Mercedes-Benz have long had a huge weak spot in their model line up – they didn’t have any SUVs that weren’t big and expensive. They have, in the last few years, scrambled to fix that with a full range of incredibly impressive SUVs that have been selling up a storm, both globally and locally.
With Mercedes leaping from third to the lead of the local luxury segment, BMW clearly decided to remind us all that they too sell an excellent range of SUVs, hence a two-day drive up north, with a bit of light off-roading thrown in, just to show us what they can do. And remind us that the brand with the three-pointed star on the nose wasn’t the only one to do some damn good luxury SUVs across all sizes…
The off-roading section took place at the Woodhill 4WD park, north of Auckland, but don’t get excited; this wasn’t going to be the usual Woodhill-based thrash through deep mud, across axle-twisting ruts and over impossible-looking hills that 4WD testers usually do in Jeeps, Land Rovers and the like.
No, these were road-biased SUVs after all, albeit ones with surprising capabilities off the road.
But common sense (and BMW’s desire to NOT have to replace lots of low-hanging plastic bits) would suggest that the lack of serious ground clearance and the presence of many sporty body extensions means that the things never see much more than what would be described as “mild” off-road conditions in the hands of their owners. So that is what we would be doing.
To be fair, however, what we did was probably much, much more than any owner would ever do, whether it be the small, relatively affordable X1 or the mighty (and mighty pricey) X5 M. Probably particularly the X5 M.
The gravel roads that led us into the centre of the park were, as expected, handled effortlessly by the X4 xDrive 35d we drove in, while the heavily-rutted trail that led us to the biggest challenge of the day (a pretty serious sand dune) was bumpy – where the X4’s sportier ride proved somewhat at odds with heading off the beaten path – but still effortless, as BMW’s excellent xDrive AWD system proved its worth.
A few thumps and scrapes signalled the X4’s limited ground clearance loud an clear, but there was still nothing encountered that wasn’t handled effortlessly, which was actually massively impressive.
The big daddy of challenges for the day, however, was the previously-mentioned sand dune – a challenge which quickly proved both all of the BMW SUV’s surprising capabilities, but also their weak point.
The first X3 up the dune struggled badly, getting bogged down in the deep sand at the tight turn up on to the top of the dune. The fact that all the cars were on road trees wouldn’t have helped here, but the big problem was the fact that the X3 had been turned off and it had defaulted back to standard on-road setting when turned back on again. A quick push of a button remedied this and it romped up the hill, but the fact that you can get yourself into trouble before realising that this is the case is less than desirable out in the middle of nowhere…
Anyway, once in the off-road setting, all of the range (including the little X1, even though it doesn’t have a “proper” xDrive 4WD system – BMW don’t like talking about that though…_ made it up and down the steep, sandy hill, with the massive, heavily road-oriented X5 M sounding particularly spectacular while doing it.
The fact that any BMW SUV owner can enjoy a satisfying sporty drive (well, except for the X1 owners…) out to a place like Woodhill, head a fairly decent distance off into the wilderness, then head off on a long drive up north (as we did) literally without any drama or effort beyond remembering to press a button shows just how impressively broad the range of capabilities of these cars (and, indeed, most modern SUVs in general) actually are.
Actually, there was one moment of drama; it came when we were less than 15v minutes from out final destination in Doubtless Bay when the mighty X5 M got a puncture in one of its massive 325/30 R21 rear tyres. Being the only model in the range that DOESN’T sport run flat tyres, it required changing and (luckily) a quick repair at a nearby tyre shop, but was the only hiccup over two days of mild off-roading and, uh, ‘enthusiastic’ on-road driving.
And that IS impressive.
You can read our breakdown of the BMW SUV range by clicking here.
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