Used BMW X5 E70 Spares For Sale

About The BMW X5 E70

Exterior and interior design

The E70 was the last X5 designed by the team headed by Chris Bangle: within a few years the controversial American designer would leave BMW to pursue other activities in the field of design. While keeping the main settings of the car body intact in order to identify and recognize the new BMW SUV as an X5 on the fly, the E70 also had many differences, even of considerable importance.

First of all, the car body was about 20 cm longer, and this solution was applied not so much for the need to have a larger and more habitable passenger compartment, as for that of giving the possibility of mounting a third row of two seats and therefore being able to accommodate up to seven people.

This feature would have made it possible to face on equal terms one of the most fearsome rivals that the E70 would have had to face, namely the Audi Q7 , with which the Ingolstadt manufacturer made its debut in this type of cars and which among the arrows in its bow it had precisely the fact that it was approved for seven seats.

Precisely this greater development in length, the E70it had a more imposing car body, a sensation also given by the greater width (about 9 cm more), while in height the E70 is 13 mm lower than its ancestor.

But the differences did not end there: the front, typically BMW, sported the new headlights always with double circular headlamps, but with a more “teardrop” shape and arranged in such a way that they almost came to wrap the corner between the bonnet. and the grille.

The kidney grille was more developed but from the design point of view it did not present other major differences compared to the previous one, and so was the bumper which had also been redesigned from top to bottom but had retained the general settings of that of the previous model (painting only in the upper part, round fog lights in the tinted area, etc.).

The side view allows you to see the increase in step sizeof over 11 cm, a solution that has contributed to the aforementioned possibility of mounting three rows of seats instead of two. from the side the curvature of conjunction between the other two curvatures disappeared in correspondence with the wheel arches. The latter, therefore, remained, but separated from each other.

The tail was characterized by the new headlights, always with an “L” design but noticeably modernized and which banded more the angle between the tail and the side. The roof spoiler was still present, to underline the sporting vocation of this SUV, but also to optimize the Cx of the car, now equal to 0.33.

The passenger compartment was wider and the driver’s seat, while redesigned from top to bottom, showed the classic BMW family feeling, especially in the center console, where the air vents and the screen had been reversed, and in the transmission tunnel. where the now usual knob of the iDrive system was located, which in this case made its debut on the X5 , while the handbrake lever was eliminated, replaced by the button that operated an electromechanical control.

The electronically controlled automatic gearshift lever was of a new design. At the rear the seats were not sacrificed and enjoyed numerous comforts. The trunk had also grown in capacity and in the E70it reached 620 liters expandable to 1750 liters by knocking down the second row of seats (and also the third, in case of the presence of the latter, making it part of the optional list).

The collapsible sofa was of the divisible type, as is now customary in all cars characterized by a high level of practicality, and was also equipped with a through-loading system.

Structure, mechanics and engines

Despite having generously increased in size, the E70 has kept roughly the same empty mass values, thanks to the use of lightweight materials, such as aluminum and plastic (respectively for components such as bonnet and fenders). In the face of this, the designers had worked hard to increase the torsional stiffness, which rose from 23,500 to 27,000 Nm / degree. The application of new reinforcing bars contributed to this result.

On the chassis mechanics front, the most important novelty was the new front end with transverse wishbones which replaced the cheaper and less refined MacPherson type solution..

The rear end retained the multi-link solution even though it was adapted to the wider track. Coil springs, hydraulic shock absorbers and anti-roll bars completed the picture. On request, the active management of shock absorbers and bars could be mounted.

The braking system had four self-ventilating discs larger than those mounted on the E53 . The steering was rack-and-pinion with hydraulic power assistance and the possibility of integrating everything with the Active Steering device which varies the reduction of the steering according to the speed of the car.

On its debut in the European market, the X5 E70 was available in two petrol engine variantsplus a diesel one:

• 3.0si : 2996 cm³ N52B30 engine with a maximum power of 272 hp ;
• 4.8i : 4799 cm³ N62B48 V8 engine with a maximum power of 355 hp;
• 3.0d : M57D30TÜ2 2993 cm³ common rail turbodiesel engine with a maximum power of 235 HP.

All engines were provided in conjunction with a 6-speed automatic gearbox. The four-wheel drive that each version had as standard was already of the xDrive type, that is an “intelligent” four-wheel drive system that managed the automatic distribution of the drive torque on each of the four wheels. This system had debuted in 2003 on some BMW models and among them the latest post-restyling X5 E53 .

Evolution

The E70 began its career in Europe in spring 2007 and was offered in four trim levels (base, Eletta , Attiva and Futura ). The only one to have a single, very complete set-up was the 4.8is .

By the end of the year the range was expanded with the arrival of the X5 3.0sd , which differed from the other diesel model for the greater power of its 3-liter given by the double supercharging and which therefore reached up to 286 HP.

In 2008 there was a change of name for the whole range, which at that point adopted the acronym xDriveas an integral part of the name itself to better emphasize the presence of the homonymous four-wheel drive system.

Thus, for example, the X5 3.0d became X5 xDrive30d , while the X5 4.8i became X5 xDrive48i , and so on. Another name change was in the top diesel version which was renamed X5 xDrive35d , where the figure 35 instead of the theoretical initials 30sd wanted to better point the index on the high performance of the 3-liter bi-turbodiesel.

In April 2009 at the New York Motor Showa revolutionary version was presented, in any case destined to become the top of the range of the X5 E70 : this version was the X5 M , where the letter M indicated the intervention of M GmbH (the sports department of BMW) to make more sporty the behavior of the car and give it burning performance.

In this case, the 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 engine of the X6 was fitted , but its maximum power was increased from 408 to 555 hp, or 147 hp more than the original unit and up to a good 200 hp more than the original unit. what until then was the most powerful of the X5 E70s.

Naturally, the entire frame mechanics was also adapted to the higher performances, withspecific suspensions and an increased braking system. Indeed, in the case of the X5 M it was the largest braking system ever fitted to a production BMW, with brake discs measuring 395 mm in diameter at the front and 385 mm at the rear.

The only other BMW equipped with this braking system was the X6 M , practically the same car, but with a more profiled body similar to a sedan-coupé. Among the other innovations on the X5 M , the installation of a 6-speed MSport automatic gearbox should also be mentioned.

Externally, the X5 M was recognized for its more aggressive bumpers and large 20 -inch wheels.by specific design. The marketing of this model was started in September 2009.

In mid- 2010 the E70 benefited from the mid-career restyling: externally the updates were only in detail and mainly concerned the rear lights equipped with a row of LED lights and the redesigned bumpers and with a larger surface painted in the same color as the body.

The press from that time spoke of full color bumpers, but in reality a lower portion of the bumpers were still black plastic, as were the wheel arches. From the point of view of the engine range, however, the innovations were more substantial and even more numerous: the xDrive30i was replaced by the xDrive 35i , with a 3-liter turbo engine of 306 HP; the xDrive48is gave way to the xDrive50i, with the new 408hp 4.4-liter V8. It was the same V8 as the M version , but in the “civilian” variant.

And then, again, the 3-liter turbodiesel went from 235 to 245 hp of maximum power, while the variant with dual supercharging saw its power rise from 286 to 306 hp, making this the first 3-liter diesel engine with over 100 hp. /liter.

The X5 equipped with this latter engine was christened X5 xDrive40d . Among the other innovations introduced with the restyling, it should also be noted the arrival of the new 8-speed Steptronic automatic transmission with electronic management, while the DPC ( Dynamic Performance Control ) system which acts as a differential .electronic for the sharing of the couple and which was previously a paid accessory, is now standard.

In 2011 there were no news whatsoever, while in 2012 , when the E70 range seemed destined for retirement, a very significant novelty went to update the range of the large Bavarian SUV. This novelty was given by the arrival of the X5 M50d , a very powerful diesel version equipped with the N57S unit., that is an engine that will go down in history for being the first ever to be equipped with triple supercharging.

The starting point was always the well-known 3-liter turbodiesel common rail, but thanks to the help of three turbochargers, the maximum power reached a considerable share of 381 hp, or almost 130 hp / liter, a result until recently. unthinkable for a diesel engine.

In August 2013, however, the range of the E70 , now seven years old, completed its life cycle and was taken off the lists to make way for the third generation of the X5 , the F15 .

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