X5 35d - 1 month, 1000 mile report

[SkipSauls]

I picked up my 2011 X5 35d on November 16 from Co's BMW in Loveland, Colorado. Like many other folks I took advantage of the $1000 over invoice, $3500 eco credit, $2500 holiday credit, and so on, with the result being that we paid around $10k less than MSRP. With the $1000 from BMW CCA and the $1800 tax credit, it ends up being a decent value, relatively.

I considered various exterior colors, but after having loved Space Gray on my 335i for 4 years, decided to get it on the X5 as I know it is as practical as it is nice looking. I love the look of black and dark colored cars, but they look terrible most of the year in Colorado due to dust, salt, etc. and I've vowed to never own one again while living here. Similarly, I think the LCI X5 looks great in white, but after owning white cars I know that they look awful during the winter months here. The Deep Sea Blue looks great, but I have a feeling that it would be similar to black in terms of trying to keep clean. As you can see from the photos taken this morning, Space Gray looks pretty good after a full month without a single cleaning. (I will wash it soon, but it may snow so there is no hurry.)

For the interior I knew that I didn't want black again as I had grown tired of the "coal hole" interior in my 335i. I also don't like the look of beige or gray in most BMW's, mostly because the plastic and vinyl bits end up looking cheap to my eye. Tobacco looks nice to me, but after test driving an X5 with it, it was just too monotone for my tastes. The Oyster is my favorite of the current colors, but with active 20 month and 14 year old boys, I didn't think it was practical. Going with the Cinnamon Brown was a no-brainer after seeing it, although finding a car with it on a dealer lot is tough. After a month of the toddler scampering all over the car, spilling stuff, etc., and the 14 year old being hauled to the golf course, etc., the interior looks great. I haven't touched it with anything except to wipe fingerprints off the rearview mirror, and I'm impressed with the surfaces so far.

For the trim I went with the Dark Bamboo, mainly because I was tired of the dark burl walnut that I had on the 335i. The bamboo looks more "modern" to my eye than the walnut, and I like the dark glossy contrast. If the piano black was offered I might have considered it, although I wonder how well that will hold up to abuse over the years.

Packages on the car include Cold Weather, Premium, Premium Sound, Rear Climate, Sport Activity, and Technology. Options over and above the packages include multi-contour seats, Comfort Access, and roof rails. The only option that I had second thoughts about is rear seat heating, but most days I don't have rear passengers except for the toddler, and he'll be in a car seat for a long time to come.

I considered a number of other makes when looking at cars, but kept coming back to BMW as I really like how they drive. My 335i wasn't the most reliable vehicle over the past four years, but I liked it so much that I forgave most of the issues with it. I test drove various Audi, Mercedes, Lexus, and Cadillac (yes, even Lexus and Cadillac) vehicles, but while some had nice features, they just didn't feel right. After deciding that I had to get another BMW, I then considered the X5, the new 5, and the 3 sedan, all of which would meet my needs for a bigger and more practical BMW than the e92.

The 535i xDrive, 335d, X5 35i, and X5 35d were all in the running, and I spent far too much time debating the merits of each, test driving them over and over again, and using the BMW configurator to compare features, pricing, etc. The 335d looked like the best "deal", but it didn't seem to be much better than my 335i except for the economy. If they had offered it with xDrive I might have gone with one, but I had snow tires on the 335i and it did just fine with those. The new 5's are great looking and I like the updated electronics, etc., but every 5 I drove felt like a big floaty barge, even when compared to the X5 that weighs a lot more. It looked like getting all of the sport packages, adaptive drive, etc. on the 5 might "fix" that feeling, but that made for a very expensive vehicle with no eco credits, etc. to help out. Finally, the X5 35i has a sweet engine and transmission, but in back-to-back comparisons with the 35d it lost out in everything except for off-the-line acceleration.

Now you know how and why I ended up with the X5 35d, and my fellow OC types will probably understand...

I didn't take notes over the past month, but I have a fairly good list of things in my head that I observed, discovered, or otherwise noted:

• The interior materials are generally good, better than my 2007 335i and the 2011 3's that I drove, perhaps not quite as nice overall as on the new 5 series. My only real beef is that there are a few too many "leather-like" textures that you can see and/or feel. The steering wheel is smooth (Nappa?), the airbag cover is vinyl or plastic, the dash top looks a bit rubbery, and each of these is a big different from the plastic/vinyl/leather in the reast of the car, which all match reasonably well. Not a deal breaker, and not enough to justify the Nappa dash to me, but BMW could do a bit better here.
  
• The "worst" thing in the interior are the sun visors, both in terms of their form and function. BMW has put the cheap-looking vinyl sun-visors in many models recently, and that's a crappy way to pinch pennies. The anthracite headliner looks and feels nice, then you touch the sun visors that could have come from a cheap-ass rental car. In terms of function, well, to say that they are terrible is putting it mildly. I don't typically wear sunglasses, but I guess I'll have to wear some since the sun visors are so impractical.
  
• The iDrive is good, and that's high praise from me because I have been involved in UI design for 20 years. I've followed the progress of iDrive since it appeared on the last-generation 7, and I specifically did not get it on my 2007 335i as it was still awful. It's still not perfect, but it works well enough and the new iPod integration, etc. is nice.
  
• The paint isn't outstanding, but Space Gray doesn't seem to be as sensitive as other colors are to orange peel, etc. I'm going to wash, polish, and wax it soon, and expect that it will look even better. One thing that I do think might look good would be matte aluminum trim on the window surrounds, a look that I really liked on my 335i.
  
• I really like the LCI exterior updates, feeling that it looks better stock than the pre-LCI models did no matter what sort of aero, M, etc. kits were added. I do think that BMW should move away from the matte black plastic entirely, even though I'm sure that it's more practical for stone chips, etc.
  
• Handling is fine, being better than on pretty much any other SUV except for other X5's with adaptive drive, X5 Ms, and some of the Cayenne models. I have quite a bit of experience in club and pro racing, and would bet that I could wheel my X5 around a track faster than many people could in their cars, even many sport models. It is amazing that a vehicle that is so quiet, refined, and easy to drive on a daily commute can seemingly "transform" when needed to handle back roads, mountain twisties, etc. so well. I didn't get the 20" wheels as I figured the 19" with all-seasons would be fine for the winters here (not nearly as bad as some imagine), and I think they're probably a bit smoother as well. I may go with non-RFTs as replacements down the road a bit, but honestly, these aren't that bad. Of course I might not feel that way if I hadn't been driving on RFTs on my 335i for the past four years...
  
• Interior space and comfort is very good. Having a bit more cargo room might be good at times, but the e70 is far better in that respect than the 2001 e53 that I owned for a while a decade ago. I didn't get the third row seating as we don't need it, and having the extra storage is nice. I just checked recently and I don't have the gas strut for the storage bin, which seems to be the case for a lot of 2011s. It would be nice to know if this was due to cost cutting, a supply chain problem, or just some goof in production.
  
• I like the sound of the engine, and would much rather hear a bit of diesel "clatter" than the horrible vacuum cleaner noises that so many cars make today. It's not quite as sweet as the sound of a gasoline inline 6 and not quite as "tough" as a V8, but it's nothing like a diesel pickup or diesels from 10 to 30 years ago. I would bet that most folks would never guess it's a diesel.
  
• The premium sound is great, and well worth it to me. I had it in my 335i and knew I had to get is in the X5 after I had a 2010 328xi loaner without it. It's perhaps not a great "value" option, but for the hour or more I'm in the car each day, I truly appreciate being able to truly hear the music.
  
• I almost went with the sport seats instead of the comfort seats, but I'm glad I changed my mind. These are without a doubt the best seats in any car I've owned, and it's hard to imagine that someone couldn't find a comfortable setting. If they have a problem it's that you can spend too much time fiddling with all of the settings.
  
• My wife has had a couple of Lexus models (RX and GX) with backup cameras, so I was used to that, but I like the guidelines that the X5 provides. The PDC is very nice, and I'd suggest that it would be better as a requirement for all cars instead of the backup cameras.
  
• The surround view has quickly become a favorite option. I use it when pulling into the garage, for parking in the exact middle of the lines in a parking lot (that OC thing again), and so on. Very cool, and I'd like to see an option for enabling it while on a track for checking how close you are to the apex of a corner...
  
• Fuel economy has been very good, matching that of my much smaller (1600 or so lbs.) 335i. I'm getting 21+ MPG for a 30 MPH average, mostly in mixed daily commuting. I don't leadfoot it all the time, but if I could restrain myself I'm sure that I could get 23 or 24 MPG on the commute, and expect it to do very well on long trips.
  
• I was as disappointed as many others were with getting stuck with the old headlights, but the GP Thunders have helped a bit there. I don't know if the US got stuck with the old units due to DOT regs or cost-cutting, but it was a lame move on BMWs part, in my not so humble opinion. If they can deliver LED lighting on the new 5, the LCI e92, etc., there is no good reason why the X5 shouldn't have them.

I can't think of much else to write right now, and if you've stuck with it for this long post, feel free to ask anything else! I've attached a few pictures taken this morning on my iPhone 4 which aren't great, but they're meant to show how well it has held up over the past month. If you're up close you can see the rain spots, dust, brake dust, etc., but it looks pretty good otherwise.