[drilling]

Went to a dealership. Had a chance to try luxury seating package. Here are some thoughts.

The X5 was canadian car equipped with premium excellence package thus Merino Leather with ventilated and massage seat.

1) Massage function was great. Not as great as 10k + massage chair but still very nice function to have during a long drive. Lots of massaging options to choose from.

2) Ventilated seat was bit of a disappointment. I turned on to the highest setting but barely felt any air. Maybe because the car was in dealership and it is in power savin mode?

3) Seat cushion definitely felt little more firm than regular comfort seat, probably because of massaging/ventilation hardware.




Tried a G01 X3 next to it. It always disappoints me how X3 feels very cheap compared to X5. Lots of hard plastics in X3 and especially the plastics used in air vents feel very very cheap (and with visible parting lines). I have to say X5 is definitely two steps above X3 in terms of material quality and etc.


Btw, the X5 in showroom had a cargo floor that didnt fit perfectly. Is there some sort of QC problem at Spartanburg?


Generally the more I see X5, the more I feel I made the right choice to a point I want to sleep in my car Just wanted to share some thoughts while chilling in BMW dealership for 3 hours like some sort of a homeless dude. I sure did dress like one since none of the dealers even bothered acknowledging me haha.

[X5_CC]

I had a loaner X3 while my X5 was in the shop. I agree with your assessment. There is a noticeable difference in the overall feel of the interior.

This is disappointing because I think the looks of the X3 are outstanding, and size-wise it's perfect for me.

There was such a difference when I got back into an X5 after the X3.

[roadkillrob]

We also tested G01 and G05 back to back and have had several X5’s and an X3 in the past. Overall I agree feels cheaper and seats are not great and the G05 makes everything else feel dated I find!

[AndroidRobot]

The X3 (M40i) is great and a ton of fun but it lacks on the interior side of things as you mentioned.

[aspiring335]

I have the G05 with the massaging / ventilated merino seats. The massage does work well, but I think the consensus is that the ventilation is not going to be super noticeable. The idea is really just to stop your back from sweating in hot weather, more than to create a strong current of air from the seat.

Agreed that the X3 interior feels very cheap compared to the X5.

[Selh05]

Has anyone sat in the contour seats vs the massaging for extended periods of time. I am very torn on which to go with. Love the idea of massaging seats but I do a lot of driving with shorts stops throughout the day and I don’t think I would keep them on except for long trips. In test drove in contour and they were great.

[mattsrs]

X3 is so behind its competitors like Q5 and GLC for interior quality.

[AndroidRobot]

Originally Posted by mattsrs

X3 is so behind its competitors like Q5 and GLC for interior quality.

The Q5 falls to the X3, I owned both a 2018 SQ5 and 2018 X3 M40i fully optioned so I don't say this lightly.

[MrPorter]

Originally Posted by mattsrs

X3 is so behind its competitors like Q5 and GLC for interior quality.

The X3 is on par or better than the Q5 in quality. The aesthetics / design language I suppose you can chalk up to personal taste, but after having an Audi for a few months, I was bored by it. The Virtual Cockpit is nice, but it loses a lot of its luster after the (very short) Google Maps/data trial runs out.

I only drove a GLC once, and while I can't say I left being blown away by the interior quality, I know that MB does a nice job. But the tech in the X3 crushes it.