Hi! I'm Edward Loh with MOTOR TREND and today we're up at beautiful Mermaid, California with 4 luxury SUVs. Behind me is the 2009 BMW X5 xDrive35D, next to it is the 2010 Lexus RX 450h and next to that is the 2009 Volkswagen Touareg 2 TDI, over here my right, the 2009 Mercedes Benz ML320 BlueTEC. Now these are 3 diesel and 1 hybrid SUVs and we are out here in the snow, trying to figure out which one is best? Why don't you come and join us?
Okay, so we're now in the 2009 BMW X5 xDrive35D. This SUV is powered by BMW's twin turbo inline-6 turbo diesel it makes 265 horsepower and a whopping 425 pound feet of torque, the most out of our group of SUVs that we have. It has a 6-speed automatic transmission and has this funky little remote control style gear shifter. And on the road, it's actually one of the best drivers here, if not the best. And it does really like the fixed steering wheel, the heavy steering efforts it's got a very stiff chassis and it really does feel like it has a lot of grip when you're on the road. It also has BMW's expanded xDrive system, which allows torque to be split between the rear wheels, left or right and with the on throttle or not, which makes it very-very good pretty good in high speed prone situations out on these canyon roads instead of the roads. And it is very-very fun to drive.
There are some negatives to it though. The tires are of this particular vehicle are terrible off road. We managed to get this BMW stuck a couple of times. Even though it has a lot of torque and a pretty good 4-wheel drive system. One of the main criticisms by a lot of our editors though was that this thing really does seem to be light on a lot of high-tech features that you would expect in a car that costs 65,000$. Now for instance there's no back up camera, there's no fancy navigation system. We're still stuck with iDrive. We have still a lot of complains and lot of bugs to work out. And in general it just feels very spartan in here when you compare it in against the Lexus or even Touareg. The trail of is that you know if you like black and a real functional cock-pit style driving set up, you get this in a BMW. Same with the seats, some guys really like them. I particularly like them, but others find it real stiff and sort of weirdly canted backwards.
Otherwise, this again is one of the better driving premium SUVs that we've ever driven and it can perform well off roads if it had better tires. So, even though the X5 xDrive35D is great on the road and turn in the best diesel fuel economy of the group at 22.0 miles per gallon. At over 65,000$ it was deemed too expensive and not capable enough to finish anywhere but 4TH.
Okay, so we're now in the 2009 Mercedes Benz ML320 BlueTEC. This is one of the diesel luxury SUVs we have here. And this one is powered by a 3 liter V6 that makes 210 horsepower and 398 pound feet of torque. Now this is a turbo diesel and that's a pretty healthy amount of torque and which means it has lot of get up and go. It really does move down a little nicely. Transmission is a 7-speed automatic with pedals. It's the only one in our group that allows you to shift your gears on the flat base of the steering wheel and makes this car quite responsive and a pretty nice drive.
There are some things that our jury does not really like about the ML. Styling is sort of in the middle of the road, neither here nor there for some. Interiors, there's a lot of basin here. There's some nice wood and some muted metal interior. But it doesn't dazzle as much as say the Volkswagen Touareg.
The steering, it's kind of light, can make the car feel a little floaty. But it is considered to be a pretty long quality, the seats are quite comfortable. It rides pretty good and when you take it off road, it's pretty competent there too. It's got things like downhill speed reduction, adjustable dampening of suspension. You can raise and lower the vehicle when they're going over obstacles.
So, a lot of different features, a lot of different options in this car. But one thing it really doesn't have and it's really obvious when you get into this car after getting a Lexus is that it's kind of low on high-tech features. It does lack things like a back up camera, but now this navigation system and using the stereo on here is really a large step behind from some of the stuff that Lexus has and a VW has. It's just really frustrating, this command system. It really needs to be upgraded. At 21.6 miles per gallon, the ML320 BlueTEC finishes 3RD in fuel economy. That's where it ended up in our final rankings as well. Given a strong but not stand out performance.
So that leave us with our final two, the Volkswagen Touareg 2 TDI and the Lexus RS450h. Stick with us for our next video where we decide which one of these two is king of the hills.
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