The 2019 BMW X5 Is A Right Sized SUV That Drives Like A Sport Sedan

It's hard to believe that it's been nearly 20 years since BMW introduced its first SUV, the x5, which in 2000 back then actually called this a

sport

s activity vehicle and was essentially just an upgraded version of its series. 5 best seller. - dad now as you know SUV's have continued to explode here in America this has quickly become one of the company's best selling vehicles with BMW moving around 50,000 units annually so today I'm just outside of Seattle Washington with the rest of the Automotive Video Association members and I support this vehicle this is the all new

2019

fourth generation x5 you can see it finally looks a little different it's riding on a whole new platform but the big question i want answered is this latest x5 still has what it takes to be the best in the segment that's what we're here to find out so as most of you know bmw has been pretty guilty lately Of not really changing the exterior look of many of their new C ARs, but when you look at this all new X5 I can easily tell that this is an all new vehicle.

I actually really like what BMW has done here of course you have the signature dual grilles this one in particular I'm showing you the 40 I and just the excellent regular package they also offer and the M Sport Package which gives it It gives a much more aggressive front fascia for like 3500 bucks it actually looks pretty good just in stock configuration. My test vehicle here has an executive package that rolls in BMW's full LED headlights with a laser light technology that's

right

this car has laser headlights and of course it's not the full laser headlights you get in Europe it's kind of silly because america has really stupid regulations for headlights but bm you know you say with these laser headlights it basically allows you to see farther when at night when driving the vehicle it also has led fog lights in the lower fascia a very parking lot Well integrated sensors and overall it's unmistakably a BMW.

I think they have done a very good job with the overall proportions of this new x5. Now it's actually riding on a whole new platform. This year BMW calls it their cluster architecture, it's the same platform that underpins the even bigger x7, the BMW 5 Series, and the current generation, the 7 Series, and when they moved it to this platform, they made the new x5 It was significantly bigger it's 2 inches more on the wheelbase and 2 inches more overall at 190 4.3 inches long and 117 inch long wheelbase this is pretty big it's about the same size as something like a volvo xc90 which is why they continue to offer a 3rd row seat option on this vehicle now you can see my particular tornado has some 20 inch wheels which is an option they are like a $1000 option they also bundle with the M Sport brakes for another 800 bucks with the blue calipers they look fantastic actually they are running 275 series tires for 45 these run flat Q The irelli Scorpio tires now my test vehicle t It also has an adjustable air suspension for about a grand.

It allows to increase the ground clearance of the x5 from eight point seven inches where you can increase it another two inches which will definitely be good for off-road capabilities the rest of the profile as you can see is pretty traditional it has that signature You know, the design element here with their twist on this in the rear quarter panel and then when you look at the rear of the car you can see that they've made significant changes to the overall look compared to the previous generation, it's going to have lights full LED taillights as you can see there's a xDrive 40 I badge four wheel drive is standard on the x5 in this new generation now before they used to offer an ash unit which was rear wheel drive and then down here you can see that I like this little brushed silver finish on the rear bumper, it goes well with this mineral white metallic exterior color, so you have these du very well integrated all the It's exhausts that aren't really connected to the mufflers but they look pretty cool now this is the turbocharged inline six so let me hear how that engine sounds real fast and it's a single turbo engine with 335 horsepower . go test drive later but i think it actually sounds pretty good typical bmw inline 6 now in terms of rear liftgate area a power liftgate will be included on all models and still retains that trademark split design for the tailgate so it's actually a power opener here where you actually have two different levels of the tailgate and if you want to close it you just have to touch that button and I'll close this one automatically now in terms of the area BMW cargo is pretty good too you're looking at about 34 cubic feet of space with the second row up remember there's a third seat or a seat that's optional that this one doesn't have but if you want to fold the seats it will expand the Cargo area is about 72 cubic feet which is pretty good it's

right

up there with the best in class so let's move on to the interior of the new 4th generation x5 tion first thing I'll show you guys here is the current remote for BMW products it's your smart access key this comes standard they offer a screen key which my tester doesn't have that's a pretty cheap option but I imagine most of you guys will probably just give that up because you just eventually use the BMW app and use your phone as the actual key, but if you want to keep the key fob in your pocket when you get close to the x5's door handle, you can see it's very similar to the new x7 the door handles look almost the same this is not the button actually where you would tap it to lock the doors just tap this little Ridge area here it will lock the doors for you I think it will unlock it just touch the back of the door handle and then it will unlock the door for you now my fitting room has th has a brown or coffee upgraded leather interior for $1,500 gives you some costu added flushes on door panels some contrasting stitching here on door panels also seats look great too have heating and cooling missing massage feature although this is a 16 way power adjustable seat with memory for 2 people.

The massage feature is literally only $1,200 extra. x5 but it will really remind you a lot of their new x7 SUV so they really took a lot of the x7 and put it in there on a smaller x5 so I think BMW did a really good job there now going into the interior you can see him. It has a good easy step in height. I have it set to its regular adjustable ride height right now, so it has eight point seven inches of ground clearance. You can also download it if you want. When you want to close the door, it sounds very solid, remember. ar this is the same clustered platformer that is on the x7 and if you want my tester i have $350 worth of auto closing doors so that is actually a steal for three hundred and fifty bucks. one of these now doesn't have glass controls on this particular one but it still looks great, glass controls would have been added like a glass shifter here, a glass engine start button and a volume knob and an anti-drive controller for when they turn the engine up just push this button here to turn it on and there's the typical BMW chime the steering wall is power tilt and telescopic which is nice if you want to put it in your

sport

y setup here the engine is very smooth we gotta love a bmw straight six it revs even faster than your v8 which sounds good but this is certainly the smoothest engine to go with because it's a straight six that It's legacy balanced, now the rest of this interior you can see.

You've got some really genuine stitching here across the dash because I got that upgraded package. You've got this standard woodgrain molding here. BMW off. There is an option such as an aluminum trim or a wood with a matte finish. This down here is a padded plastic. soft touch injection molded plastic but not actually stitched it's bigger BMW products to offer that feature the center console here is pretty similar to what I saw on the new x7 the door panels can be seen too nice and stitched you got some real aluminum cut out if it had the massage feet seat feature the buttons would be here where you could adjust the massage you can see here are the window controls where the windows go up and down automatically one touch and also they feel really high quality and it feels great there's a nice padded area here there's a nice little handle down here it's nice and padded too with very nice storage or headlight controls and a dimmer switch of course. there's the wall looking like I said this power tilt telescoping has a heated steering wheel feature which is really nice and then of course you've got all these buttons here obviously this is for the steering wheel mounted paddle shifters for the 8 speed automatic you have your adaptive cruise control buttons here where this car has your adaptive cruise control also like your driver assist you can see right there is a camera watching your face like in The new X7 that this car offers. you have the ability to drive by yourself basically in traffic jams at speeds under 40 miles per hour where I don't have to hold my steering wheel every time you press this button here you can see it's assisted driving mode or there's distance control which It's just normal adaptive cruise control.

I'll show you that on the test drive, but I found it to work very well only on my initial test drive. I like the new instrumentation for the gauges. It has a weird tachometer. gh that goes in the other direction but you can slightly tweak this it shows your GPS in the center there which is pretty cool this is of course your twelve point three inch I Drive 6.0 infotainment system now it's it has become a touch screen and i drive honestly it is one of the best systems in the business you have to love I Drive for its crystal clear clarity for how fast it is you can see it has built in navigation which works great it is very fast it looks beautiful it also almost has like a google earth view I love their I Drive system and it also includes things like apple carplay and android auto the apple carplay again is wireless now to activate the apple carplay you have to go to the home screen here and then go to the dot -com then you go to the phone and carplay which will activate your apple carplay of course which is wireless my phone as you can see it's just sitting there on the wireless charger and it gives you e This feature and this you have to pay extra for as a subscription plan so it's a really horrible thing what BMW is doing I'm not entirely sure how much people are paying a month maybe it's like $100 a month but why what our BMW charges people when it's free and other brands so I imagine a lot of owners will be upset that BMWs are going to have to reconsider a bit if they're going to continue to charge people for Apple Carplay and whatnot when you put the veil on in reverse my tester has a 360 camera which is lovely it has automatic parallel parking it has backup assist which basically means you are navigating a very tight parking lot and you have to get out of that tight parking lot or garage later the car will actually remember in which way you went into the garage and all you have to do is put it in reverse and it's back out for you and follow the exact same route you actually did. entity did now I haven't tested the system myself yet I've seen videos of BMW eos on it I'll have to do that at a later time I actually have this car for the long haul compared to this shorter period where I only have it for a couple hours and all of that now the rest of the infotainment system you can see here it's very beautiful to look at it's really on par with everything else in the east segment that Carl saw it has quad zone automatic climate control you can see the screen is a separate screen for your auto climate control for your temperature and other stuff I like how BMW Does it have heated and cooled seats?

You actually only have heated seats on this particular one. Sorry I got it mixed up with the x7 I just did. on the cooled seats that also give you the massage feature which I highly recommend at this price its an insult that you are missing cooled seats just spend another $1,200 and add the cooled seat feature which is definitely important for something like this now the rest from the center console here, you can see that you have heated and cooled cup holders, which are reallygreat. I would like to see how cold it keeps the cups outside. It's a cool option, however, that's like a wing. letter option it has a usb port there this here has a lot more buttons for your drive mode selector you can see it has a sport mode it has an eco pro comfort setting and it has an adaptive setting or an individual setting this also adjusts your air suspension adjustable if you want, you can adjust it to five different levels, it even shows you on the screen what you're doing, you've got your electronic parking brake in here, you've got a nice padded armrest in here and then you've got a nice center console in here with a charging port USB C and a pretty good amount of storage now looking at the glove box you can see it's a pretty big size it's very deep its felt cushioned line very similar to the new x7 and I think the seats are pretty comfortable but again you can get an added much higher quality leather in that luxury comfort package for the massage seat and ventilated seat but overall the inside of the new x5 feels like you're sitting in an x7 sometimes even though it's not that big it's very easy to see on the outside it's luxurious it has the latest tech it has a head up display I think a lot of people will be very pleased with what bmw is doing on their newer designs now jumping to the second row of the x5 now keep in mind my tester is only a two row model if you guys want you can actually add a third row for an extra $1,000 now bmw says legroom back here is around 37 inches of legroom surprisingly there's almost a completely flat floor in here which is good got to put three people across not bad , I will let's say I've been in some competitors that have a little more room in the second row you can see this one has its own set of climate controls it has a quad automatic climate control tro zones which is nice it has air vents in the rear seats though no heated rear seats This in e missing an option package which would give you heated stubs and if you wanted to fold down this armrest so you can see there are two Couplers coming out of the seat, however, I'm surprised they don't recline, they don't slide forward, they don't recline, that's something I really expected BMW to offer maybe they offered it in the 3rd room.

I'll have to double check if I get one of those too fast you can see there's like a little mount point. here as a rear seat entertainment system this has the rear seat entertainment prep package and then it has a usb c charging port which is nice you have to map the pockets above me I've got this really big panoramic sunroof, let's finish a lot of light, and overall the rear CX-5 is usable, but I feel like there's some kind of clipping. Some competitors offer a little more room in the rear now under the hood of the latest x5.

BMW currently only offers it with two different engines. configurations and trims M ion will come at a later date this is the engine most people are going to get is the company's signature three-liter turbocharged inline-six a single turbo engine with its variable timing timing technology valve vanes and direct injection makes 335 horsepower and 332 pound-feet of torque this is essentially the same engine that you'll find in something like the next Toyota Supra this is their unique straight-six now it all comes out through from a ZF 8-speed transmission and the automatic is your only option with your xDrive all-wheel drive system which will be standard now that it's an SUV so it has some towing capacity BMW says with the towing package it will have max weight At 7,200 lbs and the fuel economy isn't all that terrible either it has a rating of 20 city and 26 highway which is honestly one of the best numbers I've ever seen. i've looked at for a six cylinder option and the new x5 is a little bit lighter compared to last year as this ar about 4500lbs if they go for the v8 model it's like another 200lbs heavier but they will have 456 horsepower but that's plenty for different reviews so all wheel drive with this 8 speed automatic let's hit the road and see how it performs Oh Wow I didn't expect this inline six to feel this fast since the line it definitely has is a nice boost now that bmw also includes a launch control feature on this car with the 8 speed automatic transmission which was kind of unexpected considering this is just the baseline of the x5 for it to have a feature from launch control the new x5 is definitely a return to BMW recalling the fact that it is supposed to be the ultimate driving machine the chassis of this car is just really good it feels like i'm driving a sports

sedan

that's a little jacked up this one has the adjustable air suspension i have it's a sport seat right now and you really feel the joy of this car put in it it's a paddle shifter Mode here makes a nice little bubbling out of the exhaust which is lovely I like it I mean 0 to 60 time is around 5.6 seconds for this straight 60 if they want the v8 it will drop that second in time or it will cut it in half by about a second to four and a half seconds which is mind blowing considering it's like a family SUV that seats seven if they go for the third row option now the only thing I wish BMW I would have addressed is there its steering feel even in this sports car sitting here it feels a little too light for my liking I mean sure look at it it's very quick and it's very precise which is good but I just want ro a little more weight, a little more feel.

In sport, I expected it to be a bit firmer, so now I'm a bit disappointed in terms of visibility. It's very easy to see from this car. You have this great view from the front. ish side mirrors but you're going to get features like adapt or the adaptive c the noise control my test vehicle has with auto lane change capability traffic jam assist will all now come standard with forward collision alert braking automatic emergency blind spot monitoring with rear cross traffic which is actually more sensible you have to pay an extra seven hundred bucks to get the adaptive cruise control with traffic jam assist which I'll try in a bit the seats are also very comfortable they hug you but I'm sad they're not cooled seats but for $1200 you can get that feature and you can also get the massaging seat feature which is a no brainer to me if you're going to spend this kind of money on a vehicle considering something like a Volvo xc60 or xc90 has that function too so i really just want something like that now i want to try another drag run quick here this time I won't use launch control just floor a little soft oh that's good I mean there's really no need for the V A this thing is big enough for most people you don't necessarily need the VA but it's nice to know they have the v8 in case you want that extra power so this is a really well rounded car its more fun to drive for me than the last volvo xc60 or xc90 i drove much more interesting to drive than an audi q5 , Although this is a class above the Q5 so you have to keep that in mind when you actually drive this and the X5 really is. its signature SUV I mean I hate things like the x6 because it's just a useless SUV unlike the x5 which has that coupe look this is for me you know it's practical it's comfortable it's still fun to drive and I'm looking forward to it Now that I see the M versions of this car coming out the olive oil drive system in this car is more rear biased and when you put your foot down you can feel the car vectoring torque and pushing the rear end out outside. a little bit which is definitely good that's so what you want from a high performance SUV like this now i want to talk about active driver assistance because bmw says it has a camera that looks at my face and it's like the super cruise from Cadillac, so let's fire it up.

I set you cruise control. I can toggle between assisted driving mode which I have it in now or just normal cruise control now let's look at this curve right here steering wheel so again it's not the full hands-off feature like Cadillac it is and it just gave me a beeping and he yelled at me because he wanted me to put my hands back on the wheel so let's try turning it back on because I want to test to see how well it works now there are indicator lights here in the center of the wheel now it's flashing red because he doesn't like it to drive without my hands on the wheel so again this is not the level of almost a level 3 or not the almost level 3 aut The economy that Cadillac gives you with our super cruiser but what you do notice is that your hands are on the steering wheel, for example, you are approaching a sharp curve. about the rest of the steering for you and this is supposed to really help you in slow speed traffic jam situations where you know you're actively working the pedals, working the accelerator, working the brakes, working the steering and whatnot and what it will come to a complete stop when you're dealing with rush-hour traffic, so BMW's driver-assist technology has improved markedly.

Take my hands off the wheel for just a couple of seconds and it starts yelling at me to put my hands back on the wheel right there, it's already starting to beep yellow to me and if I ignore it it will probably start beeping and turn red. it's literally flashing a hand signal so I'm just going to listen to it I want to yell at myself but other than that this is a really nice driving crossover the 6 cylinder has plenty of power for most trips while being very quiet inside the seats are comfortable there's very little to complain about other than the price of the vehicle which we'll get to as we go through the conclusion of this video so as BMW's first SUV the x5 definitely It has a lot of history within the BMW brand.

So they really took their time to redesign this all new 4th generation model and it seriously shows we spent our days driving this all new

2019

X5. I'm happy to report that it has many of the typical BMW strengths that we What I expected from this brain is that it has some really sporty driving dynamics, it has a very nice interior, it has a smooth straight-six engine, it's turbocharged and it has some really impressive technology especially with the driver assistance with the interior to challenge the best of Mercedes, of Audi, of Jaguar, of all the European luxury brands, that's where BMW is missing, they really played it safe for years and while this new one still has a bit of a conservative look to it, I imagine a lot of people when they first drive this thing will find a lot to like with the interior with the driving dynamics and with the overall packaging and styling just right on the vehicle. with all that being said how much will it cost to put one of these x5s in your driveway if you are looking to purchase one of these vehicles now as these vehicles are typically more expensive when redesigned and the new x5 is no exception this car now starts at $60,000 for the six cylinder model remember all wheel drive is standard they currently don't offer a turbo four on the x5 that might change now if you want the v8 engine that will cost you another fifteen thousand dollars for a total of about seven nty five thousand dollars now being a BMW the options are a lot and they are very expensive this one has several options from the convenience package to the premium package, professional driver assistance package, executive package, wheels and air suspension when you add everything including mineral white color and upgraded leather inside decals on this car for around seventy two thousand nine hundred and eighty dollars there is a pretty significant change i mean you could buy something like a bentley you could buy something like a volvo xc90 you could say It's a bit more luxurious inside, but I say it doesn't have the driving feel of the new BMWs and the BMWs did a very good job with their new interiors, they don't feel as warm as well.

Those but they are right up there with Audi with Mercedes with Lexus for sure and I think they have done a very good job with this particular model but I hope you guys have enjoyed my full overview of this 2019 bmw x5 X Drive 40. Yeah too If you're looking to see the latest cars I'm testing, be sure to follow me on redline reviews on instagram, highlight reviews like us on facebook, and as always keep subscribing to the redline reviews youtube channel for the latest reviews, Thanks so much for watching, I'll catch you all in the next video