X5 handling is pretty amazing!!
 

Yesterday was beautiful, sunny and warm here in SoCal. I took a long lunch pause drive thru Topanga Canyon and Mulholland Drive (if any of you know these 2 famous streches in CA, you'll know what a great drive they are).

Tons of twisty turns and ups and downs. I do not even have Adaptive Drive (my '08 4.8i had it), yet IMHO, I do not feel any difference between my '11 35d and the '08 4.8i with Adative Drive.

It's amazing, for the size and weight of this X5, to be able to accelerate into turns and curves and actually feel the car sink in, stay 100% planted and just cut thru the turns. The feel and stability of the X5 in twisty turns, is honestly not that much different than our M6 or our last 2008 911 Turbo.

After having 3 MLs (two were 6.3 AMGs) and 3 Range Rovers....the X5 really does feel like a sport sedan & I have never been in another SUV that can handle like the X5. Impressed, really impressed!!

Yes, the handling is indeed amazing. At the limit, it understeers quite a bit though, don't ask me how I know ;)

Very nice to hear that you found the X to be on par with high-end sports cars such as the M and 997TT!:cool:

Joy never says Never! :p

I have mentioned of my trip with the X5 50i to the Tail of the Dragon on the TN/NC line several times. It is 318 turns in 11 miles, all nice and tight, slightly cambered, perfectly smooth, and some elevation change but not much. But it has almost no run off, room for error, or guard rails on even the steep drop offs. I have been there 9 times, around 50 total runs.

I was chasing M3s and M6s, and they were chasing me. My in car video is good but a friends video, chasing me in his e92 M3 is even better at showing how flat the X5 corners and how well it exits them. He needed to wind out the short straights, and brake deeply to catch me into the next turn many times.

Regarding under steer, just learn to be a bit slower in and power thru the corners. Even full DSC on, I could rotate the X5 a bit with the throttle from mid corner thru corner exit.

I know I am not an X5 owner (yet) but test drove one and I will agree with you guys. I have tried the ML and today I test drove the Q7. I will tell you the Q7 is not bad but I think the X5 is winning right now. I hope to find one soon!!!

And where are these videos?!? :)

Yes. Videos, please.

which Q7 did u test drive ? 3.0 SC, 4.2, 3.6 ??? did u feel it had enough power ?

They had a brand new 3.0 SC. It was "ok" I did not push it as much but handled pretty well taking off ramps, etc. It is better gas/miles than the 4.8i (23 MPG/ Hwy).

They had an 07 4.2 with only 35k miles just traded in but was not ready for test drive. I asked how was in comparison to the 3.0 SC but he said almost same.

I might go back to test drive with wife this weekend (when its ready for show). Not sure as wife loves the X5 and says the Q7 looks like a bus

Same here. I had a 2009 sport pack 48i. It was good… I recently lemoned the car because of small problems that the dealer couldn't fix… long story short, I have an identical car (sport pack 35i) and I agree. Very good car.

I was so close to buying a Q7, thank god i didn't, it is actually a school bus :p:
But I had a lot of rattles and squeaks on my 2008E70, a few unresolved issues Aldo, not sure about Audi's build quality.

Yes. School bus. That's EXACTLY what it feels like.

I was sorely disappointed with the Q7, and that was BEFORE I drove the X5.

My 11 X5 w/ adaptive drive and 336's was at the dealer for 60+ days(12 is waiting to be delivered) and i had the luxury of driving multiple loaners from the dealer. The last one was a 11X5 50 sport with 214's (no adaptive drive) which we had for about 2 weeks. The dealer gave me my 11 back to drive while for 2 weeks until the new one came in and the only thing i can say is huge difference. Granted I have the air suspension but the two cars handled differently. Without the sport button, the loaner had much more body roll than mine did and with the adaptive drive on it was no contest.

:rofl: You should have tried the vw toureg, it's like trying to push a cow with your hands.

Or the Lex GX RX LX, they are like floating on 3 tons of mushy half melted marshmallows. :yikes:

Yep! I had a 2006 & 2007 RX. Go and sit on your couch, hold a dinner plate in front of you....Congrats! You are driving a Lexus!! :)

Lexus Handling, an oxymoron. I was invited to a Caddy SRX versus RX330 comparison test drive a few years back and took this picture.

^ The SRX is the best selling crossover right now. How'd it drive?

Much better than the Lexus but it was too long ago to compare to the E70 X5. I had an e39 M5 at the time. I thought the event was a Car & Driver deal but it was fully Caddy sponsored and set up to show the RX330 weakness in handling. They also had a comparison between the CTS and the 225 HP 530i on a course with longer straights and few curves so you could not tell how much better the 530i handled than the CTS.

I just recalled one SRX trait I didn't like was very slow steering, You had to hand over hand a couple of times for any sharp turn. Fast fwd to my X5 50i with active steering and sharp curves are effortless 90 degree flicks of the wheel yet with sufficient road feel.