Gadgetory

it's the original BMW SUV partly SAV they like the word activity instead of utility regardless it's now and it's heavily refreshed third-generation so let's try this 2014 BMW x5 xdrive35i count the letters in its name plate and check the tip now I find this gen 3 car the best-looking x5 yet because they've retained the chunky substantial look that is x5 but they've also sculpted it better than ever and really giving it a lot of car like face it really looks a lot like the most desirable BMW cars on the front I couldn't say that about an x5 in the past easy way to spot a gen 3 X 5 is to look at the fenders on both the front fenders you'll find this kind of long blade light cutout that looks right through to the tire they call that the air curtain it's about managing airflow from the face of the car across the face of the wheel with minimal aerodynamic disruption underneath that giant panoramic glass roof you'll find much nicer available rear seats that can have heating finally fancier upholstery 10 degrees of recline and three inches of four aft adjustment that's all new little third row seats are optional but if you do get those you can't get the fancy second row seats I just mentioned now inside our x5 things haven't changed a lot you're going to recognize the iDrive interface it's very familiar and it's mounted in this 10.2 inch ultra wide screen that is in the current fashion mounted like so it doesn't go up and down though it looks like it and it's a very clear well rendered display nothing too different there it's not a touchscreen of course the Germans don't go for that instead you get the latest iDrive controller with a bunch of homerun buttons around it a larger knob for turn click and kick and it's a touchpad on top for handwriting recognition for directional moves or also for pinch and zoom on your map level now where they have made some nice streamlining improvements is in voice command check it out FM one 102.1 you were listening to 102.1 that is super clean and intuitive I didn't have to spend any time learning what it wanted me to say so many other cars would have you say Radio tuning mode change to something frequency shoot me I'm going to grab a knob by then this is very humanistic similarly clean for address entry enter address 2 3 5 2nd Street San Francisco California processing your input 235 second Street now I can also get to my destination through BMW online which is a separate search utility but it works differently it takes you to a different voice recognition platform done in the cloud I can also go to wiki local to find where I want to go and that's another experience and here there's no voice recognition so I've got multiple ways to address multiple interfaces to all serve the same basic idea a finding what I want to go this is where things like carplay and android auto are going to find low hanging fruit clean up this mess that occurs in so many vehicles these are not the only guys that do it wrong abs are via a cabled phone only not wirelessly Facebook and Twitter are heavily cleaned up and usable in a limited way audible books glimpse location sharing Rhapsody music and tune in radio streaming are all on the way meanwhile general bluetooth streaming handles the rest including the obvious omission of Pandora by the way radio includes am/fm and HD radio however satellite radio doesn't get in there unless you let BMW twist your arm and show you a $2,700 premium package my x5 will not have satellite radio for that reason now when I put our car in reverse you're going to notice all I've got are sensors front and rear no rear camera on this car there's even an around view camera that's optional I get it but on a car of this price category they're going to nickel and dime me for a rear camera that doesn't work with me of course federal law is going to take care of that soon enough in the meantime prepare to get insulted now here in the engine room is one of the great engines in manufacturing right now in fact it's arguably the best inline six ever made this is BMWs n55 it's an awarded motor the twin power turbo technology is the first thing you want to call your attention to it has a single turbocharger but with to scroll phases for low and high rpm coupled with direct injection as is the fashion these days and BMWs Valvetronic which is a very sophisticated variable valve technology that also takes over the throttle functions in this engine the numbers 300 horsepower 300 pound feet of torque it goes out in rear-wheel drive fashion base on these cars which is new for this generation but of course we have all-wheel drive here 0-60 for this roughly forty eight hundred pound vehicle is 6.2 seconds that is two tenths faster than the outgoing vehicle and by the way a hundred and seventy pounds lighter on this one as well your mpg ends up being at 18 27 that's actually pretty good it used to be 1623 the year before so lots of improvements have happened here in terms of performance and efficiency and of course a one choice only automatic transmission but it comes in two modes the base and a sport automatic now of course BMWs have this rocker switch for various drive modes you start at the bottom at Eco Pro you go to comfort which is like normal you've got a sport mode and you've got a Sport Plus where they're taking the traction control largely out of the pictures those are your four ranges and you can see they affect things like throttle response shift points it will affect your adaptive suspension if you option it and it's also going to affect your steering feel but of all of these you might think I'm going to be totally gaga for Sport Plus or something seen it 100 times what really intrigues me is actually Eco Pro I'm not normally a big fan of eco modes because they dumb the car down too much but this one's interesting and of course mutes back the throttle response softens up your shift points have been it also tells you to back off the throttle with an indicator here if you're goosing it too much it's going to demand auto start/stop being able which I'm not a huge fan of it will also freewheel or decouple the engine from the drivetrain when you lift off and Coast it lets the car glide more and have reduced friction that's pulling its momentum down it will choose more efficient routes when you're under navigation and it will also coach lift off the throttle as you go into a corner or into a reduced speed zone ahead it's quite complex and of course combines with the regenerative braking it's on this car as well as older BMW tricks like using on demand rotating accessories that only drag on the engine when they need to and we have electric power steering so there's no electric power steering pump being parasitic the last part of your sport display is here in the iDrive display which gives you a power and torque readout not really useful but kind of put you in more of a sporting mode and on these all-wheel-drive cars you have an X Drive status indicator that will show you how the power or torque distribution is being worked around the four wheels I'm not sure what you're going to do with that information but it's a nice animation now the x5 has all the BMW traits on the road that you'd expect the power is very good in this vehicle they've dialed out a lot of turbo lag with that twin-scroll twin power technology amazing for a number of years now because we have the M Sport Package we have the Sport Automatic transmission our automatics are the only choice on this car no dsgs no manuals and I find it's a very alert gearbox whether you're on the stick or on the paddles doing your shifting or just in sport mode it's on the ball and the shifts are crisp without being jarring it's a well-done automatic now the one deal you make with the devil when you get a BMW is you're buying a certain stern ride quality these are never cosseting cars with the exception of a few models but basically you're talking about riding a very firm underpinning all the time in these vehicles it's part of the BMW DNA it's not for everyone to be honest the other interesting thing is the last mile app which allows you to go from when you park to walking to your exact final destination with guidance and also taking you back to where you parked your car now pricing an x5 is like pricing most premium German cars get a cup of coffee and pull up a comfortable chair we're gonna be here a while first of all the base price with destination and the most basic interior is 57 5m sport packages 4,600 bucks 19-inch wheels M sports steering wheel the sport automatic transmissions 40 your seats dynamic handling 3,600 bucks which includes the rear torque vectoring technology active roll control and full adaptive suspension but if you want the rear air suspension that's 900 more a lighting package with LED headlights and automatic high beams that steer is 1,900 driver assistance is 1400 for the rear camera and a HUD driver assistance Plus is 1900 for blind spot lane departure and front crash partial braking and if you want adaptive cruise and the stop and go in everyday traffic that's $1200 more and we're not even done yet parking assistant is five hundred dollars comfort rear seats kind of a bargain at five hundred Harmon Kardon surround sound is 875 I won't even kid you with 4,500 for Bang & Olufsen night vision with pedestrian detection is 2600 of tubba the least useful dollars you'll ever spend and that requires the cold weather package for some reason so add by 54 that skip the $2,200 rear seat entertainment system which is lame and you're almost broken out anyway and do 190 bucks for a pair of iPad holders all inward about 78 - I'm going to skip another several thousand worth of trim options take the card just the way