Would you rather have this X5M or a Mercedes-AMG GLE 63?
So today we’re looking at what might be the best way to have your cake heated too do you need to carry kids and or crap but you also want to go supercar fast well today thanks to the generosity of my friends over at international bmw we’re going to see if the bmw x5m competition can scratch that edge these super suvs are kind of a weird concept at their
Core you’re mixing an suv something intended to be large comfortable and incredibly practical and then you’re mixing that with sports car dna you know something that’s supposed to be low slung small light and kind of inherently compromised so what we’re here to do today is find out if this x5m can bend the laws of physics to deliver on both fronts let’s start
Where we always do under the hood thundering away is the beating heart of a 4.4 liter twin turbo v8 and we’re familiar with this s63 from our time in the m5 and the m8 and a couple others it’s a brilliantly powerful engine and in this application it’s tuned to make a whopping 617 horsepower and 553 pound-feet that horsepower figure is way up over the base x5m
But the torque number stays the same but don’t for one second think that this thing is slow this thing is mind-bendingly quick this thing gets from zero to sixty in under four seconds a quick reminder this is a midsize family suv that can take you and your family and all your crap for a camping weekend if you really really want to and if you do go on that camping
Trip the exhaust will split trees at full tilt power is great and is the thing that grabs headlines but there’s a very important letter on the back of this x5 and that letter brings an expectation of elite dynamics and handling and as we start to talk about dynamics we’re not talking about just the straight line speed this is where you start testing the opposed
Ideology of something like a super suv but here’s the thing they pulled it off the brakes are huge and strong the steering is really quick it’s super accurate and i do feel a decent amount from those ps4s tires up front and the suspension is an electronically controlled adaptive damper and it reads the road hundreds of times a second and makes micro adjustments
Just to put me in the right body and chassis configuration and then all the way down to the chassis itself it’s been really rigiditized and you can see evidence of that the second you pop open the hood uh and then you get to corner exit and then you start to roll on the power and then you have the elsd making sure that none of the power from that massive 4.4
Liter twin turbo v8 making 617 horsepower none of that’s wasted none of that power is ever wasted here say what you will about modern bmws but their power trains are faultless you’re hard-pressed to find a more potent duo than a bmw engine and a zf8 speed gearbox the shift logic is perfect there’s good sounds and drama on shift and i never feel like any power
Is wasted or isn’t getting to the ground in five words or less this thing is stupid fast honestly i’m amazed that bmw has found some way through front and rear anti-roll bars electric dampers uh the ps4s tires and you know some of the the crazy chassis strengthening to to somehow wrangle the almost 5500 pound behemoth that is this x5m competition however in the
Pursuit of sport many forego the plush aspect and this is still at its core a mid-size suv wearing a bmw badge so there are some expectations on the other side of the spectrum sometimes you just want your car to get you there without a v8 shouting at you or taking a corner at two g’s so how does this x5m comp soften up and of course yes the electronic dampers
They they dial back and they soften back in comfort mode but they’re still kind of always doing stuff it never really feels like the car truly kind of like settles down and settles in for like a long highway journey it always kind of feels like it’s nudging you saying like yeah that was nice and relaxing are we ready to drive hard again now and that’s of course
Not to say that this is you know not livable or it’s uncomfortable in any way but when you do buy a 5 000 pound suv with the letter m on it you should kind of know what you’re getting into and of course there’s another word under that competition that kind of doubles down on that concept so behind the wheel this x5m competition is insanely quick it handles better
Than a lot of mid-tier sports cars much less mid-size suvs and with all comps getting m sport exhaust it makes all the right noises and it can do the daily thing but you can tell at its heart it wants to be driven hard oh my gosh i love this thing it’s fast as hell it sounds incredible and it looks the business i’m gonna make a hot take here and just say that
I think generally across the board especially with this x5 bmw styling for their suvs does it a little bit more for me than their sedan or coupe lineup at least right now but what we have here is a gorgeous suv thanks to the spec here you have this beautiful san marino blue there’s so much dimension especially when you put polarized sunglasses on and of course
This is the x5 competition and all competition get all black accents around your grill uh your front fascia around the sides and in the back and it looks mean it looks aggressive we were shooting rollers just a little bit ago it looked incredible now one of the things that i really like for this year is the anniversary of the m division you have a special
Anniversary round on the front and in the back to celebrate that so that’s really cool it’s like a 200 extra absolutely worth it it looks fantastic now as we look at this grill this used to be a huge grill and now based on the rollout of the 7 series the x7 the 3 3 and 4 series this looks super super normal it is still big and you can see through it and it has to
Be big really because it has to cool that massive 2 or 4.4 liter twin turbo v8 there’s a lot of other cooling down in his lower fascia as well but you can actually also see some additional chassis bracing in front of the fan here and of course when you lift the hood you see a lot of additional chassis bracing and that’s for that rigidity that’s for the m models of
Course now we have led or excuse me bmw laser lights leds are so blase now you have laser lights you have a really aggressive black accented front fascia as you typically would in an m and competition more specifically now around the side here we have really really nice wheel arches they’re finished in the same body color that you get that san marino blue you have
21 inch wheels they’re kind of a nice two-tone with black and like brushed aluminum effect to it wrapped in a very nice set of michelin pilot sport 4s tires that’s a lot of grip it’s a fantastic tire especially for something this size and this weight keeping lateral load that’s a good job right there now interestingly you have this gill here of course it’s black
It doesn’t really seem to have any sort of function to it i can’t put my finger through it so yeah it’s it’s mostly decorative but hey i think it looks cool of course around the side you have black accented m wing mirrors with a nice tooth you have black window treatments and my favorite thing no wonder i love the look of this thing it’s a typical suv shape it
Looks great it’s not the the sloped rear hatch like you would get in a lot of the evs that we’re testing for dynamic purposes it’s not the x4 it’s not the x6 this to me is the sweet spot in terms of looks now one thing the only thing i think i’ll say that i don’t love about the look of this thing is you do seem to get a good amount of wheel gap this doesn’t have
Air suspension and that’s obviously for a purpose but it does seem to be a little bit tall it’s not really it doesn’t slap you in the face but it’s just something i notice around back here of course you have kind of a dual molded in upper hatch wing you’ve got beautiful blue again this is just fantastic the led lights are a nice simple design you’ve got your
Anniversary roundel black x5 competition badge out back and one of my favorite things the split folding tailgate so of course the upper portion folds up and then the lower portion folds down and out so you could sit on it if you so choose and then of course down below you have your all black gloss diffuser and your quad tips but some of the best stuff is going on
Inside so let’s check it out and then the really nice spec continues in here you have this secure orange kind of two-tone interior it looks amazing although it’s not it’s not exactly what i would consider orange is more of a red but it does feel really special the design in here is excellent the mix of quilting and cross stitching it’s amazing and you also have a
Huge diversity in materials from leathers to aluminums nice plastics rubberized textures stitched everything carbon fiber like there’s so much going on in here and it just really gives kind of a level of opulence that you wouldn’t normally get and of course let’s not forget that your seats light up with the x5m logo which i’m a sucker for it’s a gimmick but i’m a
Huge sucker for it i think it looks really cool the hud the head-up display it’s totally customizable you can get your song in there your driver assistant suite information up there and of course you have your digital cluster that adapts to your drive mode as well uh over to the right you do have a touch screen with your idrive system it’s idrive 7 so it’s not the
Same system that we tried in the ix and the i4 but it’s still very very good i think the graphics are good the processing is fast it gets you loads of features you have you know your reverse assist or breadcrumbs if you pull into a really weird spot it’ll remember how you pulled in and pull you out for you just remembering exactly how you got in so you have that
You have park assist traffic jam assist and by the way like i said this driver assistance suite on here the bmw’s is great it’s the traffic jam assist it’s got this kind of um camera in your gauge cluster so as long as you’re under a certain speed and your eyes are on the road you’re paying attention you basically never have to touch the steering wheel of course
That’s the caveat no car is self-driving just want to make sure that that’s clear but this one is very very good of course in your infotainment here you do have really really nice 360 cameras they’re great resolution brightness all that same stuff but you do have that kind of like 360 augmented reality with the gesture control it’s really really cool you do also
Have a built-in drive recorder with cameras all over the car so it uses the same cameras that you get for the 360 camera and it will record incidents up to 20 seconds ahead and behind or after uh when you set an incident it’ll also automatically do it you can program it you can set your home page to to have that available to you as well so that’s super nice to
Have and you don’t have to spend a couple hundred extra bucks to get a drive recorder but i did forget to mention the steering wheel of course you have your m steering wheel and it’s nice and thick and it’s got good bolstering it’s got great m contrast stitching in here but you also do have your customizable m1 and m2 modes now if this is me personally i would
Probably set m1 as like you know loud exhaust you know sharp engine response but like soften back the suspension for just daily driving and then i would set m2 to be you know just basically maxed out everything so firm suspension loud exhaust you know all of all of the works the quickest shifts and all that stuff so that’s really nice to have you also do have a
Heated steering wheel i should also mention you do have three level heated and cooled seats up front as well as heated and cooled cup holders that’s some luxury stuff well done bmw and then you do have a huge panora roof you got a really nice kind of micro suede uh headliner again it feels really nice in here all the materials that build comes together really
Really well but as we start to talk about something like the back seat you have heated seats in the back seat which is fantastic you get a lot of room there’s not really much of a transmission tunnel that comes up into your foot well so you have good amount of foot space i can fit behind myself at 6 1 pretty comfortably you do have manual sun shades you do have
Ambient lighting back there you have individual climate controls heated seats like i said uh and then of course as we start to talk about the trunk it’s big it’s a great size uh and i love the fact that the tailgate splits so you can sit down on it if you want to tailgate or whatever and then just one thing to note not that anybody that owns an x5m competition
Will be towing but your towing figure is pretty pathetic at 1 653 pounds again who cares you’re not going to tow with this thing but with that i think it’s probably a good time to get into the final thoughts so the x5m competition from bmw it’s insanely fast super sharp and you can still bring anything you want with you it’s the most super of all the super
Suvs i’ve ever tested and at 120 grand you’re paying a lot but you’re getting a lot of car so thanks again to my friends at international bmw for letting me have a go and if you’re interested in this thing go check out the link i left in the description below
Transcribed from video
BMW X5M Competition – WTFast… By Downshift Studios
