u have expressed your concerns many times, and is no use keep talking about it, it's not going to make it avaliable.

By the way if you are considering a Cayenne, there are rumors that a facelift is going to come in Feb 07 and more hp will be offerred. ;)

I do like the appearance of the E70 X5 but am not pleased with BMW taking away the adjustable susp function and thats all.:rant:

IMO, from an engineering standpoint, there is an optimal ride height that balances handling dynamics, ground clearance, etc. While I understand rear adjustable suspension (to compensate for different loads), making it adjustable on four wheels is a negative. It is the result of the designers admitting that they couldn't figure it out so they will let each owner try on his own. I would vastly prefer not to have an adjustable ride height gimmick on a new road vehicle. And just because another manufacturer does it doesn't make it right.

If it is so important to get another inch of ground clearance, this is the wrong vehicle to be looking at. If traction is so compromised that the 1" extra ground clearance actually helps in deep snow, then there are other problems at work here, including the lack of snow tires, malfunctioning of the AWD system, lack of snowplows, and driver skill.

I kind of agree with you but as far as not needing extra ground clearence it does come in handy. Its actually almost 2inches not one. We have had some bad ran storms and flooding and i used it and it help me get through about 20 inches of water with less of a problem than if i didnt use it. And last winter we had a blizzard which yes is rear. But there was close to 18in of snow with 3ft snow drifts. I actually got stuck at first because the X5 was slightly off the ground since the snow was pushing up on the body. I realized i forgot to use my hieght adj susp and i lifted it and got loose from the snow. Lastly if you are gonna go offroading which i never will the extra 2 inches of ground clearance makes a huge difference in serious offroading. And before you start saying that the X5 is not a capable offroader or not designed ofr offroad or not good at it your wrong. all though i will never take my X5 offroad mainly because it cost 65k I recently did the Performance center delivery in SC and they let you use one of there X5s in a Extremely tough off road course they built. and they basically tell you to drive it like you stole it. I did shit with that X5 that i didnt think were possible with Jeeps. And jeeps are pretty serious offroaders. The X5 with Xdrive has serious offroad capabilities and anyone who has done the pcd will attest to that. And if you say its not good offroad you dont know what the hell you are talking about. Ive done it first hand. So i dont wont to hear anyones shit. Also while I was down there I screw up on the offroad course when i wasnt listening closely to the driving instructor and got hung up on a large man made hill. The bottom of the X5 got hung up on it. The instructor told me to lift the suspension setting and he got out and rocked the X5 side to side till i got loose. So dodnt tell me that Hieght adj suspension is useless. The lowering setting is very useful for easier access in and out especially for your 80 year old grandmother believe it makes a difference to her. And trying to lift your 150LB plasma 50 inch TV which i actually just bought the 1 inch means alot. With all that being said. Its not a deal breaker for me. I just love the X5 and even if that option is not available i will still purchase it but i do hope its available

DinanM3:

I said road vehicle. Your examples are of off-road activity. And if I was going off road the last thing I would want to depend on is an an exposed air line that could get ripped off on rough ground, collapsing the suspension and stranding me.

Yes, I think the X5 can go off road. I just think it is a misapplication of the vehicle. For every stunt that an X5 can do off-road, a true 4x4 can do more. Most X5s will never go off road, and shouldn't on street tires. Try a Jeep, Patrol, Defender, or other serious 4 x 4, properly equipped. No comparison.

It is 2 inches of range, I believe. That is likely 1" up and 1" down from the median point, where it would be if it didn't have adjustable suspension. So, if you lift it 2" to get unstuck, the real question is why you were driving offroad with it in the lowest position.

My 82 year old mother gets in and out of my X5 fine. She even gets into my Z4 fine. And my 50" TV was delivered for free by the Sony store. :)

All interesting examples, but I stand by my comment that it is a gimmick. I don't have a problem with people buying gimmicks, but I do get a little frustrated when the gimmicks become more important that the vehicle itself.

first of all if you are doing the kind of offroading where an airline tucked up deep so you cant even see it gets ripped off you got more to worry about than the airline getting ripped of. Like maybe the oilpan getting ripped off.

As far as im concerned the Xdrive X5 is very close in capablity off road to a grand cherokee whicj in comparison is no where near as good on road than the X5 is. So all in all the X5 can do offroading almost as good and on roading alot better. I would rather have the X5 obviously.

Its more that 2 inches of range. Its about 3 inches. 2 up 1 down. I didnit think I needed the extra clearance but it turned out i did and luckily it was there to help. That is why i didnt have it on from the start. obviously I was wrong in thinking i didnt need it.

Yea but i bet your mom would get in and out just alittle easier if the suspension was lower an inch. and i could have had my plasma delivered but im not a pussy and decided to carry it muself instead of wait a day to get it delivered. I hope Im not affending you by saying this but by reading your many posts over the last year you dont sound like the type of guy who would pont up the cash for a 50inch plasma. Its just that you kind of sound to cheap in your pervious posts to buy one. Im not saying you cant afford one because you probably can but cheap and broke are 2 different things. I hope you dont take that as an insult.

I do agree with you to a point that the hieght adj suspension on the X5 is a gimmick. But only the system on the X5. the Cayenne system is definitely not a gimmick. It has like 5 settings and 9 inches of total travel. Now that comes in handy and is worth it. But the X5 system with 3 inches of travel is kind of cheesy compared to the Cayenne and I hope the E70 has a system like the cayenne does. The Cayenne even outomatically lowers itself even further than the manual adjustments allow over certain speeds. I think its about 100mph or maybe it was 120 that it happens so the car is more stable.
But like i said before either way with or with out it im still buying an E70

JCL: you have no idea what you are talking about. your opinion is like saying that the x5 should come with one set of tires and that people should never put on snow tires. you are suggesting there is one setting for all the time, which is not the case. we live in a world with many variables. the x5 is tuned for great on road performance, but should ALSO be able to handle changing conditions, large snow drifts, an obstacle, deep mud, or other things that sometimes require greater ground clearance. i put snow tires on my x5 in the winter and use high performance tires in the summer. that is because we have changing weather conditions. i believe every other european SUV offers adjustable ride height and that feature CAN make a big difference, even if you are NOT traveling off road. in boston we have regular snow storms of a couple feet or less, where snow drifts easily require greater clearance by the car. at those times, i'm not looking for "handling or on road performance', but i want to be high and use snow tires for extra traction. sure, i could buy a Hummer 1, but i don't want 2 cars. i want one that does everything very well.

this is not an engineering issue. obviously BMW offered it before and they can make it work. and they will do it again. they are simply playing a game with "features" hoping that they will have something 'new' to offer next year, which is ridiculous in my opinion and shows a lack of creativity.

Do not forget E53 offers Adj. Ride Height (=ARH) feature only in combination with sport suspension which is 15mm lower than standard / non-sport one. You can lift a vehicle with ARH up to 40mm. So only up to 25mm (1") over the standard non-sport suspension.

E70 has a slightly larger ground clearance than standard non-sport E53, but comes with no lowered sport suspension in sport package (but with Adaptive Drive instead).

So the final result is E70 has almost identical ride height / ground clearance as E53 in the highest level of ARH setting. There will be absolutely no problem for soft off-roading.

Please stop panicking and bitching even before all relevant facts are known to you. In the case you need a SAV with higher ground clearance than fully lifted sport or E53 X5 (or standard non-sport setting) you'll have to look elsewhere. Sorry. X5 is not a hard core off-roader - never was & never will be.

For even more dynamic suspension settings & features you'll have to wait for the sport version of E70 (aka "iS") which is coming later in the E70 life cycle.

The neat thing about the world is that we all get to have opinions. Glad you have one too.

Yes, I know about driving in deep snow. Drifts too. Try spending time north of the 60th parallel. I never had adjustable ride height when I was there, but then I didn't drive an X5 there either.

One car that does everything very well is an ideal, not an realistic achievable goal. One car can do quite a few things fairly well, but the analogy is an adjustable wrench, also known in many circles as a "fits-all-fits-nothing". If you want excellence you go specialized. I think that the X5 is great handling for a sport utility, it is pretty useful, it gets around well in inclement weather. Works for me. But if I want excellence in each of those categories, I would need a sports car (which will handle better), a van (which will carry more) and a Hummer (to use your example, something that goes anywhere).

I think the X5 is a good combination of all the things I want in a vehicle, but to focus solely on one of the attributes (adjustable ground clearance in this case) is to compromise others (more weight, more complexity, longer to market.

No one is saying the X5 was designed for you. It was designed for a target market. Time will tell if BMW can manage to offload any of them or not, and we will see who read the market better, BMW product planners or you. If it doesn't meet your needs, buy something else.

Check out Scott's last post to see if in reality the E70 may actually work for you.

Have a great day.

Jeff

Interesting to me how the X3 is faster than the X5... the X3 3.0si goes from 0 – 60 mph in 7.1 seconds... that is much faster than the entry level X5....

X3 has 260 hp at 6,600 rpm and 225 lb-ft of torque at 2,500 rpm.

Would be nice if the X5 in 3.0 trim could be faster but I guess it is the same engine as the X3?

Thanks.