[SteVTEC]

Might seem crazy to be giving an initial review of our MY22, but we picked it up in February with a mere 3200 miles on it, and we’ve now doubled that and officially driven it more miles than the original owners with a whopping 6400, all as MY25’s are rolling out?? Lol

No regrets at all, fantastic vehicle and purchase for us.

The B58/ZF8 powertrain combo is absolutely brilliant. It’s more than powerful enough, sounds great, and still sips fuel on the highway. The mild-hybrid system really seems to help with linearity, and especially off the line performance prior to the turbocharger spooling. I’m easily able to get 28-29 mpg on highway trips going 75 mph, which is better than our E70 X5 35d diesel. I still can’t believe this thing is noticeably quicker and faster than my E93 335i N55/ZF6, but there’s no doubt about it! Unlike so many other cars, the Start/Stop (ASS) is hardly even noticeable in this one. My wife doesn’t mind it, but I’ll still be bimmercoding it out soon to start in Sport Individual by default.

I think the base suspension is entirely appropriate for the vehicle, and strikes just the right balance between taking corners and comfort. There’s no problem taking some corners hard in the base suspension, and the steering feel/heft is fine. If you want to do that all the time, first why are you in a G05, but yeah you’ll want to upgrade to the M-Sport suspension. I’m planning to purchase the upgrade through the MyBMW app to “unlock” the sport tune setting for the suspension at some point, but haven’t done so yet. Big shocker to me that BMW just put the same adjustable dampers in all the G05’s rather than designing a cheaper passive suspension, but that’s what they did for whatever reason.

My initial complaints with the seats are gone. The vehicle truly wasn’t driven much at all, so the seats felt overly stiff when we picked it up, but are ‘broken in’ now and much more comfortable. I’ve also found that if I slouch just a tiny bit in the seat that it seems to fit me better. Probably just the shape of my back, but it’s much more comfortable now. Initially I missed the multi-contour seats, but not any more.

Ours has the base stereo. It’s good enough for us. I’ve read some complaints on the forum about how inferior or even disgraceful it is, but it’s the same complaints that everybody has always had about pretty much every base BMW audio system for the past 15+ years. We’re not audiophiles here and rarely if ever crank the music, so no need for the optional system whatever it is (HK or B&O).

About the only thing that kinda stinks not having is no tow hitch, which is apparently extremely costly and a major PITA to add from what I’ve read on here. I might have wanted to put my hitch mounted bike rack on it, but I can just keep using my Suburban for that no big deal.

Overall this G05 X5 is perfect for us. It’s become our default local trip and errand runner now, and we’ll be making a lot of 200-300 mile range trips in it also. Our breeding dog came into heat, so I’ve been running her back and forth to WV in it lately, which is a 200 mile round-trip. Along with the outstanding highway fuel mileage, I also really appreciate the larger 21.9 gallon fuel tank. It has a legit 500+ mile highway range even before a low fuel warning light comes on (could go 600 if you push it!), and only burns through a third of a tank on my WV trips. Electric just isn’t gonna cut it for us yet, even for our "medium range" hauling needs.

Will still be keeping my Suburban for whole family travel (kids & dogs), for the really long distance trips (down to FL or the Midwest and back), or for when we need a ton more cargo space, so it’s not going anywhere. I still drive it once a week or so, but mostly it stays parked these days.

The Bimmers are way more fun to drive. This G05 is awesome!

Previous G05 pickup thread here: https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/sh....php?t=2080612

[Marty in NY]

Originally Posted by SteVTEC

Might seem crazy to be giving an initial review of our MY22, but we picked it up in February with a mere 3200 miles on it, and we’ve now doubled that and officially driven it more miles than the original owners with a whopping 6400, all as MY25’s are rolling out?? Lol

No regrets at all, fantastic vehicle and purchase for us.

Nice review, thanks. I agree with your sediments. As far as gas mileage goes, for all of 2023 my ave mpg was 29.1 over about 10K miles. Most of my trips are a bit over 30mpg. How can you beat that in a car this size, weight and hp? BMW has been known for their 6 cyl engines and this one is no exception. Really quite fine tuned and smooth, so smooth that you really don't know how quickly you go from a stand still to a ticket. You're right, I do enjoy driving it and have enjoyed driving all the BMW's I've owned, even those that coughed up fur balls once in a while

[bandersen]

Originally Posted by Marty in NY

Nice review, thanks. I agree with your sediments. As far as gas mileage goes, for all of 2023 my ave mpg was 29.1 over about 10K miles. Most of my trips are a bit over 30mpg. How can you beat that in a car this size, weight and hp? BMW has been known for their 6 cyl engines and this one is no exception. Really quite fine tuned and smooth, so smooth that you really don't know how quickly you go from a stand still to a ticket. You're right, I do enjoy driving it and have enjoyed driving all the BMW's I've owned, even those that coughed up fur balls once in a while

Marty / are you quoting mile or KM per gallon? Good god. I know I have a heavy foot (most driving on highway, 70+) and I’m at 23-24. Which I think is still superior, and 3-5 over my old S4 - a smallish sedan as you all know.

Base audio - sorry it does suck. Absolutely. Obviously, don’t change the batteries in the hearing aids!

It’s a great car/great MY. Can’t believe you have that few miles on it. Enjoy!

[Marty in NY]

Originally Posted by bandersen

Marty / are you quoting mile or KM per gallon? Good god. I know I have a heavy foot (most driving on highway, 70+) and I’m at 23-24. Which I think is still superior, and 3-5 over my old S4 - a smallish sedan as you all know.

Base audio - sorry it does suck. Absolutely. Obviously, don’t change the batteries in the hearing aids!

It’s a great car/great MY. Can’t believe you have that few miles on it. Enjoy!

Well, I'm an anticipatory driver. This prevents 99% of sudden death braking and I mostly, like 99% of the time, drive in Adaptive mode in combination with very little jack rabbit starts. Plus, this is my trip car so it mostly see's interstate drives. However, I've been know to mash the pedal when I need to and for fun. Here, take a look .. .. ..

[Clk Group]

Have been very happy with ours as well!

[SteVTEC]

Originally Posted by Marty in NY

Nice review, thanks. I agree with your sediments. As far as gas mileage goes, for all of 2023 my ave mpg was 29.1 over about 10K miles. Most of my trips are a bit over 30mpg. How can you beat that in a car this size, weight and hp? BMW has been known for their 6 cyl engines and this one is no exception. Really quite fine tuned and smooth, so smooth that you really don't know how quickly you go from a stand still to a ticket. You're right, I do enjoy driving it and have enjoyed driving all the BMW's I've owned, even those that coughed up fur balls once in a while

That's incredible. What speeds do you average at that MPG?

On my last 200 mile round-trip to WV and back, I was pushing it going 80-85 mph, but still landed at 28.2 mpg for the whole trip, including 26 miles of 45 mph secondary roads.

[Marty in NY]

Originally Posted by SteVTEC

That's incredible. What speeds do you average at that MPG?

On my last 200 mile round-trip to WV and back, I was pushing it going 80-85 mph, but still landed at 28.2 mpg for the whole trip, including 26 miles of 45 mph secondary roads.

I don't use a radar detector and don't really want to be bothered spending time looking for police traps, though I do pay attention when I'm doing over 80mph. On trips I always use DAP and set the cruise for five mph over whatever the limit is. I use that as the baseline speed. Then I pretty much follow the traffic speed which is usually around 80-ish in a 70 zone. When I pass, I nail it to pass quickly as I am not a left lane rider.
Ok, the gas mileage is simply a product of the car's technology and my personal driving habits. Its certainly not a goal of mine to squeeze out higher mileage but I think it bodes well for BMW's conservative ratings and does show that you can have a car with decent acceleration and performance without sacrificing the thickness of your wallet in the process

[cwbrow2]

Great review! I am on my third BMW and I still chuckle to myself how great these vehicles are. I am very fortunate to be able to own such a classy, great performing suv. Coming from 2 previous X3m40i's, the X5 is such a plush great performing vehicle . Do I miss the performance of my previous X3m40i's.. Yes, but only on Mondays!