If you’re interested in more on the road stick, the X5 can be fitted with a sport-handling package that’s most of the way toward the inevitable X5 M to come. In any of the X5’s off-road drive modes, a torque-vectoring rear end helps keep power moving around, but ultimately it’s a matter of grip. It needs better tires than the 21-inch summer treads we slid around on through what we assume was a mosquito colony’s summer digs. Where the big BMW SUV (for now, there’s an X7 coming soon) doesn’t fare as well is off-road, though this X5 gets a new off-road driving package with underbody protection. Better tuned are BMW’s standard adaptive dampers and the optional air springs on our tester: With that setup, the 2019 X5 has a nearly unflappable poise at the kind of speeds that sometimes end in a change in custody of a driver’s license.
In our middle Georgia street drive, active steering overcompensated for the X5’s long wheelbase with too much counter-steer. With 340 hp, an 8-speed automatic, a Sport drive mode, and rear-biased all-wheel drive in that Sport mode, the X5 cracks off 60-mph runs in 5.3 seconds, and never left us wanting.ĭrivetrain fluency’s just the start, though we’d probably leave off the X5’s new active steering system, which turns the rear wheels opposite the fronts at lower speeds to help the X5 corner more effectively. But we never felt impoverished, because with BMW’s brilliant single-turbo 3.0-liter inline-6, torque’s never more than a telepathic hit on the throttle away. We didn’t get to drive the social-climbing X5 xDrive50i, the one with the 456-horsepower twin-turbo V-8. The latest X3’s a great 3-Series wagon consider the new X5 an excellent 5er Touring substitute. Over time, they’ve grown ever closer to the handling of its bigger sedans. BMW has pulled off a sleight of hand with its SUVs. It’s expected the Bowers & Wilkins audio and open-pore gray wood trim will smooth that over, but will it? BMW’s generous with standard equipment, but the leather is synthetic on base models, and BMW insists on charging an annual fee for Apple CarPlay compatibility. So do safety touches such as automatic emergency braking and on most versions, all-wheel drive. It does fold down to expand the cargo area to more than 72 cubic feet, and a power tailgate comes standard. Slip off the Timberlands, and the X5 accommodates just fine, though the second row doesn’t slide or recline for added comfort. BMW’s base seats give way to superb sport seats with multi-contour adjustment they cup the front passengers well, but don’t leave much toe room for those in the second row. It rides on a long 117.1-inch wheelbase and sits about an inch longer than last year’s X5, so it’s not substantially different from the third-generation X5. It’s lush and permissive enough with interior space to suit most passengers. A mocha-brown theme has the same dark tones as the best boxes of Valrhona chocolates. And yet, BMW’s applied some loving touches of crystal to the shifter and the infotainment controller, and swathed expensive versions in supple leather dyed in delicious-looking colors. There’s some concept-car purity in the way its control pods are cordoned off by thick metallic bands, how twin digital displays dominate the dash. The cabin could tell the same story, but in this generation the X5’s cockpit has taken a handsome gel. Trim taillights point in toward that shoulder line, which lends the X5 a bit more of a muscular set of haunches. There’s a gentle bump up to the shoulder line down the X5’s flanks, just above the rear wheel well, which keeps its outline from veering into anonymity. The BMW grille’s become more bulbous in this generation, while the headlights have slimmed a bit. There’s not much new in the 2019 X5’s profile, just a different set of priorities.
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