 After owning 15 cars over 9 brands, I wanted to try BMW.  Unfortunately, it is a big disappointment.  X5 5.0 plus is acceleration (it has the best acceleration among the cars I owned.  The rest is disappointment:  the ride is harsh (reviews praise it for good feel of the road, but it feels like nearly no suspension, after a while it feels punishing), it is very noisy (it sounds like 1970s cars or old delivery vehicles), the layout of the features is ridiculous (yes, you can learn which feature is where but any time you forget, you have to think hard where it was), it is very difficult to drive precisely (you release the breaks and the car jumps, moving forward by 2-3" is close to impossible), reliability is not good (we right away went back to the dealer with malfunctioning hatch, the light staying on, the lift mechanism broke, the battery drains at a crazy pace), the running boards make it extremely difficult for me to get into the car (I am above 6') and very uncomfortable for my wife (5'4").  The position of "Park" on the shift knob makes driving this car a big safety hazard: in all other cars you put the knob forward to "Park", but this car has "Rear Drive".  When tired, the well-learned behavior kicks in:  you push the know to the end and the cur starts going backward.  I twice nearly hit two people, my wife has done it twice.  I would bet that many serious accidents/injuries have happened and maybe even people got killed.  I am going back to Lexus or Mercedes SUV.  Sorry but after 1.5 years of owning it, I only convinced myself how bad this car is.