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Join an X5 at creme21? Sounds like the idea of the Youngtimer road trip ad absurdum and still, it fits very well. The BMW X5 celebrates an anniversary this year, 20 years is the idea of the SAV from Munich already old. Whether one notes it the first X5? Four days on the creme21 will show it.
My everyday life in the last 10 years was marked by new cars. A lot of horsepower Big cars, small cars. Japanese cars, Italian cars, but above all, new cars. Since you can lose sight of the essentials sometimes. It's not always about the latest assistance systems, the question of how fast the electric tailgate opens and whether you already have your route in the navigation system before you get in the car. While we have been focusing on infotainment, quiet, high performance and CO2 optimizations for years on new cars, we forgot a little bit what car driving was all about.
Arriving is not always the goal
While the focus of many young and classic car rallies is on showing off their car babies in the care condition 1-2 to the spectators, the creme21 is more about the old iron itself. The fun that you make yourself and the joy of driving, which you can live with on a smaller budget. The creme21 is deliberately different. And that's why it's the right place for an SUV. Pardon, the SUV. Pardon, the SAV! From BMW. DFirst! The X5 with the year of birth 1999.
Because size is relative
In the current days we have a discussion about the meaning and benefits of SUVs. Looking back 20 years, was the entry into a completely new segment for the car manufacturer from Munich, especially a golden right decision.
BMW understood the X5 early and consciously, neither as an off-road vehicle nor as an SUV - they confidently founded their own segment. The “sport activity vehicle” – based on the idea; Above all, a BMW must be enjoyable to drive and that is always a little more “activity” than “utility”.
20 Years later, an imola-red X5 stands in the parking lot of the TT circuit in Assen and, despite its color, looks inconspicuous. So relative can be size. With its 4,66m the E53 is today a compact representative of its class. Four generations later, his great-grandson grew by 30 centimeters in length.
And yet, many a participant of the creme21 looks very skeptical on the red X5 4.6is. He just looks like new. Factory. A glance at the speedometer reveals the secret of his youth. With not even 3.200 km this copy is not even retracted. A contemporary witness who had to wait for his last 20 years in a quiet corner of the BMW Classic. 20 years are a long time.
While the BMW X5 E53 was waiting to be used, we shrunk our phones, integrated the Internet into our daily lives, banned smoking in restaurants, ticked off video rental on tapes and linear TV, invented and buried Napster, switched to Music streaming, have experienced 9 / 11, got the biggest nonsense from Politikermund live via short message service, bought Nokia and played Snake, take pictures with our smartphones, and have the knowledge of the whole world in our hands.
The silence of the eight-cylinder
20 years ago down-sizing was still a key word for Dr. Dr. Helmut Kohl, but definitely nothing that you wanted to associate with a car. With a displacement of 4.6 liters, the X5 is well equipped for the creme21. A whopping 367 hp grumble after turning the ignition key - yes - 20 years ago, start buttons and keyless-go weren't cared for like the DUH land plague about the automobile.
A sovereign Tschakka-Tschakka-Vroooum brings the free-sucking M62B46 to life. The 5-speed converter from HP smoothly suggests the first gear. How did first class locomotion go in 1999 - and 2019? The high level is surprising. Are you supposed to be 20 years old?
Not quite. While the premiere year of the X5 was just right, the 4.6is had only been in service since February 2002 - but as a gift, the creme21 is about moving cultural goods per se, and not about shitting currants.
Spiel mit mir
The creme21 differs in a very relevant point from other classic and youngtimer rallies. While you usually rely on precision and tricky navigation, put the makers of creme21 another focus: It should be fun above all. And then there may already be soaped condoms are caught, Bobby Cars pushed, or the contents of effervescent packs are guessed.
For the X5 time trials would probably have been a bigger challenge.
20 years are no time
The BMW X5 E53 is impressive. Even after 20 years. While it is likely to be a little hard to get a neat copy on the open market, the author of these lines was allowed to drive more than 1.000 km in a brand new classic car. It has been shown that a car is only as old as the driver feels.
The start was convincing, within 6.5 seconds at 100 km / h - still a value at which you don't have to be ashamed. 240 km / h in the X5 on the train? Makeable. However, the processing of the X5 is particularly surprising. Nothing crackles there, nothing rattles. It may be a little tight - it confirms again how big modern cars have got. The X5 doesn't pinch, but it grabs you a little more firmly between the door and the center console. Which is more than conducive to the pure feeling when driving.
The silence of the SUV with eight-cylinder, the future is uncomfortable
As silent and elegant as the fine eight-cylinder under the hood of the E53 also gives, it still embodies an aura of wickedness in these hectic and uncertain days. No matter how well you feel on board the first BMW non-SUV, the question of the meaning is almost every minute.
Our X5 silently cruises the country roads of the heath - he cares for us. He cares. He makes us forget and he remembers.
Old SUVs and SAVs may be the only escape option we have before we all drive almost autonomously from A to B in streamlined electric cars. Because an “almost 20-year-old classic car” can be driven like a new car, but with the clear conscience that if you have made a mistake in terms of size, weight and consumption values, then these are already out of date - and if so Once there, it would be a shame not to drive this gem.
On 20 more years BMW X5.