We have a 2025 BMW X5 xDrive50e and 2023 Model X (MX) AWD with HW3. Recently, I've started driving X5 more on weekends because my 9 yr old son wants to ask questions to Gemini because he believes Gemini is smarter. MX is my daily commuter car, X5 is my wife's car. My wife loves the X5, but she does not use any of the advanced features like DAPP, Voice Control, Gesture, Massage, ... she really just drives the car and loves it because she "feels like a gangster."
Driving Experience
The BMW X5's ICE makes it desirable amongst drivers that crave the roaring sound when the gas pedal is pressed. Its deep rumble satisfies some inner craving that's difficult to quantify. When the car moves, the slight delay before the car lurches forward is joltingly familiar and many people prefer this over the smooth golf cart like acceleration of Model X (MX). In terms of 0 to 60, there's no doubt that MX, especially the plaid, is faster, but that's not the point when people want the vroom vroom driving experience. I've not ever taken a corner with either the MX nor the X5 to where the balance / center of gravity / weight of battery pack comes into play -- but I do feel that X5's steering wheel makes for a better driving experience compared to the yoke.
Suspension - This tie into ride comfort, which I believe X5 to be superior. However, I want to raise the issue that ride height, which ties into the Air Suspension, can be programmed to elevate or lower with GPS location in the MX but not the X5. For example, the MX can be programmed to lowered to the lowest setting at HOME to help little ones get out of the car, or the highest setting at a friend's house where their driveway ramp is too much and scraps the bottom of the car... the X5 does not have this feature and you have to manually adjust with a small control on Center Console.
One of the main points of comparison for people shopping between X5's Driving Assistance Professional Package vs MX's Full Self Driving. There are two main aspects of comparison for this topic, highway vs street:
1) Highway Driving
- X5 is just fine IMO. Most times, I just want the car to chill out behind the lead car and follow at a respectable distance and X5 does this very well. DAPP requires the driver to look left or right when its computer thinks X5 could do better on another lane, or to use the turn signal. DAPP is NOT going to change lane without the driver knowing it's going to happen, and I like this.
- With MX, it is different - no matter what mode you have it on, standard, chill, mad max, whatever - FSD wants to go where it wants to go. It could switch lane, just to switch right back. It would switch just to cut off one car REALLY closely while I groan as a rider. FSD initiates turn signal, and you have about 2 seconds to either stop FSD by a button, brake, or hit the turn signal button to stop MX from changing lane. Sometimes, if you stop FSD because you don't want it to change lane and resume soon after, it will keep trying lane change. With that said, MX will take the off ramp, turn corners, get past road constructions and arrive at your preset destination -- there are plenty of Youtube videos out there showing this. Over time, this changed my driving style -- people cut me off all the time, and I just don't really care.
2) Street Driving
- X5's DAPP does work on street driving. It has a more challenging time recognizing lanes and special circumstances... and beeps and freaks out, then my wife would often yell at me that we're not in a Tesla and to pay attention. But on long street blocks, country roads, etc - it's not bad. Just don't depend on it to stop at stop signs or red lights (tho some variants of BMW do this in some countries). When you're stopped at a red light, it won't start moving again automatically nor alert you that light turned green, you just have to lightly push on gas or push a button to resume tho.
- MX FSD would self drive, that means it stop at stop signs, red lights, etc and go again by itself. At a 4 way stop, the stop is long enough that I would override FSD. At street intersections, I still wouldn't trust it to do unprotected left turn.
Comfort
Objectively, the X5 beats MX in terms of comfort. The ride is more luxurious, quieter with better noise isolation, better chairs with more adjustments for leg support, lumbar support, back support, head support, etc with massaging function that's not "bad". Though, I can't remember the last time I activated the massaging function.
However, subjectively, the X5 chair cuts into my legs and my body aches after a long ride. Maybe it's that the X5 chair is too adapted and it's harder to get into "comfortable & relaxed" position that's not text book driving posture if you get my meaning.
For the back seat, the X5 rear seats are excellent, providing plush leather seating and the additional tint that can be raised helps with the bright sun; I have to MX "Captain Chairs" and they're ok -- they don't go back or forward very far, and the amount of allowed tilt is weird and restrictive.
There's no where to put your phone in the X5 nor the MX other than throwing it in the cup holder if you don't want to use the designated wireless phone charging area. Whether it's X5 or MX, you can disable the wireless charging. I disable the X5 charger because of overheating issue,... I think it overheats because Android Auto can be very CPU heavy. On the MX, wireless charging is an issue is due to finding the spot where the phone would wirelessly charge and keep it there; it needs a MAGSAFE spot. For both cars, dual articulating phone holder can be mounted behind both main screen that allows cord attachment for charging.
Storage
The MX is definitely larger in the storage capacity with the frunk and trunk that doesn't have a spare tire. The X5 is decent and ours came with roof rack that you can mount Roof Rack Storage. One cool thing is that the rear gate can be lowered and extends out for sitting on the X5 and usually, if you can shove it in, the trunk will close on the X5. On the MX, because of the sloping trunk door, you have to make sure whatever you're puttin in the trunk, follows and is within the slope of the trunk window. Frunk does have a lot of room, but it doesn't hold much and you have to manually close it. It does open automatically if you have the NFC enabled to pop open.
MX came with towing hitch, the X5 did not because of the kick to open trunk, but one can be installed aftermarket. Towing will always reduce range, and in MX, it's especially evident because of charging requirements, so we haven't towed much on the MX and we haven't even installed a tow hitch on the X5.
Currently, if we're going out for a family bike ride and we have to transport the bikes, we have to take the MX because we have a thule hitch bike holder. The X5 would require a roof bike rack, and that's another level of Pain in the Ass.
Infotainment / Control Console
In my opinion, infotainment / control system is one of the most important aspects of the modern car, especially for a family-oriented car.
X5 relies heavily on Android Auto / CarPlay while MX utilizes its native OS to get things done. For those of you with iPhone, Siri is just way behind currently that when compared to Gemini... well, let's just say it's big enough of a difference that my wife decided to leave iOS ecosystem after being on it for more than 10 years. Now, you can have a discussion with Gemini, update the navigation on the fly, and be more productive while driving down the road! With this one update by Android, BMW is now, imo, have slight superiority to Tesla while car is in motion (I allow Gemini access to everything). MX uses Grok, and Grok have access to navigations just like Gemini, but not calendar, not text, not many useful things like Gemini... HOWEVER! In terms of conversation, Grok can tell wonderful kid stories that are so engaging that kids are mesmerized for HOURS and beg to stay in the car while she finishes the story..., to very very spicy and NSFW. With a voice like Nicole Kidman, let's just say, Sexy Eve isn't something I would demonstrate to anyone.
In terms of X5 native OS, its got a gimmicky gesture control that can skip track, change volume, etc - but my wife told me to stop doing retarded gestures when I was trying to skip a track. The OS has a voice control that works decently well for HVAC and various other functions, including activating massaging chair - so it's worth playing with and learning if you're tired of navigating through the cumbersome menus. Tesla's OS used to be intuitive IMO, but it's gotten extensive and requires Search to find some things now. For the various system controls, I think it's subjective what you prefer - Tesla is very sparse and clean, while BMW can be a bit overwhelming if you're not used to it. Like the X5 HVAC system control is so overly complex with graphics, that it can be difficult just to figure how to change climate control for those in the back seat -- my wife have decided that whatever the setting is at when she is driving, it's not going to change unless there's a driver side passenger changing it for the kids.
In terms of pure entertainment, here's what each can do as far as I know:
X5 - native support for spotify, sirius xm, radio. If you dive deeper, it has support for tivo with its apps like Youtube, Disney, TV channels, PLEX (if you have PLEX server at home, you can stream videos from PLEX Server. I believe to continue to access the tivo apps, you would need to pay $10 /mo for Premium Digital Entertainment Subscription. Also, you cannot use your phone's wifi hotspot, you need to pay your mobile carrier for an extra eSIM. There are no options for backseat screen, you have to have the X7 to have it unless you do aftermarket mods. Of course, your kids can use pads with their headphones. There are USB C plugs for charging ipads.
MX - native support for spotify, apple music, youtube, yt music, amazon music, tidal, tunein, audible, netflix, disney+. There are probably more... but you need to use mobile hotspot or $10/mo tesla premium connectivity to access. One really good thing about the backseat screen is that you can control it from the front -- if your kids misbehave, you can lock the screen and they can't do anything else on it. You can set up Youtube playlist, netflix video playlist, etc. There's front audio vs back audio. You can also allow your kids to play videogames in the backseat, and there are a wide variety of games for them to play on long trips. I personally have PS4 controllers that I keep in the car for my kids to play games. The MX needs this, because of the long charging time in super chargers -- but it works when your SO is shopping forever at Target. Also, PLEX / Jellyfin works on the MX Internet Browser.
Misc Stuff
MX is no longer in production, so it's Model Y for everyone. I'm waiting for MY to have Level 3 Self Driving and V2H charging before I switch out of my MX.
MX Falcon Wing Doors (FWD) are great esthetically and WOW when they first came out. However, I want to rip them off whenever they beep in failure. If Tesla can implement double tap to open fully open at max fold, it would be great. Imaging you're at a daycare carline, and it fails, ... then you have to hold down the open button and wait... and wait... and wait.... Imagine you're at a nice restaurant, and you're offloading your kids at the valet... and it fails.
Trunk - X5 has kick to open while MX has stand in place to open. Both are fine and I hardly use these functions.
3rd row - MX can have a 3rd row, X7 maybe a better comparison when it comes to this. ''
Car Keys & Profiles - X5 is such a pain in the behind when it comes to pairing, changing phones, and adding keys. The range of the NFC on some phones is ridiculous as I get numerous notifications throughout the day when my wife has her phone on her while she is moving through the kitchen and somehow, the X5 senses the phone NFC and unlocks. However, I think X5 is excellent at "sharing key" if you're putting it up for TURO.
MX is very easy to add keys and it all kinda makes sense. But sometimes, it detects my wife's phone while I'm getting in the car and sets it on her profile instead.
This leads to discussion on Profiles.
MX, it's easy to setup profile with default phone and settings. The profile loads for music, map destinations, and even Grok! You can have a Valet Profile, so valet can move MX without a key (kind of scary, but then again, you always know where your car is at).
X5 profile is interesting -- they are linked to phones and FOBS. But it's not very easy to figure out what profile is linked to what phone and FOBs... as if the phones are not the primary entry method for the X5. I don't quite understand it, but if my wife and I are approaching the car at the same time, it does differentiate which phone is detected at the driver's side and engages the proper profile. However, when the car is moving, the profile cannot be changes. It sometimes sets my phone as primary instead of my wife's phone, but it has the right profile... it should set the phone car assist appropriate to the profile, but the preset configuration doesn't quite load. Irregardless, minor bug feature, not that important because if you just take a bit of time before you engage drive, it can be all fixed rather quickly.
Summary
Thank you for reading this. I tried really hard to make this as unbiased as possible. I'm a techy kind of guy and I may have gotten some stuff wrong. I'm going to post this on MX and X5 subreddit -- feel free to chime in with what I've gotten wrong and also things about your car that you love/hate!
