Road test review: BMW X5 M Competition

Wednesday, 13 January 2021

Both the BMW X5 M Competition and Mercedes-AMG GLE 63 S are ridiculously powerful SUVs that are shatteringly fast. But do we actually need that in an SUV?

BMW X5 M COMPETITION
Base price: $225,900
Powertrain and economy: 4.4-litre turbo-petrol V8, 460kW/750Nm, 8-speed automatic, AWD, combined economy 12.5L/100km, CO2 287g/km (source: RightCar).

The gloss black accents might be a bit much, but the vibrant blue paintwork is sensational in the metal.

Vital statistics: 4938mm long, 2219 wide, 1746mm high, 2972mm wheelbase, luggage capacity 650 litres, 21-inch alloy wheels.
We like: Accelerates and handles like nothing this big has a reasonable right to, superb engine, that colour.

The X5 M boasts a fantastically high-quality interior that is packed with tech.

We don't like: Doesn’t need to ride like a sports car, the creeping realisation you are destroying the planet by driving it…

Big, brutally powerful and fast SUVs are very much a thing and the BMW X5 M Competition is very much one of them. Do we need them? Almost certainly not, but people do like buying them. And if brutal power, furious noise and tweaks to make it go faster around a race track (yes, really…) all rolled up in a large SUV body is your thing, then the X5 M is probably for you.

Do you really need a 2.3 tonne SUV that can sprint to 100kmh in 3.8 seconds? We don’t, but it is fun.

So does this thing actually need to exist?

Almost certainly not. I mean it is hard to imagine anyone looking at their large SUV and thinking “It’s nice and all, but I just wish I could save a few seconds off my time around the Nurburgring in it…”

BMW’s 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 sounds ferocious and utterly anti-social under acceleration. Just like it should.

* First drive review: BMW X5 M and X6 M

* BMW X8 M could pack huge hybrid power

This? Or an M5? We would forgo the cargo space and ride height...

* The Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk - aka the world's gruntiest SUV - really flies

But apparently someone at BMW did, so the seriously fast X5 M Competition is a thing now. The Competition sits at the top of the X5 M pecking order, which means it is the only one BMW NZ is bothering to bring in, because buyers of Euro cars in New Zealand only want the fastest and most expensive models. Fair enough then.

It packs BMW’s frankly monstrous 4.0-litre twin-turbo petrol V8 that cranks out 460kW of power and 750Nm of torque and will propel the big fella to 100kmh from a standing start in just 3.8 seconds.

Fast? For sure. Necessary? Again; not at all.

Of course, ferocious power is all for nothing if your two and a bit tonne SUV just wobbles off the road at the first corner you come to, which is why the X5 M Competition has had some serious work put into the handling department as well.

In fact, if you pop the bonnet you would swear the complicated structure of bracing surrounding the engine was some kind of cage to contain the angry V8…

So, yeah, it goes around a corner spectacularly well too. Again, utterly unnecessary. But starting to be fun.

So is it just all about going fast?

Not at all. It might be ferociously fast, but it is also a $200k-plus luxury SUV, so needs to tick a few boxes there too. Which, of course, it does admirably well.

Being a $200k-plus SUV it comes packed with all the latest technology BMW has at its disposal, all of which would simply be too much to list here, so I won’t. Needless to say, it is startlingly well-equipped.

Its ride is… acceptable without being awful, I suppose is the best way to describe it. BMW tends to err on the firm side for its M cars, which makes sense if it is an M3 or even an M5, but a large, hefty SUV doesn’t quite make as much sense.

Sure, it means it does handle fantastically, but is that really the ultimate point of an SUV? Even one with the hallowed M badge on it?

It comes down to personal priorities, but the X5 M is brutally fast, handles remarkably well, sounds incredible and I would rather have an M5 any day of the week…

Any other cars I should consider?

The Mercedes-Benz GLE 63 S, Audi RSQ8 and Range Rover Sport SVR are the obvious competitors here, but if you want more bogan in your life then there is also the considerably cheaper, but fractionally faster Jeep Grand Cherokee Trackhawk to terrify yourself in.

Also, if you really don’t care about going around corners quickly in your fast SUV, then a Tesla Model X Performance is cheaper and quicker in a straight line.