New member - X5 4.8 V8

[Turks]

Wasn't contesting what you said, just stating my experience - good to always have a 1 Ltr bottle in the boot though because you cannot be sure with a new car until you know how it performs.


Turks.

[4.8v8]

The oil on mine was down on low by the time I crossed from Germany to Denmark so added a litre. Was about in the niddle of low and max when I set off so good to have packed it. Cruising at 120 on the autobahns may have a effected the consumption  Lets see if it uses much on the way back

[4.8v8]

Well got back last night following another great 2 days driving back across Europe. Overall the X5 drove superb and was a real pleasure to be in, as well as providing an excellent V8 sound track! It really shouldn’t drive and accelerate so well for a big 4x4, especially one which is 10 years old and has 120,000 on the clock. Was considering a petrol discovery or supercharged range rover sport before getting the x5 but doubt either of those would have been nearly as much fun to drive (or prove to be as reliable as a BMW).

Biggest problem on the journey was nearly running out of petrol in France! I worked out that the cheapest place on the route to buy fuel would be France (http://www.fuel-prices-europe.info/index.php?sort=1) so didn’t set off with a great deal in the tank to maximise the space for cheap fuel. However when realising we had forgot some stuff nearly half way to Calais and deciding to nip back to London for it (or rather being told we had to go back for it), that left me shorter on fuel than I planned and with no time to stop in order to make the ferry. Think I got off the ferry with something like 15 miles of fuel showing. I assumed there would be plenty of petrol stations near the port for us thirsty Britt’s but couldn’t come across any. Decided to head off the motorway and into Dunkrik as there surely would be some there. But again couldn’t find any. In the end asked a Citroen CV driver were the nearest petrol station was and he kindly showed us the way by driving there in front of us, which was needed as it really was hidden away. Pulled into the petrol station with the X5 telling me there was only 1 mile of fuel left in the tank! Otherwise the journey was pretty much trouble free (well apart about 30 mins on the ferry from Stockholm to Turku when I couldn’t find my car keys prior to departure…).

I have to salute the Germans for their autobahns! My first time driving on them and definitely won’t be the last! But still didn’t fully test the X5’s capabilities. Cruised at 120mph for parts of the way but anymore and the wife was getting too nervous. At under 4 thousand rev’s though there was clearly much more that the X5 was capable of and the acceleration from 100 to 120 was effortless. Helps you realise how the Germans have been so far ahead in manufacturing cars for so long, as they have had to build cars that get properly driven and tested on autobahns.

As said earlier I added some oil just prior to crossing from Germany to Denmark and it didn’t seem to use much from then on. Truth be told though I probably added a bit too much by checking the level before it was fully warmed up. Was still getting used to the concept of checking oil after “having driven it for at least 6 miles” rather than when cold.

Covered a total of 2467 miles on the trip and it was a much easier and more pleasurable experience than I could have imagined. The first day I drove to the Germany coast, and the second through Denmark and Sweden to Stockholm, to catch the overnight ferry to Finland, and use the same route on the way back. I’m sat here now thinking of excuses to drive the X5 some more, which wouldn’t be the case with many vehicles after travelling for 2 days in them.

Only other issues for concern on the trip were; the tire pressure yellow warning light coming on (tyre pressures checked but no problems), then just before setting off on the return journey when starting the X5 up, both the “stop check engine oil” and “self-levelling suspension inactive” warning lights came on. I did some visual checks and all seemed OK, looked around this site a bit and decided to put them down to electrical gremlins and set-off (and in any case it was Sunday so no one would have been available to do any checks). Had no problems from either or further warnings lights come on since then.

Would also say that towards the end of the days driving the car felt a little more sluggish than earlier in terms of throttle response / picking up speed at times. But after over 8 hours of driving I think it was OK to cut the X5 some slack. And it was back to normal the following day.  Initially (I only bought the car a week or so before the trip so as still getting familiar with it) I was a little concerned that when accelerating between around 60 and 70ish and when it changed gear there seemed to be a little “dead spot” where the revs and acceleration pulled back, but I think it was more of a case of me pulling back on the revs subtly and when I kept the foot in the revs there wasn’t really an issue. (But if any of these last 2 points do sound familiar – do let me know if you know of any potential problem/fix).

Now to go through the receipts and calculate the fuels costs…..while trying think of the next trip!

[AW8]

Glad you made it there and back ok. Good post.

Maybe make sure the issues raised are sorted and car gets a proper going over before next Germanic mission

Can't advise on the issues with any valued comment. I try to keep my peake code reader to hand in case I want to try to get some idea re any querionable issues.

[gobiman]

Interesting report - thank you.
I use mine for a couple of ski trips to Austria (with large roofbox) and a few trips to Scotland.
I find it fantastic for high speed driving and it happily sits at around 100 mph even with roofbox.
Interested to hear about mpg. Even driving in the 80-100 range with roof box, I still manage 20 mpg. Coming down from Scotland last week over 6 hours or so ( and a little slower) I got 23 mpg and about 440 miles out of a full tank.
I visited Jason about 4 years ago for a remap and recently had the engine treated with Terraclean which probably helps at the margin.
I have an F15 50i pencilled in as a replacement but keep putting it off as the 4.8iS (now 11 years old) just keeps going so well.

[4.8v8]

my rough calculations based on fuel use and miles covered would suggest 21mpg, which is around the official combined mpg, though the driving was mainly motorways, other than getting stuck in a bit of traffic in Essen and Stockholm, and bit of town driving in Finland. But the X5 was pretty full with luggage and wedding stuff, and I had a fairly heavy right foot most of the way

Looking at the petrol receipts then Germany was in fact the cheapest place for fuel at £1.11 / litre for 98 unleaded (I am beginning to see the country in a whole different light - cheap fuel, good beer and great roads!). If you travel to France avoid the BP petrol station nearest the Dunkirk port where I filled up on the way back - nearly UK prices!

Thanks for the Terraclean mention - will have a look into that

[gobiman]

At the risk of sounding like a pedant, always worth doing some planning for euro trips particularly given how large the tank is.
I drive out to Austria via Belgium then Luxembourg (cheapest fuel in Europe) aiming to be almost dry when I get there. Then drop down to French Autoroute at Metz - saves me roughly £20 in petrol and £20 in tolls for perhaps an extra half hour. This then gets me to Austria which is cheaper than both France and Germany. Coming home I stick to French autoroutes for speed and convenience but use a hypermarket just off the autoroute at Reims - which gets me back to London.
I think that there is a Le Clerc in Dunkirk from memory - your route runs out of France pretty quickly!

[4.8v8]

Yeah absolutely good to plan ahead for the fueling strategy when travelling across Europe. I was surprised at how big the difference in fuel costs can be from country to country particularly when they are so close like France, Belgium and Netherlands.

In Dunkrik Total charged me €1.549/litre, whereas just down the road nearer the port BP charged €1.674! In Germany (Reinfeld) I paid €1.519 (and there was a Shell garage with an even cheaper price in the town). Netherlands was the place to avoid having to fill up as they would have charged around €1.75!