BMW X5 M Competition review: supercar pace in a Bahrain-sized family SUV
3.9/5MotorsSouq Editorial Team
The X5 M Competition is the most complete performance SUV on sale in Bahrain: it hauls a family and their luggage on a Friday, then embarrasses far more expensive sports cars on the causeway on a Saturday. The cost of that duality is real — tyres wear fast under this much torque, fuel consumption never gets close to the official figure with the air conditioning working against 45 °C, and the sheer width makes older multi-storey car parks a chore. Buy it for the ability, not for the running costs.
Pros
- 625 hp twin-turbo V8 delivers genuine supercar-embarrassing pace from an SUV body
- M xDrive and active roll control hide the 2.4-tonne mass remarkably well
- Still hauls seven and their luggage when the performance is not needed
- M Sport differential and adaptive suspension make it genuinely engaging on a good road
Cons
- 22-inch tyres wear fast and are expensive to replace in Bahrain
- Real-world fuel consumption runs well above the official combined figure in summer traffic
- Sheer width is a genuine problem in older multi-storey car parks
- Firm ride on the standard setup surprises buyers expecting Comfort-mode softness
On paper the X5 M Competition should feel absurd: a 4.4-litre twin-turbo V8 with 625 hp stuffed into a body designed to carry seven and their luggage. On the road it feels almost sensible, because BMW's M engineers gave it an active anti-roll system and rear-biased M xDrive that hide the mass until you are well past any speed that matters on public roads.
Where it actually gets used in Bahrain
Nobody buys an X5 M Competition to lap a circuit every weekend, and in Bahrain most of its performance is spent doing two things: overtaking on the Sheikh Khalifa Bin Salman Highway with a margin that makes every other SUV feel slow, and sitting in traffic outside the American Mission Hospital roundabout, where the ride quality on the standard air suspension is firmer than most owners expect for a family car.
The costs nobody mentions in the showroom
The 22-inch wheel-and-tyre package is not a Bahrain-friendly consumable — expect to replace tyres more often than on a regular X5, and expect the bill to sting. Fuel consumption in real Manama traffic with the air conditioning working hard routinely runs well above the official combined figure. None of this is a surprise to anyone cross-shopping it against a Cayenne Turbo or an AMG GLE 63, which is the honest competitive set.