BMW X5 ownership - why ?

[Linford]

I followed one yesterday from Redditch to Evesham on the bypass, and the handling appeared surprisingly poor on the corners (roundabouts), with the acceleration away from one on par with an asthmatic 1.6 8v engine, but producing a massive amount of soot (off the 3.0 TD engine)
I just can't understand why anyone would choose one over a regular car as it was poor in this dept as a road car, and just a waste of time as an off road vehicle.
I think the owner had manhood issues as well, but that is a different matter
Anyone want to fess up to owning one, and if so - why ?

 

[twowheelsgood]

Dunno, never understood the appeal of SUVs for 99% of the population and most of the abilities of these vehicles can't be used unless you fit the appropriate tyres too as many found out when it snowed recently.

Worse still this model has been about a few years and tends to fall into the hands of people who wish to maintain what they perceive as a certain image but who really can't afford to run this type of vehicle - you can usually tell when the fashionable morons go after a certain vehicle because the insurance premiums rocket.

Had a similar thing the other day when the car went for a service, a guy pulled up in an 8 year old range rover with 3 bald tyres, so for all its 4WD capability, 1 drop of rain and it'd have less grip than I do. Don't fancy 2.5 tonnes of it piling into the back of me at a junction.

Still at least it isn't a BMW X6 which has the problem of being ugly as well as useless.

 

[Linford]

[QUOTE 1731139, member: 45"]What about an Audi Q7? Is it ok to own one of you're scared of your wife?[/quote]

I definitely got the impression that he wanted to overtake anything which might have possibly got in his way irrespective of whatever speed he happned to be travelling at.

The Q7 sort of falls into the same 'don't challenge my masculinity' category as well - crap as an off roader, a wallowing barge as a regular road car. A commanding view is a bonus if you do happen to need a big car, but not a good as a primary reason to buy a car.

 

[Linford]

I definitely got the impression, he considered it to be an egowank vehicle. I just don't get them TBH

It could have been worse though - it could have been white.....

 

[accountantpete]

X5's are very useful for going over speed bumps as if they weren't there when taking the kids to school.

 

[GrasB]

Big throttle openings with stone cold oil causes a lot of lag & smoke. Also it does a fair amount of damage to the turbo & engine so you end up with a smoky diesel no matter what. How old was the car? I ask because you can totally mess up a diesel engine by abusing it in around 18 months of use.

 

[Linford]

It was probably about 5 or 6 years old. I'd have personally thought it was the EGR valve sticking to create so much soot

 

[GrasB]

May well have been hammered into the ground or had a 'bad' fuel map. In the US there's a fashion of having a fuel map which deliberately belches out huge amounts of black soot with massive over fueling because "it's looks like it's really powerful". The irony of this is that it dramatically reduces the power produces by the engine at low RPM as well as wasting huge amounts of fuel in the process.

 

[Linford]

The soot comes from overfuelling in that particular part of the rev range - it can't burn cleanly in the engine, and not enough air can get in there to balance the mix.
A sticking Exhaust Gas Recycling valve causes a lot of soot as it pushes some of the gas at certain revs back into the airbox to burn it twice and lower the emissions. This can only be done at higher revs, as it strangles the engine by pumping CO and CO2 back into it at lower revs, and the EGR valve is designed to open only at higher revs - when they stick, the exhaust gases just bleed into there all the time creating a lot of soot (innit) The EGR is ultimately only there to help the vehicle pass the relevant laws, and more diesel cars seem to be running with faulty ones than not - they don't run them in all countries, and I blanked the one on my shogun off about 10 years ago which cured a multitude of problems. It still smokes whrn you give it a big boot, but all diesels will do that with a lead foot.

 

[Linford]

^ All I can hear when reading that is Charlie Browns teacher.....

Charlie Brown - you must be ancient

 

[Cletus Van Damme]

A mate used to have a 3.0D that was mapped for extra performance. It was pretty fast for such a big car and the engine did not really sound like a diesel, well ones that I am used to anyway. Still the fuel computer never got above 23mpg when I was in it. He did drive it fairly fast though. They are really not my thing though, for the money paid and the economy on offer I could think of much nicer cars to buy. Still everybody to their own though.

 

[400bhp]

IIRC the X5 is based on the BMW E39 (old 5 series) platform, although I understand the newer ones are based on their own platform.

Think of a 5 series on stilts-wrong centre of gravity is the main issue.

The old 5 series is/was a great handling car. I owned the daddy 5 for just under 5 years.

 

[Rickshaw Phil]

Dunno, never understood the appeal of SUVs for 99% of the population and most of the abilities of these vehicles can't be used unless you fit the appropriate tyres too as many found out when it snowed recently.

This is really nothing new. My dad likes to recount how during a severe snowfall in the late 70's he was able to struggle home in his company Allegro but passed three or four Range Rovers which had been abandoned because the drivers couldn't handle them in those conditions.

Four wheel drive is a tool and like all tools you need to know how to use it properly for it to be effective.

 

[Linford]

This is really nothing new. My dad likes to recount how during a severe snowfall in the late 70's he was able to struggle home in his company Allegro but passed three or four Range Rovers which had been abandoned because the drivers couldn't handle them in those conditions.

Four wheel drive is a tool and like all tools you need to know how to use it properly for it to be effective.

I'd never regard the X5 as a 4x4 though. Just a big heavy lump which is marginally better i the snow and ice than BMW's RWD cars. Anyone who thinks that the 4wd system in them is actually useful in slippery conditions is mistaken. It is an unfulfilled promise IMO

 

[400bhp]

[QUOTE 1731139, member: 45"]What about an Audi Q7? Is it ok to own one of you're scared of your wife?[/quote]

Whilst cycling at the weekend I noticed just how much road noise the Q7 makes. 2 Passed me over the afternoon and I could hear them coming from a long way off. Stupidly wide tyes and 3 tonnes.