Your X5 is no issue for a experieenced installer to add a remote start system to. I would not attemt a DIY on a vehicle with such an advanced vehicle. Look to a local specialist shop they should be able to handle the install with no issue at all. We do alot of 3's,5's,X5andX3 remote starts.

5 mins seems about right. It usually takes that to warm for me from a cold start up...

It will take longer than five minutes with no load, I agree that it is about five minutes with moderate load. But even assuming five minutes, those five minutes running a cold engine with no load will be the highest wear rate your engine will ever see, far harder on the engine than wide open throttle at full load. And yes, that considers that you are using synthetic oils that flow at that temperature.

The objective of driving the vehicle as soon as you have oil pressure is to minimize the (necessary) warm-up time.

If absolutely necessary to warm the interior, buy a car-warmer that plugs in. Just don't use an idling internal combustion engine as a space heater, it is not good for the environment or the engine.

Are we talking about putting the vehicle into drive/reverse as soon as the engine starts running? I am waiting for my delivery next month but my current vehicle needs about 1-2 mins before the revs go back to normal idle speed... it starts near 2k rpm and idles at 1.1k rpm a min or so later and I'm off...

Shouldn't you at least let it run for a minute regardless on a cold day before throwing it into gear? Cabin/interior heating issues aside...

Assuming your windshield is clear, you should drive immediately, but moderately. The time it takes to buckle your seatbelt is sufficient to wait before driving off.

Drive moderately until everything is warm, 5-10 minutes or so depending on ambient.

> those five minutes running a cold engine with no load will be the highest wear rate your engine will ever see

That use to be true in the old days of carb and chokes, where the engine had to run very rich and you got dillution on the cylinder walls due to the overly rich mixture.

But frankly, that isn't true any more with the more precise metering and more uniform fuel delivery systems utilizing computer control and injectors to vaporize the fuel (as opposed to a venturi/choke/fuel jet combination in older vehicles).

The move to electric fans instead of mechanically connected fans also speeds up the warm-up time at idle as compared to older vehicles, where the fan ran at idle, regardless of the temperature.

While fuel can wash down a cylinder wall, as you say, that is a different issue. I agree that this would make it worse in a cold engine, but that problem hasn't been a factor for years, since emission regulations began to apply to cold start cycles (assuming proper operation, not malfunction)

Electric fans are better than simple viscous fan clutches, but we have had electric fans for 20 years now.

The accelerated engine wear is due to parts not fitting since they haven't warmed yet, in basic terms. While modern synthetic oil is still flowing, the boundary-layer lubrication depends on close tolerances between mating surfaces, IMO. That is why the instruction to drive at moderate engine loads, so as to reduce crank and rod bearing wear, and to a lesser extent, cylinder wall wear.