The new BMW X5 in the test

"We are the inventors of this type of vehicle," said BMW Chief Development Officer Herbert Diess. I beg your pardon? Short stub. Of course, BMW is an innovative brand. But the inventor of SUVs? The most typical of all classes of vehicles in North America? "The inventor of the sport Acitvity Vehicle", Diess continues. So instead of SAV SUV (Sports Utility Vehicle). Everything just misnomer? Not at all, the Bavarians do not want to compare with Chevrolet or Range Rover in this regard. "The first X5 was 1999 the first vehicle of its kind to be developed consistently for the road," says Board Diess. And not for the terrain. That's why BMW calls the result SAV instead of SUV. This concept was previously at the customers well how to prove 1.3 million sold X5 models in 14 years. With the third edition, which is available from November 2013, which is likely to remain so.

Development instead of reinvention
Have really been waiting for the new X5 probably few. For the second, available since 2007 generation is still good to look at and to drive perfectly. Accordingly, the sales figures have remained to the last, they laid in the past few months even - unusually for a car whose successor is already waiting in the wings. Even if the designers could not have foreseen that, as they seem to have had the right instinct. Visually, they have not reinvented the X5, but carefully developed. In the sharpened front end headlights, as with 3s and 4s, now directly to the large double kidney adjoin. Not really into the otherwise harmonious face the far gerückten in the middle of the fog lights will fit like they just abolish Skoda Yeti at. Thanks to 3.2 inches increase in length and a drawn further to the rear roof line enters the X5 now stretched. At the same time he seems slimmer than the ancestor, and although he even slightly (five millimeters) has become wider.

Two-part tailgate
The larger exterior dimensions to benefit the interior. So sums up the trunk in the standard configuration with 650 liters now 30 liters more than in the past. Fold down the backrest can hold up to 1,870 liters of luggage in the X5, which is an increase of 130 liters. Was maintaining the two-piece tailgate. What seems a little awkward at first glance, was implemented by popular demand. Especially in the USA and Canada enjoy it a lot, to sit on the little flap - whether for fishing or go for shoes. Only logically it would be but, except when the upper part of the tailgate and the lower part could be opened and closed electrically. For added comfort, we would have liked, would be the ability to flip the seatbacks from the trunk. As before, there is the option, the X5 equipped with a third row of seats and thus to make the seven-seater.