6 months 5000 miles, likes and gripes

[adamred]

For those considering an X5 I thought I'd offer my thoughts after owning my 2012 X5 Sport for the past 6 months. It has given me a great 5000 miles and I've enjoyed it so far immensely. I'll go so far as to say my favorite daily driver in my driving career thus far (24 years of driving).

It is very comfortable for a person of my height (6'4") and I'm fortunate to be slim as the sport seats really put a nice squeeze on your mid section. I highly recommend the sport model with the beautiful Y-spoke rims and sport interior. It really is the best looking SUV/SAV on the market.

Hauling my kids is a pleasure with all the space in the back, especially the lack of a transmission hump for them to climb over in the back seat, or complain about when sitting in the middle. Huge trunk space for all the sports equipment, bookbags, projects, etc. A night on the town with my wife and another couple always yields praise about the comfort of both the front and back seats for full sized adults.

The car feels very powerful without feeling like every press of the gas pedal is putting another car in a sheik's collection. I'm averaging about 17 MPG for mostly local driving (I work only 7 miles from my house).

I'm a fan of different colors on my vehicles and love the fact that people still compliment the color and style of the vehicle. The iDrive, navigation, radio, etc are amazing, very user friendly and not distracting.

Haven't had it in the snow yet, but the wet weather has certainly embraced the northeast and it has done very well on the slick roads, deep ponding on the roadways and now the leaves are starting to fall and I feel very confident pulling out into traffic.

My only real gripes are things that I think BMW and their safety engineers just overthink. Why does it seem that everything in a BMW must be either pulled or pushed twice. From the door handles, to the remote buttons to even the starter button most days, I feel like I'm always double "clutching." I'm old enough to remember the days of pressing the gas pedal and getting pure instant mechanical throttle response. The electronic throttles just make me nervous some days, the split second delay is something I just have to get used to. On the same note I find that when I do get response especially in an urgent situation it feels jerky as if it is trying to catch up to my input.

Does anyone else get a line on the windshield right in the field of vision from the wipers? Only a manual windex scrubbing or car wash seems to get rid of it.

The fact that the gas gauge rarely goes to the top even after a fill up seems odd.

Anyway I really like the vehicle, plan on keeping it for a while. The wife had it for the day yesterday and reluctantly tossed the keys back. "It's just so sporty and fun compared to my GL, plus the radio is 100x better..."

Adam

[GPSnV1]

In terms of the gas gauge, I have the same problem with my 2008 and 2012 models. The service agent told me no problem with the gauge on the 2008 but I found out that they put in my gas after the gas pump automatically stops. I thought we should not do this so I try to ignore the gauge and focus on how many miles are left.