Whatshot
Surefooted X5
Surefooted X5
Date: 2016-08-05
The X5's all-wheel drive felt like jet propulsion and the driver assistance made me feel invincible whether I was on the open highway or negotiating the steep soft sand dunes of Kosi.
The test model I was fortunate enough to drive was equipped with an engine straight out of a petrol head's dream world. My X5 xDrive 50i looked sublime from the outside, however under the bonnet was an eight-cylinder TwinPower inline turbocharged petrol engine. Two parallel turbochargers aided by BMW's Valvetronic engineering known as double-VANOS, were fed by direct injection fuel supply, which nearly blew my socks off, even without removing my shoes. This engine produces 650 Newton meters of torque, which for the uninformed is phenomenal and the 330 kilowatts of power had every hair on my body standing to attention when it leaps from zero to a hundred in sub five figures of 4.9 seconds.
Sounds like a gas-guzzler when you read this, but the X5 xDrive 50i can produce fuel consumption figures of 9.6 litres per hundred kilometres if you want it to.
Besides all that hype, this third generation X5 Sports Activity Vehicle also comes equipped with so much first world sophistication and intelligence that it will surely blow your top as it did mine.
Contact SMG Umhlanga on 031 - 502 9800 and they will be able to arrange a test drive for you, it will be a highlight whichever X Range BMW model you choose.