Volvo XC90 or BMW X5

[ugene425]

Looking to buy one or the other, around the 2008-2009 year for under £15k for my family.

Any suggestions would be most grateful from any former owners.

Thank you.

[flood1]

I have a 2008 X5 3.0 SD, its the twin turbo diesel one which became the xdrive35D later on in 2008.

Has about 280 BHP and moves rapidly when you need it to.

It gets about high 20's MPG on average, but more on long motorway cruise.

Fabulous car and had no real issues with it other than a broken spring due to potholes.. Would happily buy another

[S54Love]

Briefly looked at getting an X5, but the eyewatering costs put me off. Last I checked, a set of tyres cost over £1000 with the 20" wheels most have.

[creampuff]

I've rented a lot of cars over the last 2 years on the job. Maybe about 70 including a fair share of BMWs and Volvo SUVs.

BMWs are nicer to drive. The X5 is a big car, bigger than the XC90 (except for the new model which is similarly massive).

As somebody pointed out above, watch out for the tyre cost. Check what size wheels whatever you buy has. The smaller the wheels, the cheaper the tyres and IMHO the more comfortable.

[rich12]

X5 purely because the xc90 of that era looks like it was designed it the 90s.

New X5 or new xc90 would be the volvo all day long but can't stand the tired looks of the older version.

[ugene425]

Thanks all.

I prefer the X5 (despite being more expensive all round) and would be a far more enjoyable drive I think.

[ugene425]

rich12 said:

X5 purely because the xc90 of that era looks like it was designed it the 90s.

New X5 or new xc90 would be the volvo all day long but can't stand the tired looks of the older version.

Thanks for the tyre warning which I was aware of. My way round this is to buy the tyres through black circle website which are considerably discounted

[ugene425]

S54Love said:

Briefly looked at getting an X5, but the eyewatering costs put me off. Last I checked, a set of tyres cost over £1000 with the 20" wheels most have.

Blackcircle website would be far cheaper though.

[ugene425]

flood1 said:

I have a 2008 X5 3.0 SD, its the twin turbo diesel one which became the xdrive35D later on in 2008.

Has about 280 BHP and moves rapidly when you need it to.

It gets about high 20's MPG on average, but more on long motorway cruise.

Fabulous car and had no real issues with it other than a broken spring due to potholes.. Would happily buy another

this is great to hear thank you. Mileage and spec will in the end depict which engine I buy but the SD I had hoped for! Did you have an RAC Warranty on the car? I gather the bills can easily run into the £1,000's when things go wrong!

[toon10]

We have an XC90 (2008 model) and I've driven the MIL's 2003 model X5 many times. The XC90 returns a solid 32mpg and is pretty reliable. It's really practical and drives OK but unrefined. Comfortable enough though. The X5 is nicer to drive and a nicer place to sit. It gets less mpg and the bills are much larger as you'd expect. I prefer the X5 but the Volvo is utterly brilliant at the family/load lugging stuff and doesn't cost a lot. At that age range, I'd be wary of costs on the BMW.

[Christian85]

As stated before in this thread the XC90’s of that era look so dated for the time they were being manufactured. Have you thought of an M Class?

[ugene425]

toon10 said:

We have an XC90 (2008 model) and I've driven the MIL's 2003 model X5 many times. The XC90 returns a solid 32mpg and is pretty reliable. It's really practical and drives OK but unrefined. Comfortable enough though. The X5 is nicer to drive and a nicer place to sit. It gets less mpg and the bills are much larger as you'd expect. I prefer the X5 but the Volvo is utterly brilliant at the family/load lugging stuff and doesn't cost a lot. At that age range, I'd be wary of costs on the BMW.

Thank you that is most helpful. All your comments I am not surprised to hear. One has to compare apples with apples and putting running/maintenance costs aside the BMW is a nicer cabin to be in and a more pleasant car to drive. I might look into the RAC warranty to add some degree of protection.

[ugene425]

Christian85 said:

As stated before in this thread the XC90’s of that era look so dated for the time they were being manufactured. Have you thought of an M Class?

The wife is not keen on the M class despite me being so!

[S54Love]

ugene425 said:

Blackcircle website would be far cheaper though.

That was where I got my prices from, unless you're willing to skimp out and buy the cheaper tyres? Not saying that there's anything wrong with them, but with that being the (only) contact my car has with the road, I'd be looking to get quality ones which are about £250+ a corner, more if you're looking into runflats.

With the ML, most have very strange specification. Last I looked, most Sport models didn't come with xenons or nav, but they had power tailgates. The Grand Editions are fully loaded and I would try get your wife to look at those in particular to see if she'll come around. I think that those in particular look much more up to date:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

[ugene425]

S54Love said:

ugene425 said:

Blackcircle website would be far cheaper though.

That was where I got my prices from, unless you're willing to skimp out and buy the cheaper tyres? Not saying that there's anything wrong with them, but with that being the (only) contact my car has with the road, I'd be looking to get quality ones which are about £250+ a corner, more if you're looking into runflats.

With the ML, most have very strange specification. Last I looked, most Sport models didn't come with xenons or nav, but they had power tailgates. The Grand Editions are fully loaded and I would try get your wife to look at those in particular to see if she'll come around. I think that those in particular look much more up to date:
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...
https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201...

interesting cars, thanks for these. Good spec with them too for a family of four.