Test drive BMW X5 E53 2003 - 2007 SUV

The ideal of a gamer

The BMW X5 has become a step closer to the game console: the all -terrain vehicle has no desire to master the virgin land, but there is a joystick, which is controlled.
 

It really has changed: the updated front bumper, a different relief of the sidewalls, an insidious headlight of the headlights, a hood without stamping and air intakes ... Unusual bends of the metal revive the car, causing associations rather with the fauna than with the technosphere.
 

The rear bumper does not serve the trunk of the trunk lid (as in the previous X5), and now it looks part of the body, and not an element of the body kit. Such a handsome man will be a pity to squeeze in the mud and scratch the trees with branches of the trees.
 

Bavar was created with an sight on asphalt. And only on the asphalt: the five has neither a lowering gear, nor manual locks do not even have a complete set of air suspension (pneumatic shock absorbers are installed only on the rear axle). But the BMW X5 style has not changed: it is still a clot of aggression on wheels, rapidly moving in space.
 

Let's clarify: in space and in time. The new X5 amazes the imagination, but not only with a brutal three -liter diesel engine, and not a new system of suppression of rolls, combining stabilizers and shock absorbers with an electronic web, and not even a data on the windshield.
 

The new Munich SAV brought electricity to where the wires and fantasy of the automotive traders did not reach before: to the automatic transmission selector. Rather, now this is a joystick. He pumped to the left transferred to manual mode, forward drive, neutral, and then reverse.
  

The parking mode is turned on by pressing the thumb on the top button. The shape of the lever is ideal for the grip, but the armrest does not allow you to conveniently put your hand on the central tunnel.
 

In the BMW, the salon is called cockpit. To know that a person driving a blue-white propeller is characterized by a sports manner of driving. The dashboard in the cockpit is slightly tilted towards the pilot, but the BMW specialists themselves took off from the driver the need to look back at the tidy. Because as an option X5 can be equipped with a projector for windshield information (as in BMW business sedans).
 

The rear seat has become more spacious, and the trunk volume reached 620 l (can be increased to 1,750 l). For a surcharge, the car can be made seven -seater.

We have on the X5 test with a new three -liter turbodiesel with a capacity of 235 liters. With. With a new generation Common Rail system. Compared to the previous unit, the new engine dropped about 25 kg and increased 17 liters. With. The maximum torque (520 Nm) is already available from 2,000 rpm.
 

The disadvantage of the motor is only a noise that is heard from the outside and, alas, is felt from the inside. Perhaps everything.
 

Prices
A three -liter diesel BMW X5 in the basic version of Sport costs from 94,200 euros. In the most packaged version of Luxury, 99 100 euros will be asked for the same 235-horsepower engine. A car with a 4.8-liter unit in similar trim levels will cost 109,700 and 114,600 euros, respectively.
 

And the rest I will say this: diesel engines rarely cause as many positive emotions as a three -liter turbo engine from BMW. It is amazingly burdened, spins up to 5,000 rpm and endows a two-ton crossover with the dynamics of the athlete (8.3 sec 0-100 km/h). But there is also a 4.8-liter motor
 

Competitors (especially those who did not refuse to use air suspension) in terms of silence and comfort on a bad road stepped further than BMW.
 

But the trump card of X-fifth, as before, in controllability. For the sake of this sacred idea, engineers from Munich developed a system of Active Steering, changing the gear ratio of the steering in accordance with the speed of movement. Adaptive Drive, depending on the quality of the roadway, automatically regulates the rigidity of shock absorbers and stabilizers, prevents the body of the body, providing minimal rolls.
 

There are about a dozen electronic systems that correct the behavior of the car in difficult road conditions.
 

The all -wheel drive transmission XDRive works as before: in standard drive mode, it transfers to rear wheels 60% of the torque. In case of demolition of the coupl, reduces the moment supplied to the front wheels, and when drift is completely blocked, sending ahead the maximum 40% traction
 

Soon the time will come when the joysticks in cars will replace the rudders, pedals, levers of the checkpoint and all other organs. But by that time, a new idea will probably appear in the BMW X5. For example, a sensor capturing the driver's thoughts
 

The car is provided for the test by Aviamotors.


Text: Alexander Korobchenko
Photo: Roman Ostanin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 

Source: Wheel magazine [No. 116/2007]