Test drive BMW X5, Range Rover and Audi A7
The Moscow car fleet for foreigners is something inexplicable. The Germans do not understand how students can buy a Porsche Cayenne, and the Dutch first of all go not to Red Square, but consider the BMW 7-Series on Tverskaya
"Do you have subsidies for the purchase of BMW?" - a friend from Amsterdam, getting into the X5, somehow scornfully winced. For a couple of hours in the Central Administrative District, he counted 18 Bavarian crossovers, about 20 "fives" and 18 "sevens". The Range Rover, in which we moved tomorrow, seemed to the European an even more popular car: on the 30th copy it lost count.
The Moscow car fleet for foreigners is generally something inexplicable. Once at a dinner in Austria, one of the top managers of the Volkswagen Group asked me a question on duty:
- How is Moscow?
- Good, but the market is not feeling very well, - he threw up his hands in response.
- Wait, so Russian students are not buying Porsche Cayenne anymore? - the German was surprised.
Gustav Otto, one of the founders of BMW, has never been to Moscow. Therefore, a hundred years ago, he could not have imagined what these airplane games would lead to. The distant brainchild of the Bavarian concern has so organically blended into the overall architecture of the capital of Russia that it is time to change its registration. Home is not where BMWs are simply sold, but where they have become iconic.
The Range Rover is also a story about how aesthetics defeated reason. The English SUV is so good-looking that questions about price, equipment and engine seem vulgar in high society. But high manners remained where he came from - in Moscow, a completely different approach to Range Rover. V8, 510 forces, Autobiography - neighbors downstream on Sadovoye look at this first of all.
In the class of large crossovers and SUVs, the range of prices is such that sometimes you can buy a house in the Moscow region, a pair of fur coats and ten red iPhones for delivery. Or, for example, Audi A7 - an assertive German liftback, which, even without the intrusive prefixes S or RS, will cynically drive around the entire respected public in the Zhukovka area.
Ideologically, the Audi A7 is very similar to the BMW X5 - it is the same very purposeful and proud car, and the body type has nothing to do with it. After the generation change in 2013, the Bavarian crossover slightly changed its own priorities: it is no longer associated with the bad guy's car. An adult, very stylish X5 does not really like the bustle of Moscow, but if necessary, at any moment it is ready for exploits.
In the most expensive version (X5M does not count), the crossover is equipped with a mighty 8-liter V4,4. The top engine produces 450 hp. and 650 Nm of torque. In Sport Plus mode, when the electronics allow the unthinkable, BMW seems poised to stop Earth. The real aggressor on the morning Varshavka gets along in a very neat dark body - no aerodynamic body kit, no spoilers, no dull toning. Only the rear wheels with a profile width of 315 millimeters will give out malice.
Having heard the cold start of the G5 from BMW at least once, you immediately understand where its real habitat is. The X50 XNUMXi presses into the seat when accelerating from any point, it constantly provokes to violate the speed limit and is very impatient in traffic jams.
But even against the background of such a stylish and, at first glance, measured BMW X5, the huge Range Rover seems to be something extraterrestrial. The British SUV is the first SUV in the world to feature an all-aluminum body. Compared to its steel predecessor, it has become 420 kg lighter - this is almost half of the Lada Kalina. But the incredible feeling of lightness comes not from the lightweight design, but the air suspension.
In sport mode, the top Range Rover is even angrier than the BMW X5 50i - the V8 produces 510 hp. and 625 Nm of torque. Recoil, comparable to the two fastest hot hatches, gives nothing: the Range Rover does not have an aerodynamic body kit and bold lettering on the trunk lid. From the spot, the English SUV turns out to be insignificantly, but slower than the BMW X5: 5,4 s versus 5 s to 100 km per hour.
However, the Range Rover is the complete opposite of the Bavarian. Its 5,0-liter engine is not heard exactly until Sport mode is activated. In city traffic, it is a very measured, smooth and quiet car that floats in the middle lane, occasionally swaying over bumps. I swear that during the long test I never exceeded the speed on it and never rebuilt over a solid lane line.
The appearance of the Audi A7 in the S line package, unlike crossovers, is not so discordant with the engine installed under the hood. In the top version, the liftback is equipped with a 3,0-liter TSI, which produces 333 horsepower. For any vehicle built by the Volkswagen Group, this power translates into extreme dynamics. In the case of the "seven" it is 5,3 s to 100 km / h and 250 km / h maximum speed, which is electronically limited.
On paper, it seems that the Audi A7 is already slightly outdated - the model has been produced since 2010, and during this time the liftback has gone through only one restyling. But all this reasoning about age and production cycle is nothing compared to the handling of the A7. She dives from row to row with such ease, as if it was not a five-meter liftback, but a kart. Lightning-fast and precise steering response, responsive braking and no roll - it's all about the Audi A7. It's time for the Ingolstadt engineers to open a hotline for other manufacturers on chassis tuning.
The filigree handling of the liftback by today's standards, when $ 13 is asked for a B-class sedan, turns out to be not so expensive. The top-end Audi A189 costs $ 7. - and this is almost the difference between the Range Rover and the BMW X54.
Priorities are set internally as well. Bavarian models are regularly ranked among the cars with the best interiors according to Ward's Auto. There are no such laconic, functional and comfortable interiors as in the BMW X5 in any crossover on the planet. A three-story leather front panel, a weightless steering wheel from the M-package, a dashboard with graphics like the iPhone 7, a multimedia system without a hint of thoughtfulness and the magical Bang Olufsen acoustics are, if not a standard, then definitely a step higher than everyone else.
The interior of Range Rover against the background of the BMW X5 does not seem outdated or ill-conceived - it is just different. Here, the focus is not only on the driver, but also on the passengers. Moreover, the back row also has something to do: monitors in the headrests, four-zone climate control, ventilation and heating of all seats.
Moreover, in some things Range Rover even surpassed the reference BMW X5. Take, for example, finishing materials - before meeting the English flagship, many probably did not even suspect that veneers of expensive woods and such thick leather can be used in cars, and not only in the furniture of Buckingham Palace.
Perfectly fitting into the Moscow architecture, the Audi A7, unlike SUVs, cannot offer anything extraordinary: it has a black Alcantara ceiling, a huge display of the multimedia system and lining on the central tunnel made of solid aluminum plates. Otherwise, this is a typical Audi interior: stylish, without lurid details and very high quality.
Life outside of civilization is not a story about expensive cars. Range Rover, whose air suspension body is capable of lifting up to an unimaginable 303 mm at ground level, is not averse to turning off the asphalt and mixing mud somewhere in the Leninsky district of the Moscow region. But most of the owners are not like that: they go to the car wash strictly once a week, fill up at a green gas station always to a full tank with only 98 gasoline and drink VOSS.
Most of the Moscow BMW X5s on low-profile tires, if they saw dirt, it was only on the February MKAD. Without a doubt, the Bavarian is capable of very big deeds: he has a clever four-wheel drive with a multi-plate clutch in the front and a ground clearance of 209 millimeters. Yes, this is not a record by the standards of the class, but an excellent indicator to get to the dacha when the season has long been closed. The driver of an Audi A7 with an honest all-wheel drive system Quattro will not feel uncomfortable on a snowy highway, and more is not needed.
“To be honest, I’ve never driven a BMW, and I have only seen such Range Rovers in advertisements,” the Dutchman continued.
A minute later, he exhaled and added: "But I still like Moscow - you can see amazing things here."
| Body type | ||
| Universal | Universal | Liftback |
| Dimensions: (length / width / height), mm | ||
| 4886/1938/1762 | 4999/1983/1835 | 4974/1911/1420 |
| Wheelbase, mm | ||
| 2933 | 2922 | 2914 |
| Max. ground clearance, mm | ||
| 209 | 220-303 | 145 |
| Cargo space, l | ||
| 650 | 550 | 535 |
| Curb weight, kg | ||
| 2250 | 2330 | 1885 |
| Gross vehicle weight, kg | ||
| 2885 | 3150 | 2420 |
| engine's type | ||
| Petrol V8 | Petrol V8 | Petrol V6 |
| Working volume, cubic meters cm | ||
| 4395 | 4999 | 2995 |
| Max. power, h.p. (at rpm) | ||
| 450/5500-6000 | 510/6000-6500 | 333/5300-6500 |
| Max. cool. moment, Nm (at rpm) | ||
| 650/2000-4500 | 625/2500-5500 | 440/2900-5300 |
| Drive type, transmission | ||
| Full, AKP8 | Full, AKP8 | Full, RCP7 |
| Max. speed km / h | ||
| 250 | 250 | 250 |
| Acceleration from 0 to 100 km / h, s | ||
| 5 | 5,4 | 5,3 |
| Fuel consumption, l / 100 km | ||
| 10,4 | 13,8 | 7,6 |
| Price from, $. | ||
| 65 417 | 107 016 | 54 734 |
