2005 BMW X5 Preview

Hot Handler

Like its competitors the Acura MDX and the Lexus RX 300, BMW's X5 signals the arrival of a new breed of car.

When BMW first introduced its X5 SUV in 2000, automotive journalists worldwide were nearly beside themselves with disgust. How could this sport-sedan maker, revered by car lovers everywhere for building near-perfect cars (we admit up front to being guilty of BMW lust ourselves) go and build a truck?

Still more puzzling was the fact that, just two years earlier, when Mercedes-Benz launched its ML 320 SUV, it was almost universally lauded as a step in the right direction.

Fast-forward to right now, when there's a glut of luxo utes such as the Lincoln Navigator, the Lexus RX 300, the Acura MDX, the GMC Yukon Denali, the new Cadillac Escalade, and even the Audi Allroad wagon, and it's only right to ask, What was all the crying about?

After all, why shouldn't BMW lead the way in building the best-handling SUV ever?

What car scribes were really crying about was a disturbing trend. After all, if BMW started building SUVs (by the way, it plans to make a larger X7 in the coming years, as well as a smaller X3), we could all wind up driving trucks instead of cars in the near future.

Actually, we think the opposite is going to happen, and it's vehicles like the X5, the MDX, and the RX300 that will lead the way to a new kind of car, one that combines some of the off-road potential of a traditional SUV, wagon-like hauling capacity and carlike handling.

And boy, does the $49,970 X5 4.4i offer great handling. Few cars corner as athletically -- every time you think you're pushing this Bimmer too hard, its 55-series, low-profile tires bite into a corner and rail the X5 through beautifully. And the brakes on the BMW are truly awesome. Most SUVs take a good 200 feet or more to stop from 70 miles an hour -- most cars in this price range need 170 feet or less. But the BMW stops in just 167 feet.

These kinds of driving characteristics make the X5 4.4i an atypical SUV -- a five-seat family car that's really a blast to drive. It's the best-handling SUV we've ever driven--and we haven't even mentioned the transmission and the excellent V-8.

The one indictment all those car writers should have laid at the feet of the X5 -- and this is no small shortcoming -- is the car's quite limited hauling capacity. And we have some other niggles as well, some of which we think explain why the X5 exists in the first place and also point out why SUVs to come will be a lot more like cars we already know.