Like an outstanding athlete saddled with an attitude problem, the 2012 BMW X5 has moments both of excellence and frustration.
You really want to love the SUV. But its driving flaws add up, and a decade of awful reliability stains any admiration. The X5 may appeal to some, but BMW has a lot to address in its next redesign, which may come as soon as the 2013 model year.
We tested an X5 xDrive35i, whose turbo six-cylinder slots below the xDrive50i's twin-turbo V-8. BMW also offers a turbo six-cylinder diesel in the xDrive35d. After a host of updates for 2011, the X5 changed little for 2012. Five seats and all-wheel drive are standard, and an optional third row brings seating capacity to seven.
Lagging Power
The X5's 300-hp gasoline six-cylinder eats up the passing lane, turning 50 mph into 75 mph with hardly a dent to its reserves. Its eight-speed automatic transmission delays a bit kicking down, but the drivetrain's abundant power across the rev range masks the lag, and a Sport mode holds lower gears longer, lessening the need for a downshift at all.
The problem is getting to all that power.
Accelerator lag spoils the X5's fun. Editors called the gas pedal hard to modulate, disconnected or just plain delayed. Throwing the transmission into Sport changes little. The light turns green, you step down, and the X5 xDrive35i … hesitates. It's maddening.
The 265-hp xDrive35d, which we last drove in 2009, runs short on steam at higher revs but starts off strong, thanks to less initial lag, a gutsy diesel engine and a more decisive transmission — with six gears instead of eight. We haven't driven the 400-hp xDrive50i, but BMW says its twin-turbo V-8 hauls you to 60 mph in 5.3 seconds. Those are Porsche Boxster numbers, but they'll mean little in everyday driving if the lag persists. If you drive the xDrive50i back-to-back with the others, click the link at the end of this review to email me your assessment.
Ride & Handling
Our test car had BMW's $3,500 Adaptive Drive option. It combines adaptive shocks with active stabilizer bars to minimize body roll, with a stiffer Sport mode — independent of the transmission's Sport mode — for more aggressive driving. As such, the X5 stays planted over broken pavement and fights midcorner lean. The brakes impress, with powerful, linear stopping power. Too much spirited driving, however, reveals limitations. Crank the X5 into a hard corner, even in Adaptive Drive's Sport mode, and the initial wallow and pushy nose reminds you it's no 3 Series.
The steering drives the point home: There's meager power assist at low speeds and numb feedback around town. A $1,550 Active Steering option varies the steering ratio for improved feedback and less effort. Active Steering has impressed us in other BMWs, and the X5 could well follow suit. But the standard setup disappoints, and the X5's yacht-like turning circle — 42 feet! — will have you cursing the low assist in close quarters.
It's hard to discern a difference in ride comfort between Adaptive Drive's Sport and regular modes. Either way, our X5 soaked up large bumps but fell into wavy up-and-down rhythms on uneven highway. Small imperfections peppered the cabin where our diesel X5, which had a fixed suspension, smothered them out. BMW offers standard and sport-tuned versions of the fixed suspension. Whichever you choose, save the money and skip the adaptive setup.
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