Gadgetory

BMW's x-5 kind of started the category for this SUVs were big kind of dopey they put the sport into them when they called sport activity vehicles not sure I buy all that mumbo jumbo but let's jump in this 2012 x5 xdrive35i and check the test now we've seen everything in the cabin of this x5 before I'm not going to belabor every piece of tech I encourage you to look at our other BMW videos for 2012 to get an in-depth on all the different systems but three things I want to call out for you here first of all the iDrive controller is kind of setting itself up as the best in the business it's easy to use in a moving vehicle without a bunch of slop that makes it too sensitive this may be the perfect blend of simple universal control the knob and dedicated buttons like back similarly the screen the main interface on iDrive is really turning out to mature nicely there are some places where I gripe like when you get to the navigation screen this cryptic little menu of ribbon icons on the left still doesn't make any sense to me and I have reviewed probably a couple dozen cars with that that said though notice how it has crisp throttle response it's not laggy if you have the convenience package on this car you get BMW online this is still one of the best online systems in what is very early days for this kind of thing letting you do Google search to find things that you then want to navigate to that completes the circle of what automotive navigation always should have been and should be in the future and of course you can option BMW apps on a car like this for 250 bucks you get Facebook Twitter streaming web radio and more it's one of the better systems out there now again because we have the convenience package you've got not just a rear facing camera but you can also turn it into a panoramic camera that goes all the way around the three sides of the car I also want to point out this sports activity trim level comes with a ginormous panoramic roof the big glass part here in the front moves the smaller one behind doesn't but in every case you're going to sunburn your head if you wish I've got real mixed emotions about this rear seat entertainment system first of all it's 1700 bucks I guess it's okay and that the display is bright decent size it's not up here in the way of the drivers rear view mirror that's good on the other hand it's down here in the way of the driver and the front passenger zel bow that's bad your DVD deck is down here it does have aux input somewhere apparently this serves an aux input setting on the screen more than that though no one's sitting back here is going to be without an iPhone or an Android device they won't use this much except perhaps as a little drink table now these X 5s are all one configuration they're all wheel drive hence the X but we've also got an 8-speed automatic in this car with this unusual paddle the thing I have a gripe with on this guy is not in the way the thing is interfaced to your hand but the way it works on the road no wonder this amazingly light put what does that mean it must be plastic you've got a three litre inline-six what BMW calls TwinPower Turbo technology it's not twin turbos they did that for a while now it's one turbo that has two phases one for lower rpm then it kicks over to another scroll pattern inside for higher rpm that should mean almost no turbo lag which we'll check out in a minute the numbers 300 horsepower 300 foot pounds of torque 0 to 60 s around six point four seconds pretty impressive considering this guy weighs up porky 4,500 pounds the downside of that weight is the mpg 16:23 rated hmm just this side of embarrassing and that really means like 18 real-world average let's go for rides this big boy feels kind of tippy and tall there's a fair amount of annoying road input that comes back it's a bit harsh the other thing of bothers me here is unless you're really in it there's not a lot of throttle response this car is powerful but not always responsive you can snap it into sport mode that will do wonders for it but it's undoubtedly going to lower your mpg a bit at low speed the steering gets really quite heavy a lot of reviewers have noted that it's not just me oh one other thing if you look out behind me there I mean you see within the second row but you can get a third row dropped in for what it's worth let's price this x5 xdrive35i it's the turbo six not the non turbo not the v8 the one in the middle the one you want $59,000 like this because we have the sport activity trim it's a nicely equipped vehicle but you've got to go fifty two hundred dollars more to get all the technology I showed you on top of that two hundred and fifty bucks for the BMW apps support of course you're going to do that you're watching this on CNET seventeen hundred dollars for the rear seat entertainment system of course you're not going to do that thirty five hundred dollars for an active suspension with active roll bars I'd like to see some of that wallow taken out ya parts and service are really really high on these damn things