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SUVs Acura MDX Acura MDX vs BMW X5
126 messages, Last post on Jun 08, 2009 at 12:20 PM
You are in the Acura MDX Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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Replying to: kkelly2 (Mar 25, 2008 5:16 am)  The X5 has a lot of sport, very little utility. Re: the '08 vs. '03. Cost is definitely an issue. We try to pay cash for our car purchases (actually we usually end up financing about 20% of the purchase). So we can easily do that on an '03 X5. On an '08....not so much. I just don't like owing a pile of money on a depreciating asset. |
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Replying to: chrism124 (Jan 14, 2008 1:34 pm)
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Replying to: thstone (May 25, 2008 12:13 pm) If you want to take the approach that the X5 offers more amenities, or a more luxurious package, I could take your point. You pay more and you get more by going with the X5. But from the driver's seat, the MDX delivers equivalent performance for fewer dollars. |
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The MDX has much more interior space behind the front seats than the X5. The MDX is a more practical vehicle. I can put my road bike in the MDX. It won't fit in the X5. In a C&D comparo, the 2007 MDX crushed the V6 X5, as it did all the other V6 SUV's in the comparo. The MDX totally rocks! 
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Really loved the styling on the X5 and wife even okayed the X5...but there's been complains about the X5 camera at night on bimmerfest. That was more of a deal breaker than the $11K premium. I do miss the parking distance control function and the turning grid lines on the rearview camera during the day. 
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I owned an '07 MDX (Tech+Entertainment) and recently traded in for an '09 BMW X5 4.8i. Here are my thoughts on both. First, I'll say I loved my MDX and it was hard to trade it in. Unfortunately, I had an issue where smoke started coming out of the center console. Two Acura dealerships and the regional engineers looked at it and declared the car was fine, but the poor customer service we got from the dealership and from Acura headquarters killed any loyalty I might have had to Acura and instead of reassuring my wife that the car was safe, convinced her we needed a new car. From a handling standpoint, the X5 in "Sport" handling mode and the MDX (I didn't have the sport suspension on the MDX) seem to handle almost identically to me. I have a steep switch-backed stretch of road near my house and both handled it great. The X5 without sport handling enabled seemed to have a little more tail drift and took a little more micro-adjustments steering at speed to keep it tracking than the MDX. The MDX had *a lot* more room in the cargo area. This is the hardest thing to give up as we tend to put stroller+groceries+new plants in the back a couple times a month and it has become a packing challenge with the X5. The rear gate on the MDX will remotely close, is a full gate rather than two pieces, could be closed manually easily, and did the "slow close" for the last 2 inches, protecting things you might have in the back (plants, etc) from damage. I had both in 7-seats, and the 3rd row in the MDX was noticably roomier. The MDX was also 2 inches wider than the X5, which given how wide both are in general, that 2 inches actually makes a difference squeezing into parking spots and getting out without banging your door. The 2nd-row doors also opened wider on the MDX. The X5's open plenty-wide, but that extra ~4 inches of travel helps when you're loading in a baby like we are. The rubber mats in the MDX were also of higher quality and fit cleanly over the carpet mats. Finally, the navigation system and entertainments/environment controls were far easier to use on the MDX. iDrive is just painful. The map showed colored traffic speeds in the MDX whereas the triangles on the BMW are ok, they're not as helpful. I also miss being able to just have the map up all the time automatically (I get this in the BMW only if the map is on the smaller right-hand screen) and being able to just move the cursor, click and set as a destination. I found this helpful when trying to figure out how to get on a highway. I'd just scroll down, find any old spot down the highway and let the nav-system tell me how to navigate to the onramp. Gas mileage on the MDX averaged a good 3mpg better than the X5 so far. I like the little tire pressure display on the MDX and haven't been able to figure out how to see the actual tire pressure on the X5, though I know it is measuring them. The MDX's ceiling-mounted DVD player with built-in wireless speakers and wireless remote were great. Our daughter isn't old enough to enjoy them, so we rarely used them, but they certainly beat the X5's center-mounted screen the blocks access to the center-console compartment and lack of wireless headphones. The cup-holders in the side-pockets on the doors are really convenient. Ok, so what do I like better about the X5? The X5 V8 accelerates a bit faster than the MDX, but not noticeably at the low range. Presumably the increased weight offsets the additional horsepower a bit. That said X5 really jumps much better than the MDX when driving at highway speeds. Zoom, it just goes! Fit and finish on the body panels, etc feel much much better on the BMW. The Acura really felt like an upgraded Honda, not a ground-up luxury vehicle when it came to things like the rubber seals around the doors which would pop out sometimes. Visibility is better in the X5. The side-mirrors are bigger and the far-back windows are bigger. The bigger sun-roof is also nice. Comfort-access is better than the big switch-blade key that the MDX gave. The bluetooth integration is much better on the X5. I had problems between the iPhone and the MDX when it came to initiating calls with the iPhone or switching between iPhone and car speaker on an active call. Further, the X5 pulls in your full addressbook for dialing through iDrive or voice-based, whereas the voice-based addressbook and scrollable addressbook in the MDX both had to be programmed separately. The X5 has iPhone integration and the MDX didn't. The iPhone integration works great. I'm finding Sirius reception to be worse than XM, but I may have an antenna problem that I need the dealership to look at. I love the 6 programmable buttons on the X5. Setting a button to speed-dial my wife is far more convenient than doing voice-based access. The X5's built-in side-window shades are handy with a baby. The turning lines and parking radar for the parking camera in the X5 are really great. I didn't realize how much I'd like them. I do, however, hate the little message that says "do not rely on camera alone" because it creates a blind-spot right where a crazy driver doing 50mph in a parking lot would appear first. I like to see those folks coming. I found the front and middle-row seats to be similarly comfortable and spacious in both cars. Both cars seemed similar wrt to road-noise. Cruise control is similar. Garage door access and gate openers both worked fine on both cars. Overall, the MDX set a really high bar, but aside from the lack of cargo-space I'm really happy with my X5. That said, I paid a lot more for the X5. Some of that will be made up by the zero BMW maintenance costs in the first 50,000 miles, but not nearly enough to justify the difference. So in conclusion... in my experience both are great cars and perform very similarly. I give the edge to the MDX on roominess and accessibility of back seats. I give the edge on fit+finish to the X5. I find the X5 easier to park. The improved iPhone/Bluetooth is offset by the frustrating nav+iDrive. Price goes to the MDX. Thus far, customer-care and service go to BMW. Ultimately, the question likely comes down to brand -- do you want an Acura or do you want a BMW?
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Replying to: sloperb (Jun 05, 2009 7:22 am) As you point out price is also a consideration, especially if you're looking at the 4.8i instead of the base engine. One point you did not touch on is the sound systems - which do you think sounds better and which is more convenient to work with? |
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| Did you consider the diesel engine? That's the X5 I'd get | |
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Replying to: sloperb (Jun 05, 2009 7:22 am) No smoke coming from our center stack (was it smoke or steam?). Our '07 sport/ent has been fairly bulletproof like our '04 MDX, not real pleased with getting 25k miles out of the OEM Michelins but the Mich's in "sport" mode was a blast, much like the handling on my '05 TL. |
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