Early Delivery Due

[BMPHIL]

So, BMW moved production forward by 3 weeks. Production start 5 Sept and heard today it's reached Southampton. 17 days from production start to arrival in UK, that sound good to me!

[mogsyman]

Brilliant!

Mine was build to dealer in three weeks, clearly BMW have their production working really well at the moment.

[BMPHIL]

A bit different to the Fail-Pace

[BMPHIL]

It's sitting at Southampton port longer than it takes to ship across the Atlantic.........frustrating :wall:

[mogsyman]

[quote="BMPHIL"]
It's sitting at Southampton port longer than it takes to ship across the Atlantic.........frustrating :wall:
[/quote]

Frustrating but the wait will be worth it 

[BMPHIL]

Thanks Mogsyman, how's yours going, any further observations?

[mogsyman]

[quote="BMPHIL"]
Thanks Mogsyman, how's yours going, any further observations?
[/quote]

Early days, currently I'm only 600 miles in.

It's an extremely comfortable place to sit, the comfort seats are great and probably have too many adjustments!

I've been spoilt with 562bhp in my old M5 so to be honest it feels slow off the mark (which I can assure you it's not!) however when driving it's got a really good response and there's more than enough to have some fun. I love the torque you get from a powerful diesel (Audi and Le Mans can't be wrong!) and it also has quite a nice soundtrack albeit I understand that's fake  :hypo:

It's a bit wobbly..............BUT, it is an SUV and again currently I'm used to firmer suspension. Using sport makes a difference and the power pick up is immediate and combined with the ZF box it's smooth as silk, shifts are very quick. I've read the sport button makes it all very crashy and tough to drive but it's nothing like that, if only improves the drive if you want to be a bit spirited. That said I haven't used the paddles yet, I'm not really sure it's the type of car that you do  ??? They are also not quite the right shape for me........must be my sausage fingers!

The interior is well built as you would expect and the new iDrive is a big (massive) step up from the previous model. It takes a bit of getting used to with the menus being different but getting back into my wife's 2016 X3 makes me realise how good the new one is. You can personalise a whole lot more and it's bang up-to-date. At this point I'm not sure I'll part with £235 for Apple CarPlay, I just don't see what you get in addition to the standard iDrive  ???

Other technology I like is the ACC which is simply amazing and I can see on a trip will come into its own. The HUD is as per my M5 but now goes orange at night which is a nice touch. I do need to lean slightly to the right to view the speed limit but nothing to really worry about.

The LED lights are good however the automatic sensing seems more sensitive compared to my last car and it's seems to want to go down to dipped beam more frequently than I would expect but I'll wait until I've really had a good drive at night to determine if they need adjusting (which I'm sure can be done)

I do like the way the speedo panel lights are white during the day, red at night. I understand the 30d and 40d are not lit during the day and red at night making the panel difficult to see sometimes again as per our X3.

Not sure about the lights all over the place, I first saw this in a Mercedes and i wonder if they've been copied to keep up with the Jones's  :hmmm:

I cleaned it at the weekend and even with a 'hop-up' at 5'8" I struggled to reach to the centre of the roof  ) It's bloody massive! But it looked great once clean again  :punk:

No problems so far and I'm really happy with my choice. believe it or not I hadn't driven a 50d before I ordered it, I just had faith it would be a bloody good car (I've also had three X5's previously) and it's what I expected.

Have to go out now but that'll do for now 

[BMPHIL]

Excellent review :drive: many thanks

[mogsyman]

[quote="BMPHIL"]
Excellent review :drive: many thanks
[/quote]

Some images below 

















Everything about the iDrive is slicker and it's very smooth when using maps on the road.

The automatic zoom feature is pretty good, zooming in when you are near a junction and out when you're not. It allows you to see where you are rather than the exact spot on the road - very clever!

You can personalise most menus so for example when you scroll through media (which is in a different way to the previous iDrive software) you don't have to see AM or if you don't have CD's loaded on the hard drive you can remove that option as well.

I haven't tried the wifi hotspot, my contract is for 20gb per month and with full world coverage so I'm guessing I'll be on a better deal once the kids suck up some data!

One thing I hope BMW do is start to offer updates much as Apple do. I know they update the iDrive occasionally but leave the latest to the newest cars.

[BMPHIL]

Really nice, so pleased I optioned the surround view as well.

[mogsyman]

[quote="BMPHIL"]
Really nice, so pleased I optioned the surround view as well.
[/quote]

The front camera is ultra wide angle and it's a good way of seeing what's to the left and right of the car!

The quality of image is superb and the surround is pretty cool and considering it's 4 cameras it's really well blended around the standard image of the X5 on the screen.

Still a bit nervous of using that but I guess I'll get used to it!

[BMPHIL]

What was the advice you were given for the new engine?

[mogsyman]

[quote="BMPHIL"]
What was the advice you were given for the new engine?
[/quote]

I wasn't.

I've tried not to thrash the car but equally have had a couple of trips to London and some to the local shops so hopefully covering a reasonable break in period with fast and slow driving.

I'm not convinced these modern engines need too much care when they're new........but I could be wrong!

[X5Sport]

Most modern engines are bench tested at high power and modern CNC machining means the hardware is already well 'tuned' from an engineering viewpoint with far fewer rough edges that need honing.

It's the rest of the running gear that needs the careful early treatment such as tyres and brakes, plus the engine ancillaries.  The actual power plant will put up with 'spirited' use from the start.

Personally though I would still replace the oils at 1,000 miles.  Old school engineering viewpoint it may be, but it is still good practice and cleans the assembly 'detritus' out properly.  I still do it with every new car regardless of what the manufacturer states.