M Performance makeover fails to
improve diesel SUV
From the sublime to the ridiculous...
It's got an M badge, but it's not an M-car.
Indeed, short of the occasional 520d you see sporting a wonky, owner-applied M,
this is probably the least 'M' vehicle ever to wear the badge of BMW's
Motorsport division.
Like its predecessor, which was sold in the
UK for barely a year, the new X5 M50d is one of the halfway-house 'M
Performance' products that M has been charged with creating, positioned between
BMW's mainstream products and the full-fat M-cars that actually get their
images pinned to bedroom walls. Which should make this X5 the SUV equivalent of
the rather wonderful M135i.
The
BMW X5 M50d combines the butch bodykit of the popular M Sport spec you can
choose on lesser versions with pace approaching that of the forthcoming
range-topping X5 M
It's not, of course. The M-ified 1-series
is punchy, agile and has a wonderful finesse to it. The X5 M50d - is that name
any less comical yet? - is a quicker version of the standard X5, with little
obvious dynamic improvement over the base car. As its badge suggests, the X5
packs the most powerful, triple-turbocharged version of BMW's 3-litre
straight-six diesel, with 376bhp and an almighty 546lb ft of torque, the latter
available from just 2,000rpm. Power is sent to all four wheels via an
eight-speed torque-converter automatic gearbox.
On the road it basically feels the same as
the X5 30d that we drove a couple of months ago, due to the simple fact that,
but for the standard fitment of the Adaptive M Suspension system that's an
option further down the range, the chassis is unchanged. Straight-line speed is
unarguably impressive: the engine rakes a moment to fill its lungs, but once it's
on boost it's far quicker than any diesel SUV has a right to be - the claimed
5.3sec 0-62mph time gives a good indication of the pummelling pace. Beyond the
raw numbers, though, the 50d struggles. Its gearbox isn't the quickest to
respond when left in Drive, there's no sporting harmonic in the industrial
exhaust note, and there's little point in revving the engine anyway due to a
torque curve that's about as flat as Norfolk.
The
driving position is not as elevated as some
But it's in the corners where the 50d is
really shown up. Even with the $419,17S option of Adaptive Dynamic Suspension,
which brings active anti-roll bars, it feels big, heavy and reluctant to change
direction, with the limits marked by safe, steady-state understeer that's about
as far away from M Division's core values as it's possible to get. Switching
the Dynamic Drive system to Sport firms up the damping enough to put an
uncomfortable edge on the ride - and puts the gearbox into a needlessly
aggressive mode that seems determined to travel everywhere at least two ratios
lower than is needed. The X5 M50d's main purpose seems to be to demonstrate the
fundamental decency of the basic X5 30d, to which it adds little except cost
and Autobahn performance.
The
X5 is typically generous with its legroom in the front, but headroom is only
average for a large SUV
Indeed, after prolonged exposure you find
yourself wondering if the 50d is a Trojan horse, a rolling request for the
Motorsport division to be spared this kind of work in future. The M badge has
always been about finesse as well as drama, but on that side of the equation
this X5 simply fails to deliver. The full-on X5M, with its petrol V8, may
redress the balance; Land Rover and Porsche have both managed to prove that you
can make big SUVs drive far better than the laws of physics suggest they've any
right to. But while this X5's power output wins it the right to carry the '50d'
badge, it's got absolutely no business wearing the 'M' badge whatsoever.
