SEXY SLEEK REFINED-RIDE THAT'S CHARGED WONDERFUL OPTIONS

This car is wonderful and tested everywhere having had it for two years. Here's the options I have and my review below: Premium Package (leather interior, full sunroof, etc), lumbar support, GPS system, 4.4i.

(1) INSIDE

The Architecture, design, layout of this BMW is beautiful (though some materials may be cheap for what you would expect from a $60K SUV.
Lots of trays and lighters for smokers, and the drink holders tightly hold small and large cups. The middle console is two layers, top is 3 sections for smaller items, bottom is larger for larger items...not that much space but adequate for normal items such as pens, pencils, altoid tins, gum, small notepads. One bad, was this did not have a sunglass holder!! Map lights are wonderful...all over the place.
The seats are wonderfully contoured, and especially comfortable if you get the lumbar support option.
I love the leather steering wheel, it is wonderful. The radio controls on the steering wheel are big, and easy to control. Wonderful.
Interior is spacious for all passengers. There is no third row, so for the 4 to 5 people in your car the roominess is enough. The cargo area can be expanded by using two buttons that automatically lower the back seats for you. I would say that the cargo area is pretty small for a car this size. Plus lowering the seats doesn't help too much as you can't lower the back seats FLAT just almost flat.
The driver console controls are well placed and all the information and display readouts for the driver (temperature, miles left with gas, direction, etc..) is wonderful. The buttons are hard to figure out what they do (typical german car) just pictures, so you will have to take full advantage of the manuals, and the included owner's video that is hours and hours long covering every little nook and cranny of the car.
Climate control great, and I love the option to program the AC to turn on at a designated time automatically when you're car is parked, so you don't get fried when you get back to your car. The automatically rain detector on the windshield wipers performed almost perfectly. It's great! Sometimes it didn't detect a few drops of water.. no biggie. The window defrosters cleared the fog and even melted ice...Fantastic!


(2) DRIVING IT

The handling is phenomenal, the acceleration too good, it guzzles gas but what the heck! Handling on very sharp freeway off/on ramps was more than expectedly precise and sharp for a vehicle this large. I drive another small car which obviously handles turns well, but this baby outperforms it, being 4 times bigger and heavier. The handling is very responsive and cutting people off or accelerating onto the freeway becomes a truely joyful experience. I would accelerate to pass and not even notice I was over 90 mph, you just don't know how fast you're going in this car. The acceleration from zero, could be better, it is a little lagged for what I would expect...perhaps it needs more liters to adequately carry the 5 ton vehicle. Overall the ride was smooth and the handling was like a fast sports car, though we are driving a big ol' mid-size SUV. Kudos to BMW

(3) X-DRIVE
This was really tested in a blizzard in Lake Tahoe for one week, in snowy conditions (about a few inches per hour) at around the freezing mark where black ice can occur, plus everything on the roads froze over night (especially if it rained the previous day)...especially icy condition. We mostly drove on the open road that was bulldozed maybe twice an hour. So, as other cars went slipping and sliding, this baby stayed on the road...on bare tires with just the x-drive technology. We could feel slipping but the computer system readjusted the slippage on individual tires to self correct any slippage. Nice. So we could accelerate and pass as others slowed down or stopped.

One time we did venture off to the small roads with extra heavy ice build-up and that's when the X-drive gave up...i think ALL tires were slipping..and there was nothing that x-drive could do if all were slipping (with no snow tires and chains on)... but we turned the steering wheel towards the direction of slip and quickly recovered. But that being said, this x drive is not a COMPLETE REPLACEMENT of a 4 x 4 with snow tires and chains. As far as most sorts of trecherous driving conditions, the system was SUPERB.

(4) OPTIONS

Options of a full sunroof (one the reaches over the back, as well as the front, seats) is simply wonderful. Everything was automatic, having a third option of completely blocking off the sun yet leaving the roof open for ventilation. Almost feels like we were driving in a convertible, the entire inside was drenched with sun and air. This option is only offered on the BMW x5 as far as I know, and it's well worth it if you want it. I highly recommend the heated seats if you get it.
Leather seats are okay. They feel great like leather should, but on the cheaper side. Didn't feel like the luxurious sort of leather that you want to keep running your hand on, that was a dissappointment.
The GPS system factory installed is nice to have. Though the one offered by BMW, though it works flawlessly, is a bit cumbersome to use. There's no voice input, no touch screen, everything needs to be inputted by to dial/push buttons where you scroll through everything. It doesn't even AUTOMATICALLY remember your last searches. So if you don't go through the hassle of saving them manually, you'll have to perform the same painstaking scrolling search again. Otherwise, the voice prompts, the screen and zoom levels offered are more than adequate.