Category: Sporting 4x4s 
Price Range: £40,820 to £54,155
Road rather than off-road bias, lusty performance, handling, interior quality, refinement, useful storage, split tailgate
Stiff ride (especially on 19-inch wheels and the 4.8is), expensive, expensive options, rear visibility, not as spacious as you might think
Still the driver's 4x4. Refined, quick, smooth and good-handling, especially now they've added xDrive. Pretty safe too. With optional variable height air suspension and standard trailer stability control, it's a great vehicle to tow a boat. The 3.0 is roomier, better-made and more comfortable than the same-engined X3 for surprisingly little extra cash. But does the top-spec 4.8is look too gangsta for you?
After a hugely sucessful three-year run, the X5 got a facelift at the end of 2003. But the basic formula remained - a stylish premium 4x4 with a strong road bias, which means it's lighter and better-handling than even the new-generation rivals such as the Touareg and Range Rover. It's smaller than they are, which helps its nimbleness, but for that reason it's not so spacious.
And we can't stress it enough: this is not a car, it's a tallish 4x4. Which means that altough BMW has taken the handling ability well beyond class norms, there has to be a penalty, and it's ride comfort that suffers. On the optional Sports suspension especially, the X5 is punishingly stiff at town speeds. Fuel consumption is also thirstier than all but the most indulgent most big estates.
The 2003 cosmetic changes were relatively minor: the grille became more prominent, and the settings for head and foglamps better matched the contemporary BMW style. The front bumper was reshaped too.
What matters more are the better engines and transmissions this X5 line-up gained, and the updated four-wheel-drive system called xDrive. Results: more performance, no fuel economy penalty and better handling. The 2003-2007 range includes a more powerful six-cylinder diesel, six-cylinder petrol, and two V8 petrols, including the wonderfully smooth 4.4-litre Valvetronic unit first seen in the 7-series. If that's not enough, a 4.8-litre V8 developed by Alpina has 361bhp, enough to give the Porsche Cayenne S a kicking.
Interestingly, for this phase II model, BMW ignored its iDrive concept and in fact kept the interior exactly the same as before. Apart from saving BMW money and keeping used values of the phase I cars stable, this means the X5 gained the most user-friendly, best-built cockpit on any big BMW, shaming those in the 5 and 7-series luxury cars.
All-new models were launched in late 2007.
