We’ve had our X5 for 18 months now, a 2024 diesel, and it has done everything we’ve asked of it with two young kids in tow. This is the long version of what it’s like to live with.
The boot, and the feature we use every single day
The boot is massive. That sounds like a throwaway line, but with small children it’s the difference between a good trip and a stressful one. We’ve done full family holidays with all the gear, including a bassinet that doesn’t collapse (the pram attachment kind), and it swallowed the lot without us playing boot Tetris in the driveway.
The split tailgate is the feature we rave about most. The bottom half folds out flat and takes weight, so it doubles as a change table even when the boot is packed to the roof. We’ve changed more nappies on that tailgate than I can count. It’s also just a nice place to sit and put shoes on little feet at the beach.
Living with it as parents
The leather seats have been a quiet highlight. They’re high quality and messes wipe up easily, which matters more than any spec sheet number once you’ve handed a toddler a banana in the back seat. Eighteen months in, they still look new.
Inside, it’s a properly luxurious place to sit. That sounds indulgent for a family car, but when you spend as many hours doing daycare runs and highway kilometres as we do, it adds up. I’d drive this car whether I had children or not, and I think that says everything about it.
One thing to know for Australia: the X5 is a five-seater here. If you need seven seats, it’s not your car, and our family cars guide has better options for bigger crews.
What it’s like to drive
Here’s the part nobody tells you about family SUVs: this one is fun. With the kids out of the car, put it in sport mode and it shrinks around you. Despite its size it feels like a much smaller car, and it gets up to speed very quickly. Parking is easier than the footprint suggests too. It fits everywhere we need it to, although we do park at the far end of the carpark these days to dodge door dings. Your mileage may vary on that one.
Real fuel figures
We’re a little heavier-footed than average, so take these as worst-case-honest numbers. Around town and in mixed driving we average about 7L/100km, call it 8 overall for us. Drive it hard and it creeps toward 10. On the highway I’ve seen it as low as 5. A full tank gets us around 1,300 kilometres, which means long holiday drives without planning fuel stops around nap schedules. For a car this size and this quick, we have no complaints.
The one diesel quirk: no remote start. If you were picturing cooling the car down from the kitchen on a 38 degree day, that’s off the menu with this engine.
The app
There’s a BMW app, and it’s useful in a modest way. You can check the fuel level, track the car’s location and do a handful of small things remotely. It’s nice to have rather than life-changing, but checking whether you need fuel before you’ve strapped two kids in is the kind of small win parents learn to appreciate.
Servicing has been the surprise highlight
If you can get the BMW service package included when you buy, push for it. Ours covers five years or 80,000 kilometres, all included in the price, but whether they throw it in depends on the dealer and the deal.
The experience itself has been excellent. When a service is due, the dealer sends someone to our house, drops off a loan car for the day (usually an X1), takes ours away, and returns it in the afternoon. No sitting in a dealership waiting room with a bored toddler. For a family where both of us juggle work and kids, that alone has been worth a lot.
The flip side is that everything BMW costs BMW money. Tyres and anything outside the service package are priced accordingly. Budget for it going in.
What we’d tell you before buying
The purchase price fluctuates a lot depending on the deal, the time of year and what stock is sitting around. Two people can pay very different money for the same car, so shop around, get quotes from more than one dealer, and negotiate the service package into the price rather than paying for it separately.
And take your own gear to the test drive. Fit your car seats, load your pram, fold out that tailgate. The spec sheet says 650 litres. It doesn’t tell you how the car fits your actual family life, and that’s the bit that matters.
The verdict after 18 months
No family needs an X5, and it costs roughly twice what a very capable family SUV does. But 18 months in, it has made daily life with two kids easier, holidays simpler and the boring drives enjoyable. It’s the perfect family car for us, and here’s the real tell: in 20 years, when the kids have left home, I’ll still be driving an X5. That’s all you need to know about it.
