BMW X5 test drive: make sure to check these features out.

By Martin Pretorius

 

After spending a week road testing the new BMW X5, some features stood out as being particularly useful. And, seeing as that car’s equipment list was very comprehensive, there simply wasn’t opportunity to really look into many of its nifty features in the review. Some of them are optional, but well worth choosing from the options sheet nonetheless.

 

1. Night Vision (R30 900)

This party trick has been available on high-end BMWs for a while now (I first encountered it in a previous-generation X5), but the latest iteration is more sophisticated than ever. Press a button near the light control cluster, and your X5 can suddenly see in the dark and through fog.

Mounted on the car’s front end is an infrared camera, which detects heat signatures form possible obstacles in the car’s path. The system’s controller then interprets these thermal images, and decodes them to present a real time black-and-white video stream on the central display screen. 

So far, so good, but what really sets the BMW night vision system apart is the way it recognises objects. Pedestrians, cyclists, livestock and stray animals are identified, and then outlined in bright yellow on the display, while the dynamic marker light in the headlight cluster illuminates the person or animal (either in, or next to the road). 

It also presents a warning symbol in the head-up display and in the instrument cluster, should the car determine that a collision is possible. Essentially, this night vision system helps you see in places where the human eye would simply be inadequate.

 

2. Laser headlights (R18 900)

It’s not as though the pilot of a new X5 will be driving blind, mind you – especially not when the fancy adaptive BMW Laser headlight option is selected (LEDs are standard fitment). Now, lest you conjure up images of a 1960s James Bond villain with some planet-destroying laser devices, rest assured that the BMW light system is nothing like that.

Instead of a normal LED matrix in the headlight cluster (which is already pretty high-tech anyway), the BMW Laser system uses laser beams inside their light emission system to energise a yellow phosphorous module, which then provides an intense white light. It’s all very technical, but fortunately, you don’t need to understand exactly how it works to appreciate its efficiency.

For starters, it uses less energy to operate, but provides a beam that’s up to 10 times more intense than traditional Xenon lights (and quite a bit more than LEDs as well). This gives the headlights almost double the reach of a normal high-beam output, promising and delivering a far greater view down the road for the high beams. 

It’s all still controlled in a matrix fashion, making them adaptive to road conditions and other road users. But the real kicker is that these lights are actually linked to the GPS system as well, pre-emptively adapting the light beams to compensate for curves and uphills. Very, very clever indeed.

 

3. Driving Assist Professional (R21 900)

Far more than mere adaptive cruise control with lane-keeping assistance, the top-spec driving assistance suite offers blind-spot monitoring and active side-collision protection, and allows extended “hands-off” periods in traffic jam-type situations (low speed driving). 

In addition, it includes front- and rear cross-traffic alert, a 360-degree surround view camera, self-parking abilities, and back-up assistance. The latter remembers the exact route by which the X5 drove into a crowded parking area, and is then capable of reversing out of that area all by itself. These are all steps leading towards an autonomous future, and certainly make it easier to pilot this big SUV where space is limited.

 

4. Off-road pack

This is an unusual addition for a car which has always been mostly on-road biased, but the xOffroad Package adds some real off-road chops to the X5’s repertoire. It starts with a set of all-terrain tyres (rather than the usual road-biased tyres), adds added under-body protection, and then extends to the two-axle air suspension system and special AWD system programming.

Apart from the tyres, the off-road pack’s abilities revolve around the 40 mm of added ground clearance afforded by the air suspension at low speeds, giving more air under the car’s belly in rough going. As speed increases, the car will automatically lower itself to normal ride height, and in Sport mode, it drops an extra 20 mm lower than standard. Finally, an extra 20 mm drop is available when stationary, making for easier loading and disembarking. 

In short, the off-road pack doesn’t only allow for better off-roading abilities, but also makes for more-practical loading options and enhanced handling at higher speeds. Call it a win-win-win type of situation...

 

5. Head-up display

To be honest, head-up displays (HUDs) are quite old hat by now, with variations on this theme appearing on mass-market cars as well as top-level luxury machines, these days. What sets the BMW system apart is the sheer size of the display in the driver’s line of sight – so much so that a “reduced size” option is actually available in the head-up display’s configuration menu.

It can show you just about anything you need to know about the car and your journey, including turn-by-turn navigation, speed limit info, telephone functions, and infotainment display. 

You can even configure it to give you added information from the Sport Displays (available in Sport and Sport Plus modes), such as a g-force reading and engine power output indications. And, should your attention wander, the HUD will also warn you if it detects a potential collision hazard in the car’s way.

 

These are but a few of the available toys in the new BMW X5. Ask the salesperson about them when you go for a test drive – they’ll be happy and proud to demonstrate these impressive gadgets to you.