Anonymous wrote:If it was me the choice would be between a Porsche and a Mercedes. BMW is still designing it's vehicles like it's the late 2000s, which was the last time the company had any real sense of direction. People like to criticize Chris Bangle, but BMW was at peak design under his leadership. Other brands mimicked the design cues he put in place. The E92/93 were much better received than the crap that followed, and the M5 had a V10. No surprise then, that the BMW 3 series, once a perennial favorite of Car and Driver, fell off their list in 2015 and has not been back. The current X5, like the rest of the BMW line up, is a design of confusion. There is no guiding principle, no sense of purpose, just generic shape that would not look out of place with a Kia badge on it. The interior is a mishmash of different shapes, textures, tacked together with no continuity.
You realize that when they announced the E60 M5 people were freaking out about the V10 and how it's a bloated sports sedan, BMW has lost their way, blah blah blah? You're about 10-15 years behind the curve in complaining about BMW's "loss of direction". The rest of the car enthusiast community has moved on.
The fact of the matter is that their current bread and butter (3, 5, X3, X5, 7) are superior to the predecessors in literally every metric. Performance, safety, efficiency, practicality. The types of people who lament "what it was like" are typically the ones driving the 10yo car they bought used and can't afford anything newer anyway.
The current-gen X5 interior is gorgeous. I love the outside as well (but maybe that's because my sight is going as I don't abhor the Lexus grille like everyone else in this subforum).
