On paper, the BMW X5 M60i could offer the best of both worlds. Start out with BMW's well-respected family SUV, a mainstay — and benchmark — of the segment with its combination of luxury, tech, and badge prestige. Then dispatch it to the M division, where BMW's capable in-house tuners drop in a beefy V8 engine and plenty of trimmings, though stop short of the more expensive — and less forgiving — X5 M Competition.
After all, when you've got speed, style, and extended Merino leather, what's not to love? All the same, with a still-plenty-potent X5 xDrive40i starting from $68k, and BMW's electrified X5 xDrive50e not far off the speed of the X5 M60i but from around $73k (and promising lower running costs, too), the $90k+ sticker for this M-blessed ride isn't an easy swallow. If BMW can deliver on its duality promise, the X5 M60i might be able to justify its price tag. The question, then, is whether this beefy SUV can indeed walk the line between performance and comfort, without sacrificing either.
Angry, but not too shouty with it. That's the best way to describe the X5 M60i's aesthetic, a meaner massaging of the standard SUV that includes the Shadowline trim package as standard, plus extra aero add-ons, chrome exhaust tips, and 20-inch M Star-spoke wheels as standard (swapped, it's worth noting, for arch packing 22-inch versions on this particular review car). Under the hood is BMW's genuinely lovely 4.
4-liter M TwinPower Turbo V8 — as found in the X6 M Competition — .