Quote:
Originally Posted by RowanBuds
Congrats on the pick-up, bummer for that wildly oversized bolt. Good thing to get the first bit of road love out of the way very very early on in the ownership!
Can you opine a bit more on the drives like a dream? You had air suspension on the SQ5, correct? What are the differences in feel/stability/solidity/road noise, in your opinion thus far?
On another note, I got my PCD date confirmed today for 8/29 - Yes, the car will be Performance Center Delivered in the same month of the same year production was begun and completed, approx 24 days after build was completed. That's the good news.
The not-so-great news; the good friend I was looking forward to taking this trip with cannot make his schedule work for what turns out to be Labor Day Weekend. So, looks like I'm going to have a lovely 1 man BBQ tour of SC/NC and then have my wife meet me in Asheville to enjoy most of the long weekend.
It's almost time to do a #happydance  |
Congrats on getting PCD scheduled! A one man tour is not bad in my book, I can appreciate my me time, hehe Hopefully by the time you get your paperwork done the 2020s are in the system. I still have a loaner agreement with me since they cant yet give me a temp tag. And my insurance company is also working on getting it added to theirs so that I can put it in my policy. Hopefully both get resolved this week because as of today I am driving with no tag or "real" proof of insurance other than calling the insurance company if I get pulled over. But I guess that would be a small price to pay for getting one of the first 2020s.
On to your question, I've had my share of SUVs. '14 Jeep Grand Cherokee (20" wheels), '17 Volvo XC90 (22"wheels) and '18 Audi SQ5 (21" wheels). All of them have had air suspension and after getting the X5 I really did not know what it should have felt all along or what I was missing. For comparison to my most recent one, the SQ5, the ride in the Audi was more harsh and you could feel more of the road imperfections. Maybe the 21" wheels had something to do with that, but the X5 does have 22s. The suspension and ride comfort probably had something to do with it being the S model, even in comfort mode. I will give it that it handled great and took corners pretty amazingly. Not to mention the awesome acceleration. But the SQ5 also had plastic creaks here and there along with too much hard plastic in the interior that the X5 does not have. I bought the Audi for some spirited driving because I wanted to experience that and it was fun, but overall it was just way too firm for my linking. It took me a good month to get comfortable in the seat and before that I would have lower back pain after 5 minutes of driving. The X5 seat just fit like a glove.
The air suspension in the BMW can be floaty to some, but I think it is a great compromise when you put it in sport mode. The bumps and road imperfections that I was used to with the Audi on my commute to work were no longer there today. The X5 went right over them and made the commute much more enjoyable. The acoustic glass makes the cabin feel so quiet, even with the 22" wheels it is quiet. The BMW just feels more premium than the SQ5. And even though they are in a different class of cars, for $68k MSRP for top trim SQ5 that I had, it should at least come close to the BMW in material quality. While looking at the X5 I test drove a Q8, and while the looks were there, the amount of hard plastic on the inside was a turn off for me, over $90k for hard plastics was a no thanks for me.