Taking a “crossover” offroad means trouble
We often show our distaste for 4WDs that are not really equipped to go offroad. But when BMW released selective footage of their prototype X5 bashing dunes using its fancy-pants XDrive all-wheel-drive system, we figured we’d give it a go too. But to be cautious, we stayed near pavement if anything should happen.
Well, as you can see, something did happen. It had to be pulled out of the soft sand because it couldn’t manage on its own accord. We sorely missed a low-range gear at this point. However we have to say that it can power through sand under hard throttle in most cases, just like every other crossover, and seemed to handle moderately flat sandy surfaces with ease. But the X5 is still strictly a jacked-up sports car. A very good jacked-up sports car.
Comments
ali
for thousands of $ ,and cannot offroad;its hilarious
a fan
ouch 😯
diego
feel so sorry for you friend… you should haev callled me,, would have helped you for sure…with my car lol
Justin
thatz y im buyin a vw touareg v8 instead of an x5!
cb
why do u get mixed up between truck based 4wds and car based awds? The x5 is NOT a 4wd vehicle. its an crossover AWD suv. you buy a 4wd when you wanna do some serious offroading. u get a awd when u want something that gives u a higher ride height than cars but still handles very well and can do some light offroading. awd is there to enhance the handling and for light offroading like an occasional trip to the beach. like u said, awds will easily handle moderate flat sand and the occasional dunes under hard throttle but they were never designed to challenge a proper 4wd with low range gearing (for eg. a land cruiser) in an offroad competition.
Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury
“u get a awd when u want something that gives u a higher ride height than cars but still handles very well and can do some light offroading.”
In other words, to be a poseur. 😆
cb
not really. most people who buy awds drive it where it is meant to rock: onroad. in the case of the x5, compare its handling with lets say the landcruiser. u know the result. nowhere does it say that a vehicle with better ride height than cars must perform well offroad. besides the taller than car height is an advantage in city traffic. n why get a proper 4wd when one is sure they will not be doing any dune bashing? but i have to say that people who get offroading vehicles like landcruisers and use it strictly 4 daily purposes may fall under the above mentioned category 😆
diego
hahah. bowled mashfi. hehehe. hope he learns a lesson…yo cb
Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury
Diego you dumbass, cb was just repeating to me what I told him six months ago. 🙄
cb
lol diego im not saying mash is wrong. i do agree that awds will not perform as good as proper 4wds offroad. but criticising awd vehicles mainly for its offroading ability does not really do justice to it and is misleading. look at the 1st post 4 eg. “its hilarious” 🙄
jakomo
How do you compare this X5 to Cayenne, Q7 and ML?
diego
yeah yeah ciby singh
Mashfique Hussain Chowdhury
Jakomo, Porsche and Audi does not give us cars, and Mercedes never has anything in their press fleet.
ali
mohamad
porsche doesn’t give us cars they give us (planes) and rockets. 😛 and as ali said an suv should have offroad abilities.
my friend took a training course in their service center in dubai.
and he was shocked that most X5s are suffering because their owners
tried to take it of road (for ex. the sensor for the leveling of the head lights in most X5s that did an off road experiance are dameged). and really you can’t compare the off road abilities of the X5 to the porsche
cayanne or touareg (lets say it in other words, X5 is made for on-road driving and really i know it is very good in that).
its really shocking (two meters away from the pavement) 😯 😀
assassin
what was your feeling when you got stuck a meter away from the street? 😆 😆
this is embarrassing man.