BMW X5 SUV - Reliability & safety

BMW failed to impress owners in our 2020 Driver Power survey, but on the surface the X5 appears to be a very well-built product. It is complex, though, so we suspect any issues are more likely to arise with its electronics than anything that will leave you stranded on the roadside.

Many of the X5’s new features are designed to keep its occupants and other road users safe, with an array of sensors to scan the road and even take care of acceleration and braking on the motorway.

BMW X5 reliability

While it's too early to judge the X5's reliability, the BMW brand found itself languishing in 27th place out of 30 manufacturers in our 2020 Driver Power owner satisfaction survey. This was partly because 20.4% of owners reported at least one fault within the first year of ownership - although this score has steadily improved since 2018. This will be a worry, but hopefully the X5 can help improve BMW's fortunes.

Safety

We've already sampled BMW's latest Driving Assistant Professional pack and came away seriously impressed. You still need to steer, but the car alters its speed within a lane to keep pace with traffic, and if you come to a standstill the X5 can resume driving automatically within 30 seconds. We found it coped well with merging traffic, only faltering when a lane widened into two. It must have impressed the testers at Euro NCAP too, who gave the X5 a hefty five-star rating.

Along with all the safety kit you'd expect, including autonomous emergency braking, the X5 also introduces an evasion aid, that helps to avoid collisions with vehicles or pedestrians by steering into an adjacent clear lane.