2020 BMW X5M Competition
617 HP, 3.5s 0-60 MPH
An Owner's Review
Join the BMW Car Club of America (tell them I sent you). Even if you don't love the magazines and club social and driving events, often dealers offer discounts on parts and service which more than pay for the membership. Better, BMW USA often offers rebates to club members when buying new or CPO cars; I got a $500 rebate last year when I bought a basic 2024 BMW 330i at my local dealer! I've been a member for decades.
2020 BMW X5M Competition. bigger.
2020 BMW X5M Competition, 9:34 AM, Tuesday, 22 August 2023. Canon EOS R100, Canon 580EX II flash for fill, Canon RF-s 55-210mm IS STM at 66mm at f/8 at 1/160 at Auto ISO 100, -1 stop exposure compensation (LV 13.4), Perfectly Clear (now sold as Radiant Photo). bigger or full 24 MP resolution.
2020 BMW X5M Competition by the Shipyards, 12:56 PM, Wednesday, 16 August 2023. Canon EOS R8, RF 24-50mm IS STM at 50mm at f/11 at 1/200 at Auto ISO 250, -1 stop exposure compensation (LV 14.6) Perfectly Clear (now sold as Radiant Photo), perspective correction and other creative input in Photoshop CS6 (from 2010). bigger or full-resolution.
2020 BMW X5M Competition, Front Right Wheel, Brake Rotor & Tire. bigger.
2020 BMW X5M Competition. bigger.
2020 BMW X5M Competition. bigger.
Under the Hood, 2020 BMW X5M Competition. bigger.
Black Full Merino Leather, Carbon-Fiber & Alcantera Interior. bigger.
Ambient Interior Lighting (you can change the color to taste). bigger.
Dashboard. M Paddles left and right, M stitching on inside of wheel along top. bigger.
2020 BMW X5M Competition Black Full Merino Leather Interior. bigger.
18-Way Massaging, Heated and Cooled Seats. bigger.
Complete Set of Dedicated Climate Control buttons (Hallelujah!) & 8 Function Buttons, each programmable to your choice of CarPlay, radio, trip computers, gas station prices, weather or whatever you want. This is why we got this 2020 rather than a 2025 which hides these controls behind deep menus in iDrive 8. iDrive 8 looks awesome at the dealer with its bigger screen and with the salesman running it for you (we have a 2024 with it), but it's horrible to own and drive since we can't find what we need with everything hidden. bigger.
Shifter and Carbon-Fiber Center Console. bigger.
Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround in Leather Doors. Yes, the speakers light up. bigger.
Folding Rear Seats. bigger.
Cargo Area, Rear Seats UP. bigger.
Spare Tire. Note the pressurized cylinder by the hinge to lift and keep the rear floor elevated automatically. bigger.
Our Build Sheet. bigger.
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Basics
Every option other than night vision:
M Competition Package (617 hp, Sport Exhaust, etc.).
Bowers & Wilkins Diamond Surround Sound System.
Driving Assistance Professional Package (Hands-Free Self-Driving in traffic & 3D Surround View Camera).
Executive Package (Remote Start, Rear Shades, Hands-Free Rear Hatch Open & Close, etc.).
Wireless CarPlay & Charging.
Black Full Merino Leather everywhere (doors, dash, center consoles, etc.), Alcantara Headliner & Carbon-Fiber Interior.
Panoramic Roof.
Sport Exhaust.
21" & 22" Rims.
18-Way Massage, Heated & Cooled Seats.
Heated Arm Rests, Steering Wheel & Center Console.
Heated & Cooled Cupholders.
Soft-Close Doors.
4-Zone Climate Control.
Spare Tire, Jack & more.
M-colors on seat belts and stitching.
Two regular keys and a third digital card key for your wallet.
Late production: February 2020, one of the last samples to be made before COVID messed everything up.
It was made in Feb 2020 - newest car made before COVID and newer than most 2020 models. Put in service 8/8/2020. Full warranty expired 8/8/2024. CPO expires 8/8/2025. Extended expires 8/8/27 ish, unlimited miles.
An absolute hoot to drive: powerful, responsive, nimble, tight and precise with flat cornering.
Insanely powerful: two or three times more power than necessary.
No turbo lag; as a V8, it just goes!
Impeccable interior quality, much better than my plasticy 2022 Mercedes S580.
Brilliantly responsive transmission. Even in COMFORT mode it immediately knows when you want to move and downshifts instantly.
BMW's X-Drive all-wheel drive system, same as Audi's Quattro, Porsche's "4" and Mercedes' 4MATIC, gives the traction to get all this power to real-world roads. Two-wheel-drive supercars like Corvettes, Cobras, Hellcats and Mustang GT500s can't get all that power to the road in their lower gears for lack of traction. For instance, the 662 hp Mustang GT500, which weighs less, takes the same 3.5s to get from 0 to 60 MPH with only rear-wheel drive. It all comes down to the fact that you can't use more than about 300 hp per axle on real-world roads — but rear-wheel drive car makers won't tell you that!
Faster than the exotic Ford GT40 and about as fast as the new 2005-2006 Ford GT supercar. Even though the Ford GTs weigh less, they are limited by having only rear wheel drive and no way to get all their power to the road at legal speeds. While car makers try to impress us with horsepower, the limiting factor has always been getting traction at legal speeds with this much power— as every drag racer knows.
Everything that looks like leather is leather. The center console, dashboard and doors are all covered in leather, not plastic.
"Backup Assistant" actually works fast to make it easy to back out of anything you may have gotten yourself into for parking.
The 360º Surround View w/3D View "Eye of God" camera system (order code ZX3) presents a stable point of view as you maneuver. This is far superior to the foolish Mercedes Surround View system in my 2022 Mercedes S580 which constantly tries to impress by moving the camera's point of view as you're trying to park, making it nearly impossible to figure out what's going on as you're also moving. The BMW system works much better to let us see where we are.
Wireless CarPlay.
Wireless phone charging.
His and her two-fan HVAC system; each seat also has separate fan speed and heater controls.
Head-up display (HUD) works great from pitch-black darkness to driving directly into blinding sun. Bravo!
Hands-free self-driving (Driving Assistance Professional order code ZDY) works great, and in freeway traffic below 40 MPH really does drive the car all by itself.
Active (adaptive) cruise control works great, coming to full stops and automatically stopping and starting the engine as needed when things start to move again.
Active (adaptive) cruise control doesn't time-out while stopped as Mercedes does; if traffic is stopped for an hour, it will start again all by itself automatically whenever traffic starts moving, which is half the point of these systems. Active cruise control is easy to set to leave plenty of following distance; better than Mercedes which usually tries to follow too closely.
Active cruise control can be activated at any speed. If you're going slower than 20 MPH then it sets 20 MPH as the target speed.
Active cruise control easily sees motorcycles and bicyclists, and if there's a narrow road, correctly locks-on to the cyclist and follows safely behind him.
Standard adaptive LED and LASER headlights (Code 4AZ, part of ZEC Executive package)shine 600 yards (600 m) on high beam at higher speeds. They even have a yellow LASER warning sticker inside them. BMWs have always had magnificent headlights, and these adaptive beauties work wonders at night steering themselves.
Great automatic high beam control in all situations.
All the electronics are super-smart and intuitive, making my 2022 Mercedes S580 feel like the ergonomic turd it is. There are too many ways in which this BMW betters my S-klasse to list. Among them are that:
The power windows, seats and garage door opener remotes just work when you get in without having to turn on the car.
High-beam control responds as soon as you touch the lever in the BMW, while it doesn't respond until you release the lever in the 2022 Mercedes.
The seat memories finish moving the seat all by itself without having to hold the button the whole time as in most Mercedes.
The BMW's camera sees when the guy in front of you starts to move and restarts the (autostopped) engine all by itself.
We never know where to find settings in our S580 because there is no single HOME button to get to anything in a logical way, while this BMW, like an iPhone, has one main HOME screen for everything from which it's trivially easy to get to any setting. Heck, our new Mercedes clocks don't even have leading-zero suppression, a 1970s innovation that let digital clocks read correctly as 8:30 AM rather than 08:30 AM in the Mercedes.
It remembers my seat heater and cooler settings when I get back in, while after every stop I have to turn these all back on in my Mercedes. The BMW even lets me set it to turn on seat heating or cooling - and to what level - anytime it gets hotter or cooler outside than my preset values (these are called "rules" in iDrive).
Easy to set to unlock when you get close, and lock automatically when you walk away. Far better than Mercedes KEYLESS GO, the doors are already unlocked before you touch the door handle, and you never have to touch anything to lock the doors when you leave.
Power windows work as soon as you get in; you don't have to start it first.
Real door handles that work, not the motorized electronic ones that rarely pop out correctly on our Mercedes S580 and the new SL series.
Auto dimming center and driver's rear-view mirrors at night (passenger's side mirror doesn't dim).
The iDrive 7 system is super intuitive, with one HOME button from which we can find everything we need, far better than the newer (big screen) iDrive 8 which no longer has just one HOME button making it nearly impossible to find anything again.
Real, dedicated buttons and controls for presets, climate controls and more — not a touch screen which no one except the BMW salesman can figure out. This is why we bought this 2020 rather than the 2025 model: the bigger screen is nice, until you realize all the controls you need are gone!
iDrive 7's real, dedicated buttons are sooo much better than the big touch screen — with almost no buttons — of the 2025 model's iDrive 8 system. This 2020 model has real, dedicated buttons for seat heating and cooling, his & hers temperatures and fans, A/C Max and especially Air Recirculation. Tell me you can find air recirculation seven menus deep on an LCD before you drive through a huge cloud of just kicked up dirt, fertilizer or dust as you're driving!
Easy to hit the A/C MAX button as you get into a hot car. Jump into a hot car with the bigger touch screen and you can't even get into the A/C menu to turn on MAX A/C until you get past all the warning screens!
Eight dashboard preset buttons are far more than just radio presets: they're easy to program to display or control anything in the iDrive menu system like CarPlay, tire pressures, turbo boost, oil temperature, weather forecasts, trip computers, audio equalizers, gas station prices, news and more. You can see how they're programmed simply by holding your finger over each, or press a few seconds to program them. Easy! (BMW is economizing in the newer iDrive 8 system in lesser BMWs which removes the climate controls and preset buttons and instead hides them inside a touchscreen menu where you no longer can set them by feel as you drive.)
Voice assistant works well, much better than in our 2022 Mercedes S580. She has an option to keep her replies short, far better than the run-on baloney our 2022 Mercedes S580 "Hey Mercedes" lady gives us.
Easy to program the Voice Assistant to reply to anything, like Christine, Heidi, Liebchen, Schatzi or anything, and you don't need to preface it with a rude "hey" unless you want to. Even if you program it to something whacky, it still also responds to "Hey BMW."
Voice assistant works even more easily by tapping her button on the steering wheel, and she shuts up immediately if you tap that button again.
If you forget to turn off the automatic wipers when you get home, no worry: they won't run until the windshield gets wet again.
Audio volume control has a huge range, making it easy to set a comfortable level from ultra loud to very quiet with the engine off.
Most exterior body panels are lightweight aluminum.
Integrated garage door opener has a huge range of about 150 feet (50 meters) so there's no waiting for your door to open.
Integrated garage door opener needs just one tap to open the door; you don't need to hold it a few seconds as older openers did (or as those on Porsches still do) to work with modern rolling-code systems.
CarPlay works great. I can even get radar weather maps for anyplace on earth right on my dashboard!
Cargo Areas & Capacities
43" wide.
30" tall.
Rear seats up: 41" deep at floor level; 31" deep 19" above the floor.
Rear seats folded: 71" to 79" deep.
24.36 cu ft (650 litres) cargo capacity, rear seats up.
66.0 cu ft (1,870 litres) cargo capacity, rear seats down.
Hydraulic lifter cylinder to help raise and hold up the trunk floor.
Cabin Noise (actual measured)
52.5 dBA idle.
53 dBA idle with seat fan at 3 (maximum).
60 dBA @ 70 MPH on asphalt.
64 dBA @ 70 MPH concrete freeway.
Power System
268.2 CID (4,395 cc) 32-valve BiTurbo V8.
625 hp (460 kW) @ 6,000 RPM (per European press release).
553.17 lb-ft (750 Nm) @ 1,800 - 5800 RPM (regular M only goes to 5600 RPM with the same torque).
7,200 RPM redline (6,700 RPM goes yellow on tach).
89.0mm bore × 88.3mm stroke.
Forged crank.
Electric water pump allows turbocharger cooling after the engine has been switched off.
10:1 compression ratio.
Rated RON 98, RON 91 minimum; my filler door is marked AKI 93 (91 minimum).
M TwinPower Turbo technology.
Cross-bank exhaust manifold.
M TwinScroll twin turbocharger.
Indirect charge air cooling.
High Precision Injection (maximum injection pressure: 350 bar).
VALVETRONIC fully variable valve timing.
Double-VANOS variable camshaft timing.
Direct petrol injection technology, with a maximum pressure of 350 bar.
(specifications from BMW's Oktober 2019 press information).
Performance
0 - 60 MPH 3.5s.
0 - 100 kmph 3.8s.
0 - 200 kmph 13.4s .
250 (290) kmph (155/180 MPH) top speed, regulated.
Screens
Two 12.3" diagonal screens.
Tires
Mini spare tire & jack included!
Front: 295/35 ZR21 107Y XL on 10.5J x 21 light-alloy.
Rear: 315/30 ZR22 107Y XL on 11.5J x 21 light-alloy .
About 685 revs mile
P Zero rated 704 revs rear, 10/32" tread depth.
Transmission & Drivetrain
Eight-speed M Steptronic transmission with Drivelogic.
Transmission oil cooling.
1st: 5.000
2nd: 3.200
3rd: 2.143
4th: 1.720
5th: 1.313
6th: 1.000
7th: 0.823
8th: 0.640
Reverse: -3.478.
3.154 axle ratio = 1,380 RPM @ 60 MPH in top gear.
M xDrive intelligent all-wheel drive.
Central transfer case with fully-variable multi-plate clutch.
Fully-variable torque distribution between front and rear axle.
Rear differential with fully-variable Active M Differential, locking effect 0 – 100%.
Suspension & Brakes
Front Adaptive M suspension with double wishbone axle in lightweight aluminium construction, M-specific kinematics and elastokinematics, Variable Damper Control.
Rear Adaptive M suspension with five-link axle in lightweight aluminium construction, M-specific elastokinematics, Variable Damper Control.
Front brakes M compound brakes, vented, with six-piston fixed calipers.
Rear brakes M compound brakes, vented, with single-piston floating calipers.
Inner-vented brake discs with a diameter of 395 millimetres at the front wheels, and single-piston floating callipers and 380-millimetre discs at the rear.
LASER Headlights
2020 BMW X5M Competition LASER Headlights, 9:32 AM, Tuesday, 22 August 2023. Canon EOS R100, Canon 580EX II flash for fill, Canon RF-s 55-210mm IS STM at 210mm at f/13 at 1/250 at Auto ISO 640, -0.7 stops exposure compensation (LV 12.7), exactly as shot. bigger.
Dimensions
194.4 × 79.3 × 68.8 inches LWH.
4,938 × 2,015 × 1,748 mm LWH.
117.0" (2,972 mm) Wheelbase.
8.35" (212 mm) ground clearance.
Capacities
21.9 gallons (83 litres) fuel tank.
10.6 quarts (10 litres) engine oil.
Weight
5,093 pounds (2,310 kg) DIN.
5,258 pounds (2,385 kg) EU.
Turning Radius
42' (12.8 meters) turning circle.
USB-C Charging
The USB-C outlet in the center console under the arm rest is only basic, rated 15 W (5V at 3A) and I only measure 12½ W of output.
For more poweer and outlets, use an Anker 323 charger popped into a 12V outlet which is rated for 30W over USB-C (20V at 1.5A) and actually puts out about 32W USB-C.
If you want even more power and more outlets, I also use the mighty Anker 535 charger, which I measure really does put out at least 60W, and is rated for 67W from its various outputs.
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