X5, X fine

Part of the job of being an automotive journalist is to uncover all the negatives of any car. However, there are times when one comes across a car that excels in just about every aspect. One such vehicle is the BMW X5.

Admittedly, it’s easy to fall under the spell of a car that, in the words of my many drooling passengers, "adds a million pogi points" to its occupants. Make that 4.4 million pogi points, one for each peso you’ll have to shell out to permanently park this baby in your garage.

With sport utility vehicles firmly in the minds of new car buyers worldwide, it wouldn’t take a Harvard Business School grad to know a golden opportunity when he sees one. Mercedes-Benz was the first among the German luxury carmakers to jump on the bandwagon with its M-class SUV. BMW followed suit with its X5 with Porsche set to debut its Cayenne off-roader later this year.

Exterior styling is definitely one of the X5’s strongest suits. Full marks to BMW design chief Chris Bangle for succeeding in transferring his cars’ sporty elegance to a traditionally utilitarian 4x4 design.

While it wouldn’t have been too hard to slap on BMW’s twin kidney grilles, four round headlamps and rear pillar dogleg to any vehicle, the overall feel of the X5 is still very much that of a performance-oriented vehicle — and a true-blue BMW, at that.

A muscular bulging hood that sweeps down into those gaping grilles, short overhangs, deeply sculpted doors and fenders, a raked rear backlight with integral spoiler, huge sporty 17-inch alloy wheels with wide and low-profile (for an all-terrain vehicle) 235/65R17 tires and a relatively low overall height all contribute to a racy overall look.

Fortunately the X5 has the underhood muscles to back up the promise of its looks. BMW Philippines imports only the 3.0-liter 6-cylinder turbodiesel X5 variant with the gasoline-engined 3.0-liter inline-6 and 4.4-liter V8 models available on a per-order basis.

Those who desire the refinement and performance of the gasoline engines won’t miss those attributes in the diesel version. This powerplant may make the least horsepower (184 @ 4000 rpm) among the three available motors but it more than makes up for it by having gobs of torque, 410 Newton-meters at a very low 2000 rpm — much more than the 6-cylinder gasoline engine’s 300 N-m and just a bit shy of the 4.4-liter V8’s 440 N-m output. It even has more torque than the Ford Expedition’s 4.6-liter V8, which generates 395 N-m at a much higher 3450 rpm.

The magicians from Munich achieved this using cutting-edge diesel engine technology: high-pressure common-rail direct-injection, turbocharging, intercooling, double overhead camshafts and four valves per cylinder (for a total of 24 valves).

From the cabin, none of the usual diesel noise and vibration was evident. More to the point, stomping on the accelerator produced instantaneous hard acceleration — none of the momentum- or rpm-gathering that most engines require.

BMW quotes a 0-to-100 kph time of 10.5 seconds with an automatic transmission. It feels quicker than that. They also claim a top speed of 200 kph for the diesel-powered X5. Although I wasn’t able to verify those numbers, I did reach 140 kph in no time on an empty stretch of the Katipunan flyover. And that was with the gas pedal hardly halfway through its travel.

Other amazing aspects of this motor was its willingness to rev, much like a high-performance gasoline engine; its smoothness and quietness at all engine speeds (no vibrating gearshift lever common to diesels); and the absence of telltale diesel smoke even at full throttle. I averaged 6 km per liter, based on the trip meter and fuel gauge. The Steptronic automatic also allows you to switch to manual mode and shift gears yourself for sportier driving.

Handling, a long-time BMW strength, was another eye-opener. Much has been said about "car-likeness" when it comes to SUVs but the X5 simply explodes that definition. I made a hard trail-braked U-turn at 40 kph — a speed that would send most cars’ (let alone SUVs) tires squealing — and the full-time 4-wheel-drive X5 simply followed with little body roll and absolutely no tire squeal.

One would think that all this attention to performance would compromise the X5’s comfort. Hardly. It smoothly glided over EDSA’s numerous and annoying asphalt patches and potholes, much like a 5-series sedan on which the X5 is based.

Brakes, abetted by huge four-wheel discs, ABS, Cornering Brake Control (CBC) and Dynamic Brake Control (DBC), are exemplary. The only gripe perhaps would be the rather noisy and rough pulsation of the ABS system under hard braking.

Another gripe is the overly light steering, in stark contrast to BMW’s usually communicative steering systems; this despite the X5’s Servotronic rack-and-pinion system that lightens the steering effort at low speeds for easy maneuvering and raises it at high speeds for better control.

Inside, the X5 is not much different from its Bavarian stablemates. The wood-trimmed-dashboard, the leather-swathed seats and steering wheel, the door panels (with bright aluminum trim) and the switchgear could all have come from the 5-series. The multi-adjustable power front seats are comfortable and supportive while the steering wheel tilts and telescopes. Space for five passengers and their cargo is generous.

The only aspect that confounded me was setting the memory for the driver’s seat. Fiddling with the seats memory buttons, without the aid of the manual, proved fruitless.

Few cars can match the X5’s vast assortment of safety gadgets, most notable of which are the ten airbags, a total of six for side and head protection of the four outboard passengers and two more for the front passengers in frontal impacts.

All things considered, the BMW X5 won’t fail to make its wealthy owners happy. Once you get over its lofty price tag, you’ll be left with a vehicle that will play second fiddle to precious few cars, whether at the driveway of a posh hotel or roughing it out in the boondocks.