Clarkson on the X5 4.8i

[AzNMpower32]

Mr. Clarkson reviews the X5 4.8i. Here's what he had to say about it:

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol...cle2791661.ece

For the past week I have been mostly driving around in the new BMW X5. The old one was an ugly, American-made piece of nonsense that never really floated my boat at all. Sure, it was built to offer sports driving dynamics, but what’s the point of that in a tall off-road car? It’s like making vegetarian food that tastes of sausages.


You sense with the new one that some of that sportiness has been lost. For a kick-off, it’s much, much bigger, and as a result, much, much heavier. And when you turn the key, the new 4.8 litre V8 engine doesn’t so much zing as snuffle and grunt. I don’t know what torque is but I bet it sounds like this: like a Mexican body-builder arm-wrestling a grandfather clock.
I have heard it said that the new version is nowhere near as nice to drive as the old one, but that rather depends. If you want to take it on a hillclimb or to Silverstone, then yes, I would agree. But for normal, everyday work, then no. The new one is better. It floats and cruises where its predecessor would truffle and snout.


Annoyingly, however, the extra bulk makes it even more useless in town. I sometimes look at people in London squeezing up narrow streets in these massive cars and I think: “Are you completely bonkers?” Yes, you might need something big and tall for your monthly trip to the cottage in Suffolk, but for crying out loud, why put up with the misery for the other 320 days of the year? That’s like permanently wearing a condom for the one day a month you might get lucky.


City dwellers should have a Mini and rent something big when they need to go away. I’m really talking here to people in the countryside who’ll be delighted to hear the new X5 – for the first time – is available as a seven-seater. Although I should point out the seats in the boot are small, cost an extra £1,300 and ruin the boot space. So I wouldn’t bother. If you need seven seats, you’re still much better off with a cheaper Volvo XC90.
The X5, then, should still be viewed as a five-seater, and a pretty good one at that. But one day while I had it, I found myself sitting in a jam – the A3 was closed again – next to a Mercedes ML 63, and I thought: “Hmmm. Yet another American-made German five-seat off-road car. And given the choice, I’d take the Merc. It’s better looking, smaller and that engine is just so joyously mad.


But of course, I wouldn’t. What I’d actually do, without a moment’s hesitation, is buy a Range Rover. You sit higher up in the big Brit, and because Land Rover does not make ordinary cars, there’s no sense when you’re on board that you’re simply driving a taller version of a humdrum saloon. But you definitely get this impression in an X5, which feels like a 5-series, and that means it doesn’t feel particularly robust.


Worse. At one point I was forced onto a kerb by a bus driver who set off without looking – surprise, surprise – and instead of just popping onto the pavement, the Beemer simply gouged huge chunks out of its front offside alloy wheel. I would like to make the bus driver pay for this. Actually, I’d like to see one done for attempted murder. But either way, BMW’s big rugged off-roader was damaged by a kerbstone, and that really shouldn’t happen.


It makes you wonder. Next time the road ahead is closed, could you escape up the embankment and across the fields in an X5? I think not. But in a Range Rover you could. I know, because I’ve done it.

[Wagner]

Hmmmm.

[mrkbbd]

What do you expect, it's a car designed for the US market

[rufusdedog]

"What I’d actually do, without a moment’s hesitation, is buy a Range Rover. You sit higher up in the big Brit"

Big Brit? Isn't Range Rover owned by Ford, and powered with a BMW engine?

[drod]

these trucks were never meant to be true off-road vehicles... why do you think BMW decided to call it SAV instead of SUV??

everyone's getting trucks now a days....but they don't want truck-like road manners... this is where the X5 comes in...

and yes, the components are getting lighter and cheaper to cut down on weight and costs... (but so is everyone else)

pretty soon we'll be driving tin can recyclable vehicles!!

my only concern is the advanced technology that's bundled into these designs... that's where the problems are.. and the rest of the world is following suit...

nothing but headaches now and forever!!

[Wagner]

Originally Posted by mrkbbd

What do you expect, it's a car designed for the US market

Guess the Z4 is too then....

[~KaiFy GaiwanY~]

Originally Posted by rufusdedog

"What I’d actually do, without a moment’s hesitation, is buy a Range Rover. You sit higher up in the big Brit"

Big Brit? Isn't Range Rover owned by Ford, and powered with a BMW engine?

that was in the model 2004 .. but now , BMW is still owned by Ford but powered by jaguar ..

[rayxi]

At one point I was forced onto a kerb by a bus driver who set off without looking – surprise, surprise – and instead of just popping onto the pavement, the Beemer simply gouged huge chunks out of its front offside alloy wheel. I would like to make the bus driver pay for this. Actually, I’d like to see one done for attempted murder. But either way, BMW’s big rugged off-roader was damaged by a kerbstone, and that really shouldn’t happen.

I'll bet he hit the curb with the flat part of the wheel. I don't care what kind of car it is, when two flat surfaces meet one is not going to ride up on the other. Simple geometry.

I agree with the above comments about the X5 not being an off-road vehicle. Clarkson is really grasping at staws to bring that up as a criticism.

[jimsaq]

Originally Posted by ~KaiFy GaiwanY~

that was in the model 2004 .. but now , BMW is still owned by Ford but powered by jaguar ..

you're talking about rover there not bmw yeah?

there's several engines available for rangies too, would suprise me if they're all made by the same place

[rh71]

reposted from: http://www.xoutpost.com/x5-e70-forum/...ight=impressed