B-Mming off-road

I NEVER thought I'd see the day when I'd drive a BMW that went as well off-road as on.

Not the sort of thing you'd spend hours thinking about, is it? But when you come to do it you say to yourself: wait a minute this is a BMW. This is a 4x4 BMW.

What's the world coming to?

The answer is the motoring world is coming to terms with a new phenomenon. It is this: most people don't bother taking their 4x4s off road. The closest they come is to let the dogs out for a wee in the grass on a country road.

But, my God, do they want a 4x4. And they keep on buying them in ever increasing numbers.

Yet you have to ask what it's all about. Why develop and fit all that technology to a great big vehicle so it can scramble up rock faces, slug through morasses and keep its balance on a knife-edge if no-one is going to bother dirtying the tyres? Good question, said the BMW fellows as they pondered their product-to-be.

So they thought about it.

Let's give it permanent 4x4 anyway, they said.

But let's keep it as comfortable and good a handler as a large estate.

They paused.

That's not easy in a big 4x4. The only way to approximate car-like handling is to build it the same as a car. What they call giving it a unitary body. That's different from most 4x4s or sports utilities. A sort of a breakthrough.

Aha! they thought now we're getting somewhere, because we'll get the handling and we won't go overboard on the off-roading stuff. So they readily conceded to the Range Rover the ability to tackle off-road extremes. But their creation would match it in most cases. Not that they are likely to arise much anyway. Unless the dogs do a runner after the wee and head for the hills.

But the X5 would be a different story entirely on-the-road. And they were right. I drove it on and off road. It does what they say in large measure. Where you would expect a 4x4 to lurch, do a bellyflop and sway under the stresses and strains exerted on it by our driving, the X5 appeared to have a capacity to stay on course and remain largely unperturbed. I fully anticipated a crunch of underbelly or a smashed final drive on a couple of occasions when it was driven with real gusto.

And on the road you might as well be driving a big tall 5-series estate.

BMW call it a SAV, or a Sports Activity Vehicle as opposed to the mass of SUVs (Sports Utility Vehicles). Once you realise where those who made it started from it makes a lot of sense.

You have executive car comfort (the inside is luxurious) handling and ride.

And you have the 4x4 muscle to go off-road, probably faster and with less shock and roll than anything else around.

The analogy with the 5series is apposite because, would you believe, it is 15cm shorter than the executive Beemer. The X5 is 4.66 metres long and a few millimetres wider than the 7-series.

Of course it is much taller than any other BMW (1.72metres). Made in Spartanburg, South Carolina, the X5 has achieved maximum points in all relevant crash tests. But should the unwanted happed, it is designed to minimise injury and has up to ten airbags.

The Steptronic transmission gives you both automatic and `manual' gear change (now virtually seamless) depending on what you want.

The one I drove had a 286bhp 4.4-litre V8 petrol engine but really and truly the 3-litre common rail diesel that's due in 2000 is the one made for it. It will also be less costly and therefore attractive to far more.

The 4.4-litre version is here now..

Among the most noticeably applicable technology in this first BMW off-roader is HDC Hill Descent Control. We know this from the Rover Freelander. All you have to do is press a button, then keep your feet away from the pedals and the car slows itself down as you descend the steepest of slopes. Remarkable really.

The lack of bodyroll I just mentioned is in large measure due to what they call DSC. That's Dynamic Stability Control. It is an electronic chassis control system which incorporates Cornering Brake Control and Automatic Stability Control. The bottom line is it keeps the large body mostly upright and in line.

A big help in handling and ride is the electronically controlled self-levelling suspension which means you don't have one corner laden down and the opposite one with its nose in the air.

When you're driving normally, 62pc of the power is transmitted to the rear axle, leaving 38pc for the front.

Designed to remove the burden but retain the element of control, the sort of technology used is not just awesome but felt and applicable on an everyday basis.

Unlike in a lot of 4x4s where you have to be in trouble before it comes to your aid, this also makes driving that bit more enjoyable. After all isn't that what it's all about? Especially if, as a potential X5 buyer, you can afford it.