X5 vs. India’s Worst Road Trip

It couldn’t have been easy making this car. Imagine the effort that went into studying the Porsche Cayenne and the Range Rover Sport, only to find that in many ways their qualities of being able to provide abject luxury, off road abilities and excellent driving dynamics can’t be bettered.

But that didn’t stop BMW from trying. And the fruit of that labour is this smashing new X5. Before we get to what we did with it, you need to know something about BMW. No BMW we’ve ever driven has been bad to drive. Some have been better than others, but as driver’s cars, almost all of them have stood head-and-shoulders above their competition. The problem the X5 has always had is that it had to be seen competing with the Range Rover Sport and Porsche’s Cayenne while costing significantly less. This new one has the same mountain to climb. And having spent many, many days with the Range Rover Sport, I can tell you straightway that that’s a really tall order.

To find out what it was capable of, we drove from Delhi to Dehradun and back. Like idiots, we were hoping for scant traffic, beautiful mountain roads and some nice local grub along the way. What we got instead was bonkers traffic for all but 50 kilometres in both directions, endless roadworks, some of the worst driving we’ve ever encountered and KF-bloody-C. Don’t even get me started.

Through all this, I was endlessly thanking the powers that be for the X5. Here’s why. This is one of those cabins you just get comfortable in immediately. It takes no more than a few minutes to feel right at home. It could be the well-designed seats, or the superb visibility, or the big slab of warm wood running across the dash, or the full-length sunroof, or the superb aircon that kept Delhi’s 42 degree temperature firmly out. Throw all that lot together with an endless array of gadgets and what you end up with is a wonderful place in which to commute.

The combination of this 3.0 straight-six diesel and the 8-speed autobox is one of the finest drive packages that money can buy. There is a certain smoothness and progression to it that most other carmakers simply cannot replicate. On paper there’s 258bhp and 500 torques. But out in the real world, numbers count for as little as a politician’s promise. No matter what speed you’re doing, there’s always power when you want it. It’s not served up in one big lump either. It’s a constant, even surge all the way to the redline. Overtaking in the X5 at virtually any speed is but a twitch of your foot.

Driving modes work particularly well in this car. We used EcoPro in Delhi’s rush hour(s) and it’s great for city driving. It keeps the engine completely quiet, shifts up as early as 1500rpm, cuts the engine when you’re stuck in traffic and generally does everything in its power to sooth your brow and conserve fuel at the same time. Once we hit what is laughably called a highway, we switched to Comfort mode. This lets you maintain good pace regardless of what your conditions are by kicking down the gearbox sooner and letting you have more power. So squeezing through traffic was no hassle. For the first 150-odd kilometres at any rate.

In the mountains, we were in Sport+ all the way. This turns of the ESP and tightens everything up. This with paddle shifters was an absolute blast on the final climb up to Dehradun. For the first time since we set off, we felt like we in a proper BMW. Crunch time. Is it better than the RRS and Cayenne. Honestly, it’s up there, but feels very different. In spite of its size, weight and girth, it feels like a BMW should. And that’s good enough for us.