Topic: 2011 BMW X5 5.0i; Day 1

[Autos_Editor]

James is back after a week off and back into another BMW. This time, it's the X5 SAV, in 50i trim, powered by a turbocharged V8 that provides the kind of rocketship power that you'd expect from 400 horsepower and 450 lb-ft of torque.
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[Julie]

Another BMW Review   

The big increase in price after you start adding options sounds like what happens with the M3 (which has a similar starting price).  Most M3's I've seen on dealer's lots are around 90-100K....

Base prices are quite off compared to how they are commonly optioned.  Perhaps it is similar with their competition.  From what I've seen of Porsche prices, it seems like a similar story.  What about Merc and Audi?

[initial_D]

400HP, 450lb-ft of torque, ... soccer moms can actually go to the field on time now.

[que]

Is it me, or is Canadian Driver a BMW supporter?  Mind you I am a Bimmer fan as well, but I come to Canadian Driver to read on various other vehicles, not only Bimmers.  But if you going to test another Bimmer, please test the new 5 series for 4 days, a 528i RWD maybe with a manual gear box.

[aknutson]

That's some serious power, but if I were shopping for X5's I'd be picking up the diesel.

[wing]

Is it me, or is Canadian Driver a BMW supporter?  Mind you I am a Bimmer fan as well, but I come to Canadian Driver to read on various other vehicles, not only Bimmers.  But if you going to test another Bimmer, please test the new 5 series for 4 days, a 528i RWD maybe with a manual gear box.

We test what we get, we are based in Ottawa and do not have the luxury of picking cars from all manufacturer headquarters like those based in Toronto.  So BMW has sent us a lot of cars in the past few weeks while other manufacturers have not been supplying cars so I take what comes.  I have another BMW coming soon as well.  I have a few other makes lined up between.

[ovr50]

Keep the BMW reviews coming.........

I have priced just such a SAV as this week's X5 50i on the BMW website and get it to the $90K area as well. Then, if I were a real buyer for such a SAV, I would have to look very seriously for the coin, at the X5M which is about $8000 more and has 555hp and 500tq from the TTed 4.4L V8. Torque starts at 1500rpm. The X5M is a seriously fast (0-60 in 4.5 range) and capable SAV and can run with/exceed the Cayenne Turbo. All these things have insane prices, insane weight and insane handling (for a truck).

[Dante]

"Mine" would be optioned close to $95K. If only money wouldn't be an issue....

[Julie]

Keep the BMW reviews coming.........

I have priced just such a SAV as this week's X5 50i on the BMW website and get it to the $90K area as well. Then, if I were a real buyer for such a SAV, I would have to look very seriously for the coin, at the X5M which is about $8000 more and has 555hp and 500tq from the TTed 4.4L V8. Torque starts at 1500rpm. The X5M is a seriously fast (0-60 in 4.5 range) and capable SAV and can run with/exceed the Cayenne Turbo. All these things have insane prices, insane weight and insane handling (for a truck).

Yeah, I was wondering what the X5M would cost.  That's not a lot extra, considering you're starting with $90K...

[The Mighty Duck]

Base prices are quite off compared to how they are commonly optioned.  Perhaps it is similar with their competition.  From what I've seen of Porsche prices, it seems like a similar story.  What about Merc and Audi?

Mercedes will tell you that they've tried to get away from that, and now option their base cars well so you actually get a decent car for the base MSRP. How true that is I don't know... I've never optioned one up.

[FamilyGuy]

Or you could just buy a Grand Cherokee SRT-8 and blow the doors off it.  Given the ridiculous nature of these vehicles one might as well get the most bang for the buck.

[ovr50]

Or you could just buy a Grand Cherokee SRT-8 and blow the doors off it.  Given the ridiculous nature of these vehicles one might as well get the most bang for the buck.

The GC SRT8 will NOT beat the X5....check C & D story from several months back.

EDIT - added link to C&D story of Jan 2010:

http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/1d2579a84986b6dc3ae4dec5c9b30d35.pdf

The GC SRT8 does 0-60 in 4.4secs. The X5M does it in 4.0secs. The X5M has more hp than the X5 50i but the X5 50i story says 4.5secs for 0-60. Hardly "blowing off the doors" for the X5 50i, and the SRT gets trounced by the X5M.

[4cylinder]

What a pointless gas killing automobile this is...there is absolutely no need for such power on North American roads. No excuses. The base straight six or diesel are enough. This is absurd.

[Sir Osis of Liver]

Or you could just buy a Grand Cherokee SRT-8 and blow the doors off it.  Given the ridiculous nature of these vehicles one might as well get the most bang for the buck.

The GC SRT8 will NOT beat the X5M....check C & D story from several months back.

EDIT - added link to C&D story of Jan 2010:

http://www.caranddriver.com/var/ezflow_site/storage/original/application/1d2579a84986b6dc3ae4dec5c9b30d35.pdf

The GC SRT8 does 0-60 in 4.4secs. The X5M does it in 4.0secs. The X5M has more hp than the X5 50i but the X5 50i story says 4.5secs for 0-60. Hardly "blowing off the doors" for the X5 50i, and the SRT gets trounced by the X5M.

The SRT8 is almost exactly half the price of the X5M. A quick trip through the Kenny Bell catalog and the BMW would be seeing tail lights.

That being said the SRT8 is discontinued. The X5M is one of the dumbest vehicles I've ever seen. It's akin to the worlds fastest obese sprinter. The upcoming EPA changes should kill off most of these idiotic things. Apparently in the US tax changes are in the works (or have been implemented) that will make it much much harder to write off a utility vehicle as a business expense, part of what was fueling the SUV craze in the first place..

[quadzilla]

Would NEVER buy one of these things but would love to drive it for a week! I'd be going through a tank of gas every day listening to that engine at WOT all the time.

 

[bluelines]

I'd take the diesel over either the 35i or 50i, any day of the week. You still get more than 400lb/ft of torque, although not the uber refinement of the gas engines.

I must be getting old, though, since when I was considering an X5, I just wasn't happy about the ride quality. You feel every imperfection in the pavement, which is a dealbreaker in TO, where they seem not to know or care how to build and maintain roads.

That would really put me off the X5M, since I imagine its ride is worse than the lesser models.

If I was still in the market for a big SUV, and I could live without a diesel, I'd go for the LR4 over the X5. Or perhaps the GL Bluetec. Massively more interior room and they each ride like a limo.

[Renn]

To 4cylinder's point, this bloated, heavy, awkward "thing" has no relevance to BMW's justifiable past claim as being "The Ultimate Driving Machine".

It's ironic that BMW still makes one of (if not "the") best wagons in the business- the 5 Series Touring. By any measure, it makes the X Series irrelevant. But, as lemmings off a cliff, rich guys in NA needing utility buy into the execrable X5 and X6. And now, no NA 5Touring. Go figger...

[mlin32]

In regards to the Day 2 comment on cupholders: the rear cupholders are located in the fold-down rear armrest. I think it's an unmarked button at the top end, it pops open a lid and exposes 2 cupholders.

Not like cupholders are of great importance to me......

[ovr50]

Cupholders are of little importance to me as well, but the need for 4 of them in front (as James comments on in his Day 2) is totally lost on me. Why do need 4 cupholders in the front?

[wing]

Hahaha it was more a comment of the lack of space in a ginormous vehicle -- I knew BMW fans would be irate about the comment.