Category: Sporting 4x4s 
Price Range: £40,820 to £54,155
Class-leading blend of performance and economy, excellent ride quality, refinement.
Quite expensive, optional third-row seats for children only, less fun to drive than the original.
A thoughtful and effective replacement, but some of the charm has gone.
You only have to sit in an X3 to realise how poorly packaged the old X5 was. A physically bigger car by far, it offered precious little extra interior space. This X5 changes all that and is now a full five-seater. Four six-foot adults can now be housed and driven a reasonable distance in complete comfort. The boot is usefully bigger too, even if you spec the third row of seats, and there's good stowage space on board, especially in the large glovebox.
But just because you're forking out over 40 grand for the car, don't expect it to come groaning under the weight of all its standard goodies. All the usuals are there, but you'll have to spend £2,070 on sat nav (the car will be worth more than £2,000 less if you don't) and leather (£2,080) is, according to BMW 'a 100% take-up option'. Buy one without and just see what happens when you try to sell it again.
Of rather more dubious value is the reversing camera, gimmicky head-up instrument display and auxiliary heating to warm the car on frosty mornings while you' re having your cornflakes.
And as for Active Steering, the system which varies the steering ratio according to speed so you never quite know how much to turn the helm, it's much improved on the X5 over other BMWs we've tried but is still to be avoided like a pint of time-expired prawns.
