikki Cousins and Peter Anderson road test and review the BMW X5 M, with specs, fuel consumption and verdict.

Richard Berry road tests and reviews the 2016 BMW X5 xDrive40e with specs, fuel consumption and verdict at its Australian launch.

Craig Duff road tests and reviews the BMW X5 xDrive40e with specs, fuel consumption and verdict at its Australian launch.

Somebody needs to tell those hipster enviro-activists at Sea Shepherd to quickly make more stickers, because their fans have a fresh back window to stick ’em on. The new X5 xDrive40e is a petrol-electric hybrid SUV you can plug into your power point at home and then travel about 30km off a charge.Yeah, that’s not far, but according to the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development the average Australian lives 15.6km from where they work and that could make the daily commute fossil-fuel free – in BMW’s biggest SUV. Yes eco warriors you can have your planet and your luxurious loungeroom on wheels, too.You’re not going to get stranded at the 30km mark either, this isn’t a fully electric vehicle. The four-cylinder turbo petrol engine on board has an 180kW/350Nm output and can work in isolation or together with the 83kW/250Nm electric motor. That’ll give you a range of about 1100km if you’re mainly on a highway or about 750km in town.There’s never been an X5 xDrive40e before – this is the first of BMW’s plug-in hybrids in its new iPerformance division. The next to come will be the mid-sized 330e sedan and wagon in May.Like all X5 xDrives the hybrid is all-wheel drive and looks exactly like its siblings – the only giveaways being the low-key ‘edrive’ badges and the charging port on the front-left wheel arch.Pricing is in line with rest of the X5 range, too with BMW asking $118,900 for the xDrive40e – the same as the diesel-powered X5 xDrive 40d. The standard features list matches the 40d and includes Dakota leather upholstery and brushed aluminium trim, 10.25-inch multimedia screen with satnav and surround view camera, auto parking, active cruise control and 19-inch alloys.What the hybrid gets that the diesel doesn’t is the adaptive ‘Comfort’ suspension package.That price tag places the xDrive40e towwards the top end of the X5 range which kicks off at $86,200 for the front-wheel drive sDrive25d and steps all the way up to the $149,900 X5 M50d.The X5 xDrive40e has a five-star ANCAP crash rating. There’s lane departure and forward collision warning, stability and traction control, ABS and two ISOFIX mounts.You can also program the 40e to emit a sound to let pedestrians know it’s approaching – because 2.2 tonnes of metal creeping silently around a corner in a carpark tends to scare the breakfast out of people.As for the fossil fuel free commute – it has to be said that most electricity in Australia is made by shoveling coal into a big fire. So the key to being totally eco is to source your power through green energy providers or get solar panels on the roof of your house and make the sun pay for your drive to work.The human race is finally ready for plug-in hybrids because we’ve all trained ourselves to incorporate charging our phones into our lives. So the concept of getting home and putting your car on the charger isn’t much of an ask now.What does it cost and how long does it take to charge the xDrive40e? Well, it comes with a charging cable which will plug into your regular home or garage power point and will fully charge the SUV in five hours. BMW sells a wall unit charger for $1700 which will charge the batteries in about 2.5 hours. Either way the electricity bill comes to about $2 to charge the SUV completely.And that gives you the 30km electric-only range which is what we wanted to verify first at the Aussie launch of the SUV recently.Before starting we had to get our heads around the three modes for the hybrid system – Auto eDrive, Max eDrive and Save Battery. Like the other X5s the 40e has three regular drive modes too – Eco-Pro, Comfort and Sport.We started with Auto eDrive and Comfort selected which is the default setting and means the petrol engine will only kick in at speeds above 70km/h or if you’re not gentle with acceleration. After about 10 minutes we changed to Max-eDrive which is purely electric. After 27km of driving we were down to four percent battery. Our first checkpoint was at 32 km and here we reached it in 43 minutes with an average fuel consumption of 4.1L/100km and an average speed of 45.9km.Then going into Sport mode we ran the SUV on the petrol engine only for 47km to our start point. This saw us drinking at 10.6L/100km, but when in Sport mode the brakes charge the batteries and in the 53 minutes it took for us to get back we had regained 80 per cent charge.What’s it like to drive? Pretty much just like any other X5 – the ride is supremely comfortable, the steering is brilliant, there’s plenty of grunt and the eight speed auto transmission is faultless. Inside is lavish with abundant head and legroom with and comfortable and supportive seats. There's four cupholders (two between the front seats and two in the second row's fold-down armrest) and four bottle holders (one in each door). The 40e doesn't have a third row - this is a five seater. Our test 40e was fitted with the $3300 M-Sport package - this bring 20-inch wheels, adpative M suspension and panoramic sunroof.But the xDrive feels a tad heavier than its siblings and it is. BMW ditched the spare wheel (it has run-flat tyres) in order to fit in the in the 96 lithium ion batteries under the boot floor. The sheer weight of the batteries still means the xDrive40e is 120kg heavier than the xDrive 40d- so it’s the equivalent of chauffeuring Kyle Sandilands around all the time. Stuffing those batteries in means the boot floor is 40mm higher than a regular X5 and that drops the cargo capcity from 650 litres as found in the xDrive40d to 500 litres. The air suspension in the rear also seems to struggle to rein in the momentum of the extra mass and we watched the xDrive40e in front of us leaning fairly hard in a roundabout as we felt ours do the same.We were moving fairly quickly at the time and we were searching for faults, so owners may not notice or care.Speaking of quick,

Ewan Kennedy reviews the first, second and third generation BMW X5 from 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 as a used buy.

Imagine a shipping container that could outrun a Porsche. That's the best way to describe the new BMW X5M and X6M high-performance SUV twins. They each weigh more than 2.2 tonnes and yet can reach the speed limit faster than a 911 sports-car – 4.2 seconds if you don't mind – and slice through corners with the

Malcolm Flynn road tests and reviews the F85 BMW X5 M and F86 X6 M performance SUVs, with specs, fuel consumption and verdict at their Australian launch.

In the beginning there were prestige SUVs. They were big, lumbering behemoths with a token concession to luxury and the on-road manners of a bus in need of a wheel alignment.Then BMW built the X5 in 1999 and rebooted the soft-road segment with sedan-like interiors and respectable road manners.Performance SUVs suddenly weren't an oxymoron and everyone from the likes of Range Rover to Porsche looked to cash in on the newly created niche.But the X5 remains the people's favourite. Entry starts with the rear-wheel drive s25i at $83,900 and rises to $148,400 for the M50d. CarsGuide's all-wheel drive x30d is the sweet spot in price and performance at $100,400.Big horizontal lights and a stretched kidney grille are used to offset the height of the X5 but there's no disguising the slab-sided profile endemic to the SUV species. The positives of that mean plenty of head and leg room for back-seat occupants. The tailgate is a two-piece unit with the powered glass section and a manual-release lower section that doubles as a convenient picnic shelf.The interior is traditional BMW, dominated by a 10.2-inch multimedia screen linked to a 20GB hard drive. The ergonomics are excellent; the cabin is loaded with stowage spots.A reversing camera and decent side mirrors means parking the X5 isn't the chore its size might suggest. The light steering is a boon at low speeds, but it can't overcome the X5's poor turning circle.Cargo space is a more than respectable 650 litres. That's not class-leading but it will happily deal with four suitcases or a weekend's worth of camping gear.A head-up speed display proves its worth on camera-infested roads and the satnav gives advice well before the turns.Loping along freeways or looming up behind other drivers on country roads is the X5's forte. It is a big, comfy cruiser with very little body roll to unsettle the passengers and enough ground clearance to head off the beaten track.Hill descent control is standard on all-wheel drive models and reins in the two-tonne mass on steep declines without the driver having to ride the brake.Five power outlets ensure everyone can plug in a device of their choosing.This is where the x30d stomps on its prestige rivals. A 100km/h sprint time of 6.9 seconds can't be matched by rivals and that edge holds during roll-on acceleration.Feral can also be frugal, with the Beemer's claimed fuel use of 6.2L/100km is also better than the opposition. CarsGuide managed a respectable 9.2L/100km in predominantly city driving.The damping can be switched from Comfort to Sport and neither quite hit the spot. It is too soft in the former and too jittery for its target audience in the latter.The heavy diesel over the nose makes it want to steer straight on when pointed into a corner at speed, although the BMW retains the most car-like handling of the trio of Germanic marques.

Carsguide reader Ramon Cruz is intending to test drive a 2003 BMW X5 4.4i, which has done 180,000 km, and asks if we could advise him of what he should look for with this model? New The surging popularity of SUVs made it inevitable that every carmaker would join in, even carmakers like BMW that are noted more for