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I currently have a Tucson PHEV on 24 hour test and have a few questions for @kezo @JohntheLeg and anyone else who has one.
The car the dealer has given me, whilst brand new, is unfortunately the pre facelift model, so it’s a bit different from what I had researched. They are giving me a facelift one for another 24 hours when I take this one back, but it’s not a PHEV, so my education on PHEVs is right now.
I’ve just been on a decent drive in both EV and Auto (which was mostly EV) and deliberately let the battery run out so that I could then see what it was like on petrol only. All worked fine but I’ve just parked it in the garage with a view to recharging it and the ruddy cable in the car is one that only works in a charging station – not the 3 pin (granny charger) that I expected. This is irritating as tomorrow I wanted to take my wife on our usual ‘local’ journeys on EV mode but now can’t 😡. Two questions;
1) Does the Tucson PHEV come with a charging cable that can be used in a 3 pin plug as standard, or do you have to buy one?
2) There is a third driving mode that I haven’t used yet (Hybrid?), although I think the car may have now been ‘forced’ into it by the battery running out. Is this a mode where the petrol engine charges the battery? If so, if I take it out for a drive tonight (which I intend to do anyway to test the headlights) will I be able to ‘charge’ the battery? Is there a way to do this?
Thanks
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@NosherN Welcome back! I remember our conversations some years back. I almost went for an X5 two cars back, but Harman/kardon wasn’t available at the time so I held back, and I was glad that I did as Covid then happened and it would have sat in the garage for the best part of a year! Fast forward 5 years or so and I’m horrified at how much the prices have gone up. As you say, there isn’t a bad model in the X5 line up, but the one that I would have probably preferred (the 40i) is now discontinued, so I managed to get extended test drives in the 50e (2 days), 40d (1 day) and M60i (3 days), so I did my research thoroughly
I was originally looking at buying a used one (probably an M50i) but when I found out that we could get the VAT and VED off, plus the hefty discounts on offer, it tipped me towards a new one. We are fully retired and now only do around 8-9k miles a year. We are fortunate that we don’t have to worry about running costs and I decided that I wanted a car that put a smile on my face, plus one that sounded like a really nice car rather than a fridge freezer – whilst we still can! Long story short, whilst none of them ticked absolutely every box, the one that ticked the most boxes and delivered my objectives the most was the M60i, so that’s what I’ve ordered. I doubt that the V8 model will appear in Europe with the next generation X5 due late this year / early next year, so this is my last chance for some over indulgence! I also don’t like BMWs new styling direction, so wanted to get the current model, which I think is the best looking X5 to date. The discount that I negotiated got it to within £3.5k of the 40d (my second choice) even though there’s a £14.5k difference in rrp, and I should get most of that difference back at resale, so the extra £100-150 a month fuel cost I can live with for the ‘smiles per mile’ benefits! The dealer has been absolutely brilliant and has actually ordered a 40d as well in my specification which is due in 2 months time, so if the delivery date of the M60i is going to be too long I can opt to take that instead. If the M60i lead time is OK they are going to put the 40d in the showroom!Glos Guy
That is some financial incentive……wow!
Im sure you and mrs Glos Guy will be very pleased with your purchase, The X5 is a fantastic SUV.
Did you choose Manhattan Green Metallic paint colour for your order? It is truly a very nice paint colour and it compliments the X5 very well. It was my second choice after Dravit Grey Individual Paint.
Here is my X5……..
@NosherN Welcome back! I remember our conversations some years back. I almost went for an X5 two cars back, but Harman/kardon wasn’t available at the time so I held back, and I was glad that I did as Covid then happened and it would have sat in the garage for the best part of a year! Fast forward 5 years or so and I’m horrified at how much the prices have gone up. As you say, there isn’t a bad model in the X5 line up, but the one that I would have probably preferred (the 40i) is now discontinued, so I managed to get extended test drives in the 50e (2 days), 40d (1 day) and M60i (3 days), so I did my research thoroughly
I was originally looking at buying a used one (probably an M50i) but when I found out that we could get the VAT and VED off, plus the hefty discounts on offer, it tipped me towards a new one. We are fully retired and now only do around 8-9k miles a year. We are fortunate that we don’t have to worry about running costs and I decided that I wanted a car that put a smile on my face, plus one that sounded like a really nice car rather than a fridge freezer – whilst we still can! Long story short, whilst none of them ticked absolutely every box, the one that ticked the most boxes and delivered my objectives the most was the M60i, so that’s what I’ve ordered. I doubt that the V8 model will appear in Europe with the next generation X5 due late this year / early next year, so this is my last chance for some over indulgence! I also don’t like BMWs new styling direction, so wanted to get the current model, which I think is the best looking X5 to date. The discount that I negotiated got it to within £3.5k of the 40d (my second choice) even though there’s a £14.5k difference in rrp, and I should get most of that difference back at resale, so the extra £100-150 a month fuel cost I can live with for the ‘smiles per mile’ benefits! The dealer has been absolutely brilliant and has actually ordered a 40d as well in my specification which is due in 2 months time, so if the delivery date of the M60i is going to be too long I can opt to take that instead. If the M60i lead time is OK they are going to put the 40d in the showroom!Thats is some hefty incentive and like you said a price you could not refuse.
I am pleased for you and your wife and Im sure you will both enjoy every road trip.
Did you choose the Manhattan Green Metallic paint for your order? Its a very nice colour and was my second choice after Dravit Grey.
Here is my X5……The best car I have owned in 42 years and I have owned quite a few.
@NosherN Your car looks fabulous. No wonder that you are so pleased with it!
The colour choice for us was an even harder decision than the engine variant! Thankfully, I’ve been able to see X5s in the flesh in every colour (including some Individual ones – but £5k? 😱). I was originally set on Marina Bay Blue, as it’s unique to the V8 X5’s, and when I saw that colour under showroom lighting (on an XM & M5) it looked magnificent. However, the M60i that I had for 3 days was in Marina Bay Blue and it was a lot flatter in natural light (much less sparkle) and really showed the dirt badly.
The dealer had a Manhattan X5 in their new car storage car park which I initially assumed was an individual colour, as it looked more bronze than green, but on a second visit I realised that it was Manhattan. My wife fell in love with it immediately, but I took some convincing, partly because I hadn’t even considered it, as the colour reproduction on the configurator is nothing like the actual colour and makes it look horrible. Nobody would order it without seeing it in the flesh, which makes it quite rare, especially as there are only 350 M60i’s on the road in the U.K. and I suspect that the vast majority are black, white, grey or blue! I kept going back to look at the car in different lighting conditions, and what swung it for me was that it’s very chameleon like, looking khaki, bronze, gold and even grey, depending on the lighting conditions, and has a load more sparkle to it (I guess all the colour flecks in the paint are what make it change colour). I think it looks more classy than the Marina Bay Blue but, like yours, we’ve gone for the 22” gloss black alloys which, along with the black shadow line pack and gloss black M door mirrors also make it look a bit sporty as well 😂
Here’s a US M60i in Manhattan with black alloys;
EDIT – BTW, how do you find the tyre wear with the 22” alloys? The M60i comes with Active Rear Steering (four wheel steering) as standard, which I wouldn’t have paid for as an option as I think it will cause the rear tyres to wear quicker. The largest I’ve had before is 20” and I’m wondering how many miles I might get out of them.
Really nice @NosherN
Glos Guy, you are correct in stating that the paint choice is more difficult to finalise than the engine choice. Your description of MGM paint is likewise the reason I chose Dravit Grey as it has very similar ‘chameleon’ type changes dependant on light. Unfortunately, for me BMW, whilst undertaking their ‘wise’ marketing reviews decided to move Dravit Grey from the standard metallic paint palete into the individual Paint palate which attracted a price 300% increase! Had I realised that MGM paint had been still part of the standard paint palate I would have chosen that colour, which was incidently the colour of my loaned demonstrator.
My 50e as mentioned has approximately £30k of options and accessories including the Carbon Fibre M-Performance part bodykit. It is not uncommon for the average X5 options list to be above £15k.
Fuel/energy economy and performance has been excellent with the battery costing me approximately £2.50 per charge, taking 3- 3.5 hours, which in the summer provided 70+ miles of travel. In the winter that has dropped to about 55 miles. Technology wise I am still going through things as and when I need them. There are menu’s, sub menu’s and the like and it can and often does get too much.
I have the merino leather with the optional ‘M’ Sports Seats which are beautiful and soft but they require additional care. I have found that entering and exiting the car is sometimes a little difficult unless the air suspension is lowered to the lowest level and it is something I do all the time. However, I am not sure why the lowest level setting is not a default setting for entering and exiting the car?!
I am not sure if you propose to fit any additional security, tracker or full steering lock but I would strongly advise it as the X5 is extremely desirable in other countries and is the reason many get stolen. I have a ‘Diamond Edition’ Disklok fitted to mine which although is a strong deterent it somehow would not stop the determined proffessional car thief if they decided to tow or lift the vehicle.
An event I will not forget during my weekend test drive was whilst driving through Studley in Warwickshire during the final 20 miles of a 600+ mile test drive I got caught speeding by a Average Speed camera……35mph in a 30mph!:(
Tyre wear hasnt been a problem although I have only just reached 2,000 miles. I do not have rear wheel steering which is great for turning at junctions or in tight spaces. Im not sure what you could expect with tyre wear with this technology but I am guessing it will be minimmal.
At 1,500 miles my wife was driving during heavy rain and darkness and hit a 8″ deep pothole along with 26 other cars that evening which resulted in my X5 requiring to be recovered to BMW for a new tyre and a 4 wheel alighnment relieving me of the best part of £500.00. Other vehicles had 2 wheels and tyres blown which resulted in Warwickshire police closing the dual carriageway due to the number of cars disabled with blow outs. So even with 22″ wheels we are not imune to the craters that are prevalent on our third world roads so be very careful as any diffence in tyre wear + or – 2mm will require the tyres to be replaced in pairs or potentionally a full set, which is not cheap and something tyre insurance does not cover.
I look forward to seeing some pics of your car when it arrives!
Thanks for the info @NosherN We haven’t gone as bold as you with the options, partly because the M60i has additional standard kit over the other models, but also because having been through all the options in great detail (many times 😂) I am only getting the options that will enhance my enjoyment of the car. There are also some that I would actively avoid!
It miffs me that you now have to pay extra for things that were once standard on the X5. The standard metallic paints used to be free but are now £795, but we didn’t want a white one! There are some lovely individual colours but the price is obscene and you’d never get that money back. I would have been happy to pay for the two additional cost colours (Dravit Grey and Tanzanite Blue) had we preferred them to the normal cost colours, but we narrowed down to Manhattan and Marina Bay Blue having seen all the colours on X5s at the dealership (they have hundreds of cars on site). I know what you mean about Dravit Grey. They had a used one under a canopy and it looked very dark grey, but when it was moved out into the sunshine it seemed to have a yellow hint to the grey (if that makes sense).
As previously mentioned, we’ve gone for the 22” gloss black alloys with standard tyres to complete the exterior look, but I’m adding a tyre and alloy insurance as that’s a risky choice!
Another thing that used to be standard was leather trim, and I find it outrageous that this is now a £2k option on a car of this value. However, we both decided that we really liked the Silverstone (very light) with black interior most, which only comes in Sensafin, and we prefer it to the pale leather interior, which turns all the lower dash and other interior plastics cream, whereas we prefer them to be black.
We have had panoramic sunroofs on several cars (including our current one) and never open them. The ones that we’ve had have been the cause of creaks in cold weather and the X5 one seems prone to leaks. I think where they work best is if you have kids (as you can only see out of them from the rear seats) or have a black interior (which makes the rear very dark without a sunroof). With all of this in mind, but particularly having the pale interior, we are skipping the panoramic roof this time.
Seat wise we are going for the Comfort seats. I am of ‘generous build’ (😂) and having sat in an X5 with the M seats they were way too snug for me, but if you can fit into them (as you obviously can) they do look great.
The M60i comes with a few things as standard that we would have otherwise added (M Sport Pro pack, Harman/kardon, sun protection glass, fine wood trim black with metal effect etc), but we are also adding acoustic glass, technology pack (HUD, augmented navigation, parking professional etc) and comfort pack (heated steering wheel, front door armrests & centre console, heated rear seats, heated & cooled Cupholders).
Like you, we found the air suspension to be very useful for entry and exit (and lessening the soiling of trousers on the stupid protruding side sills), so we are also adding that. Unlike the 50e (where it’s still standard) it’s now an extra cost option on the other models, but thankfully a bit cheaper on the M60i (£1,200) than the diesels (£2,000).
Finally, I’m adding the 5 year servicing pack (which I’ve negotiated down from £1,640 to £1,100) and an extended warranty to cover years 4 and 5 (just in case we decide to keep it longer term).
In all honesty, there are no other options that I want, and I specifically don’t want the Driver Assistance Pack, as our current car irritates the hell our of me with all the nanny state interventions! I am an odd person in that, having had both, I prefer old fashioned standard cruise control to the adapted version 😂. As it stands, the car with my chosen options is up to £110k (😰) but all the discounts and exemptions bring that down to a slightly more palatable £70k, which thankfully wipes out the dreaded first year depreciation!
Still no news on a build date, which is now irritating me. If things don’t progress I may bin the M60i and get the 40d that they have also specced to my choice and is now locked down for build, as that’s likely to arrive in April. Regardless of what I end up with, I’ll post some photos for you as requested when it eventually arrives!
@Glos_Guy that sounds like you’ve created a stunning car, something that would be far beyond the limits of the Scheme. I too am looking forward to the pictures once it’s there.
I'm Autistic, if I say something you find offensive, please let me know, I can guarantee it was unintentional.
I'll try to give my honest opinion but am always open to learning.Mark
@Glos Guy I agree with most of what you have said. I purchased my first X5 (E53) in 2005 at a cost of £55k which was a 3.0d M-Sport and fully loaded. 20 years later I paid double the price for a similar specification although there is no comparison in any aspect.
I have been emloyed as an automotive professional for most of my life working for JLR and BMW in R & D, Powertrain, Paint & Final Trim and Plant Quality, all of which have provided a reasonable living but regretably have also caused me to retire prematurely due to industrial injuries and diseases.
You could say Im a bit of a car nut, which I would agree with hence my great interest in my personal cars, mmost of which have been BMW’s since 1991.
Your options choice are as you said useful and practical for your needs. The pan roof is always a default selection for myself as I often choose dark interiors, but without the sunroof you are wise to not only to choose the ‘Silverstone’ colour trim but the ‘Sensafin’ vegan leather as it is a very good imitation leather and harder wearing, and requires less maintenance than real leather. Seat style selection from the 3 choices available on the X5 is always a difficult decision like the paint colour, but my experience of and personal choice was always going to be the ‘M’ Seats as I like to be cocooned and comfortable without ‘shifting’ around on the seat which I found with the Confort Seats as there is minimal seat bolstering.
Your choice of the M Sport Pro pack, Harman/kardon, sun protection glass, acoustic glass, technology pack (HUD, augmented navigation, parking professional etc) and comfort pack (heated steering wheel, front door armrests & centre console, heated rear seats, heated & cooled Cupholders) are all excellent choices, especially the acoustic glass which is like night and day with the standard glass.
I would always upgrade my speaker choice as I’m a bit of an audiophile and Harman Kardon would normally be my chosen option, However, I aleays wanted to listen to my music through the best available music speaker system and so with that in mind I chose the Bowers & Wilkins Speakers which are phenomenal.
One other option I found myself coming back to was the interior trim options, although in keeping with the motorsport derived ‘M’ Seat option I chose I believed the Carbon Fibre trims were the right choice.
I also have the 5 year service pack which was awarded to me due to some issues I had with the speaker grilles on my Bowers & Wilkins speakers, namely you could grate nutmeg on them or file your nails they were so rough. I also noticed the front brake calipers were poorly painted which for a component manufacturerd by the world renowed ‘Brembo’ brakes and fitted to a car costing in excess of £110k I was most dissappointed. Looking at other examples on te dealer forecourt I identified that every X5 had the same paint defect on the front calipers which is not very good QA!
I suspect that you will be purchasing a bootliner for your X5 when it arrives to protect the boot from your wife’s wheelchair? If so do not purchase the BMW OEM liner as it is very poor IMO. For my past three BMW’s I have purchased interiror mats and bootliners from a Korean Manufacturer named ‘3W Auto Life’ With my vast automotive background I am extremely fussy when it comes to purchasing accessories like Mats etc. I can without any doubt recommend 3W Auto Life from personal experience as their products are extremely durable, very well designed and are custom measured for many auto manufacturers the world over. They are sold directly from their UK HQ in Milton Keynes and also found on Amazon and Facebook where they often advertise 15% and 20% discounts. They are really that good! If you want any images of the liner or Mats for the X5 G05 then just message me.
I can also recommend a good X5 owners forum, although predominately USA owners (largest market) there are some UK owners……including myself! – https://g05.bimmerpost.com/forums/index.php
Finally, heres a photo of the Dravit Grey paint in the sunshine which perfectly illustrates the ‘bronze’ metallic hues.
@NosherN Like you, I’ve owned, driven and had more BMWs than any other marque over the years (although I’ve driven most mainstream brands as well) and I have always found that BMWs suit me best. They just seem to be able to nail the perfect balance between refinement, performance and economy as well as, of course, driver engagement. Every time that I’ve moved away from BMW I’ve been glad to get back to them. Having had countless 3 and 5 series cars, a 750i and the X1 2.0i (the latter through Motability) I only had one that was problematic – a 5 Series with a 3.0i petrol engine which went into limp mode a few times.
As you say, seat comfort is a personal thing and heavily influenced by driving style and body shape. Having tried all 3 seat designs in the X5 I would have to say that none of them were super comfortable for me, but that’s probably down to my sciatica and build. The M seats were a complete non starter, as they were by far the most uncomfortable (for me, for the reasons given). Of the two others I went for Comfort Seats primarily because, in addition to the added electrical adjustments (upper backrest, under thigh & headrest) it adds front passenger seat memory and the ability to control the front passenger seat from the drivers side. My wife has minimal dexterity in her hands now, so that will be a real benefit. I drove all the cars ‘in anger’, far more than I will with the one I will own, and never once felt any lack of lateral support. If the comfort seats in the X5 are like previous BMW comfort seats that I’ve had, the side bolsters automatically ‘hug’ you more in sport mode and when driving keenly, but I didn’t notice it during the tests. Either way, thankfully it wasn’t any issue.
Unlike yourself, I’m no audiophile and mostly listen to radio stations with talking, so even Harman/kardon is probably wasted on me! One of the cars had Bowers Wilkins and I expected to be blown away (given the cost) but I couldn’t really tell any difference from the HK systems, albeit I didn’t mess with the settings. As I say, I’m no audiophile 😂
I agree that the carbon fibre interior trim looks good, but I resented paying £1,100 for an option that is only $300 in the U.S. Thankfully, I like the trim that’s standard in the M60i.
I have bought a rubber boot liner for the wheelchair but it has an odour that, even after airing it for a few weeks, is still a bit noticeable and could be so inside the confines of a car. The supplier is sending me a second one (free of charge) that is a higher quality rubber (and hopefully less smelly!) but if that’s no good I will certainly look up the make that you recommend.
One quick question. Does the heated steering wheel on your X5 get warm enough? The one in our Tucson is really toasty but, even messing with the settings, the ones on the cars I tested were really poor heat output in comparison and would be insufficient in really cold weather. I think that the LCI cars determine the temperature (as there’s only an on / off button now, not 3 levels as there was pre LCI) but even on most sensitive setting (via individual menu) it never once got warm enough. I thought it was a fault on the first car, but the two others that I tested were just as bad.
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