BMW X5 2004 review

What's going on? Suddenly the most popular luxury sports utility vehicle (SUV) on the Australian market seems to have lost its mind and is telling me to do up my seatbelt, even though I have.

It takes a few hundred metres before I realise a sensor in the three-litre petrol BMW X5 test vehicle has sensed that there is a passenger in the front seat whose belt is not done up.

However, it wasn't a passenger; it was a two-litre bottle of milk.

I love technology and I love the computerised technology on offer in the BMW X5, but sometimes technology can be more of a hindrance than an aid.

Still, I had a good laugh about the milk episode and marvelled at how far we have come in the past few decades.

Like all BMWs, the X5 is a marvel of technology with its computerised driving aids, in-car entertainment, comfort facilities and convenient features.

However, with all this technology comes a fair learning curve for the driver.

In fact, the instruction booklets for the various features (one instruction manual would simply be too big and cumbersome) note in the foreword that if you sell the vehicle it is important to pass the manuals on to the next owner or they will be unable to use the vehicle's features.

When the X5 range was recently upgraded, the base model was largely left untouched except for a few slight styling changes. That makes sense, if it is such a big seller.

However, one thing they could have changed is the on-board computer controls, which have me stumped – even after reading the manuals.

Yet, I quite easily adapted to the 530's more complex computer, simply because of its central control button – a large rotor knob that rotated, clicked up and down and back and forth, much like a laptop mouse.

Hopefully, it will become standard across the BMW range.

For 2004, all X5s have been powered up except this three-litre petrol X5 model. If you want more power – and you definitely will, if you want to carry any passengers and luggage, go off road or do any towing – you should seriously consider the three-litre diesel for a paltry extra $500.

The biggest change to the tested model for 2004 is the introduction of xDrive, which is now right across the X5 range.

It is a computerised system of slip sensors allocating power to the wheels that most need traction, whether it is one wheel, two wheels, three wheels, the left side, right, front or back. Any combination, any situation and power delivery is infinitely variable.

Previously, drive was via a 38 front and 62 rear drive. Now it is 50-50, like many of the road-going all-wheel-drive cars on the market.

This perhaps makes it more balanced on the road with just a little crabbing on grooved surfaces, but that could be because of the compromise rubber.

On the road, it is well behaved. Despite being a heavy vehicle, it was difficult to make it understeer and only over bumps on sweepers when the back got light would there be any indication of oversteer.

Precise and neutral-weighted steering and robust brakes complete a competent on-road experience.

It has such beautifully lacquered paintwork, it would be a shame to take it off road and jeopardise that finish.

Minor grumbles: BMW's typical dashboard with its huge sweep of imposing and cheap-looking black plastic; a lot of annoying rattles in the rear luggage area from a vehicle that had only done 4000km (albeit hard kilometres at the hands of journos); and a swing-up two-piece rear door which I find impractical.

With BMW introducing the baby brother X3 whose top-spec model will cost more than this tested X5, one wonders whether the company is cannibalising its own product for more market share.