**A Detailed Comparison: BMW X5 vs Porsche Cayenne**

In our latest test, we put two of the most popular premium SUVs on the road: the BMW X5 and the Porsche Cayenne. Both vehicles are designed to provide a luxurious driving experience, but they cater to different needs and preferences. In this article, we'll delve into the details of each vehicle, exploring their strengths and weaknesses, and help you decide which one is right for you.

**The Test**

We chose two vehicles that excel in their respective categories: the BMW X5, a mid-size SUV with a long list of standard features, and the Porsche Cayenne, a full-size luxury SUV that offers unparalleled performance. Both vehicles were equipped with the same engine options, transmission, and drivetrain configurations, allowing us to compare them side by side.

**Noise Levels**

One of the most interesting aspects of our test was the noise levels of both vehicles. While the peak frequency readings might suggest that they're similar, a closer examination reveals that the Porsche Cayenne is quieter overall. As we mentioned earlier, this isn't just about the peak frequency; it's also about the frequencies that are let in and the overall response to road irregularities. The BMW X5 lets more frequencies through, resulting in a noisier ride.

**Dynamics**

The Porsche Cayenne, as expected, excels in dynamics. It handles better, rides smoother, and provides a more refined experience on the highway. This is due in part to its more advanced suspension system and better body control. The BMW X5, while still capable, can't quite match the Cayenne's level of refinement.

**Interior Space and Electronics**

When it comes to interior space, both vehicles offer ample room for passengers and cargo. However, the Porsche Cayenne provides a more premium feel, with better materials, fewer gimmicks in the electronics department, and more physical controls. The BMW X5, on the other hand, offers more advanced safety features and a more modern infotainment system.

**Value**

This is where things get interesting. While both vehicles are luxurious, they cater to different budgets and priorities. The Porsche Cayenne is a boutique luxury product that costs significantly more than the BMW X5. However, if you're looking for a truly bespoke driving experience, the Cayenne is hard to beat. On the other hand, the BMW X5 offers more value, with a lower price tag and more standard features.

**Head vs. Heart Purchase**

Ultimately, this decision comes down to your personal preferences. If you value performance, handling, and a more premium feel, the Porsche Cayenne may be the better choice. However, if you're looking for a more practical SUV that still offers luxury features at an affordable price, the BMW X5 is the way to go.

**Final Thoughts**

In conclusion, both vehicles are excellent choices in their respective categories. The BMW X5 offers more value and practicality, while the Porsche Cayenne provides a truly bespoke driving experience. We hope this article has helped you better understand each vehicle's strengths and weaknesses, allowing you to make an informed decision when choosing your next SUV.

**Special Thanks**

We'd like to extend our gratitude to James Orton from Anderson BMW Mazda of Crystal Lake for providing technical support during the test. Additionally, we thank Calvin Luke and Frank for their assistance in preparing the Porsche Cayenne for our tests. Our title sponsor, Bridgestone Tires, provided us with exceptional tires that helped us put both vehicles through their paces.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enthe BMW X5 and the Porsche Cayenne represent two of our very favorite two row premium SUVs these are our top picks in their class and in this video we're going to put them up against one another to determine which one is the king of the premium family hauler we're going to be talking about fuel econom interior usability interior cargo capacity noise levels audio tests we're going to take them both for a drive and then compare them from a technical perspective in the shop let's start with the Porsche Cayenne before Mark walks you through my beloved BMW this is a 2024 model which means it's the midcycle refresh the price is grown but you get more standard features this is the V6 model which represents the vast majority of cayenne sold cayen definitely attract a more premium or wealthy buyer their household income and average income is probably much higher than that of the BMW X5 buyer but when it comes to the two examples we are testing this Cayenne is 96,000 with the BMW X5 is tested or specked out to 84,000 and some change they are remarkably close to one another when it comes to Interior usability despite these vehicles essentially being the same physical footprint there is quite a big difference in interior storage specifically the trunk with the rear seats down the Cayenne unfortunately is the much smaller SUV and the rear seats up it's also a little bit smaller when it comes to actual usability though the door pockets and the cayen are quite good a full-size Nene bottle will fit in them there's good interior storage throughout I actually feel like this is a very well-laid out SUV for what it is Mark's going to get into some of the finer usability details between both vehicles though as far as updates for 2024 much like in the new 9911 along with basically every other Porsche product they've ditched the old analog tag and it placees a digital display love it or hate it this is the direction Porsche is going for this has Porsche's latest infotainment system and I will say this is something where Porsche is definitely behind BMW in their infotainment software at least this version of it that we've tested has had some problems with stability it would not pair to our Bluetooth audio testing and this is one of the few cars that's ever been a problem and I will tell you just listening to it and in the past the bow system has tested reasonably well and this is without a doubt a quieter vehicle than the BMW X5 but it is still telling that the software despite being Wireless Apple carplay Android automotive is not as good as what is found in the BMW however when it comes to the usability of this interior space it's far less gimmicky there's a lot less screens to hop through Drive Ms are centralized to the steering wheel easy to understand they're easy to customize to the head unit all your HVAC controls are physical and the other thing I will bring up as well is this interior space feels more more expensive Everything feels more solid the body feels more solid all the touch points feel more expensive and if you care you can fully customize out the Porsche Cayenne to be nearly anything you want in the configurator or the BMW X5 sort of more pigeon hols you into specific options this feels like a more Boutique product one however that doesn't necessarily have the same level of interior technology and interior usability all comes down to what you prioritize in your luxury SUV so that let's have Mark explain to you the BMW x5's pros and cons now we all know Jack is Mr Porsche you could put a Porsche badge on a porta potty and make excuses for it and this is where the BMW has a few advantages because they have an ax for everything they have ax one through a thousand they have more cuvs savs SUVs than they know what to do or have the right to make and what this has done for better or worse is giving them a great idea of how to blend sportiness with a huler and vice versa and the X5 is the perfect blend of all that from the outside that looks very cohesive it's still a bit boxy more traditional without going off the deep end of some of the newer BMW styling it really does look good namely when you sit it next to a Cayenne it looks far more aggressive now the Interior Space where you're going to spend most of your time is really really well thought out now granted this received a midcycle refresh where they changed over to their corporate threaded screen which this inter interior was designed not around that it used to have a screen more integrated into the dash not as well as the Porsche of course but they got rid of that and just plastered the screen here and the problem is is it looks really generic and tacton and the way that the dash slopes to the right makes the wheel look almost like it's tilted one way because of the way the dash is angled so there's some cohesion this is lost where the Porsche has a clear advantage and the fact that they got rid of all the HVAC controls that are physical with the exception of the the basics of the frost or defoggers so that's one of the most frustrating Parts conversely the interior technology namely the infotainment is some of the best in the business I can't imagine how much they are paying their software and integration division to to get this type of system done because they are so far ahead of most brands the problem is is they never stop to ask just because we can do it doesn't mean that we should and this is a perfect example when you over integrate too many core functions into the infotainment when you look at the menu structure it reminds me a lot of old windows where you just go to control panel and there's endless endless settings that is so convoluted to navigate to that you're forced into to making this top drag down bin your shortcuts of where you're going to use it and just getting around is a nightmare even using the search function is not that great however the software in terms of speed and processing power annihilates the Porsche where the Porsche gauge cluster lags when you switch screen screens or you try to get around menus and animations the Porsche is way worse than this so BMW has a huge huge advantage in this area also in the safety Suite which we'll talk about in the drive things like the the cup holder design in the door where you can just put it straight down where the Porsche is kind of angled forward it's harder to get at things the back seats uh while the back seat space and the X5 isn't as good as the Porsche there's not as much leg room they give you more cargo capacity in the back of the X5 it you can just tell right away opening the and putting things in here the X5 is a far more usable hauler with the seats down the other details are you can put the back seats down in the X5 with rear releases without having to open up both the rear passenger doors and trying to pull the handle to put the seats down it's like common sense like things like this that the BMW does much better the other thing is there's no HVAC controls in the uh Porsche that we're testing for $95,000 and there's only a center vent where the BMW has individual HPC controls in the back with seat heaters and they have vents in the center and the side and that's a big deal if you're putting car seats or have kids in the back something it's a major Miss on the Porsche for the price range again they there's the difference in like well people aren't buying it to be a hauler but I'd argue the Cayenne is their biggest car at this point so these are the little important things that you're going to notice you can split the differences in other areas in terms of the center console cup holders about as usual the storage space in terms of you know where you can put your phone in the armrest they're they're a little bit different here or there but overall I think the Porsche does a better job in terms of keeping Legacy physical controls and keeping the infotainment more simple to use although it's way slower but the BMW finds the better middle ground and that's the big difference between these two cars now if you're looking to do your BR summer the audio system in this BMW the harman Cardon uh ably it's okay it's a little bit on the base heavy side and I will say around 220 htz there is a lot of harmonic Distortion and you'll see a 20 DB dip in the frequency response there so you have this base elevation and then you have this kind of Crash down point at 200 htz and it does seem very kind of muddled in the mid-range the base seems to overtake it there might be some rattling or resonance in the cabin and you feel like the Bas is doesn't have a particular good dissipation effect compared to the Porsche but in terms of Base response it's still very base heavy in my ear uh little a little bit less than the Porsche so if you're big into you know grilling and jamming your electronic music in the summer this does a good job at that but other than that the frequency response kind of levels out at the higher end and it is a pretty neutral system overall but we're going to head in the shop we're going to talk about some Porsche stuff before we talk about the X5 in the shop with the BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne V6 now from a highlevel perspective Mark the reason we put both both of these together are not only are they our favorite premium SUVs is they're kind of similar if you think about it they're both you know multi-link front and rear largely aluminum premium SUVs that are similar sizes and both six-cylinders let's talk about this Cayenne first it's a 2024 this is an e32 meaning the midcycle refresh I did a very long video talking about all the engineering BS on that car it was a KS but a lot of the technical details carry over to the base car this is the V6 multi-link front and rear this is an MLB Evo which is Porsche VW group's rear biased all-wheel drive architecture for premium SUVs uh in this car's case it is on airspring so for this generation all cayen come with adaptive dampers they call it pasm they've gone from a one valve to two valve damper meaning they can now separate compression rebound giving this better overall ride quality for the airs Springs that are on this car which is obviously an option than you're paying a couple grand for you yes you get adaptive height and all of that but they went from a three chamber to a two chamber airspring now that's because it can react faster deflate and inflate quicker and with the more premium damper they're using it's just an overall more capable system this car also has optional rear steer something you cannot get on the X5 that greatly helps in initial Turnin but from a practical perspective if you don't worry about limit handling what it's really doing is tightening your turning radius it makes it feel like a more maneuverable car in parking structures Towing wise this Towes a lot to 7700 lb which is very impressive for the size of SUV and when it comes to drivetrain this is VW group's single turbo 3 l V6 this makes more horsepower than it used to it's up like 13 horsepower and like 36 foot pounds of torque that's all software and just like the BMW this uses a ZF 8-speed automatic got a variety of different wheel options for this car unlike the M sport BMW that we're going to talk about here in a second as well so you thinking look all right Mark it's time to talk about a vehicle powered by Christ engine the X5 before we do that I want to say a big thank you to James Orton he is a big supporter of us he works for Anderson BMW in Crystal Lake he also supplied us with Mazdas in the past to fill in the gaps and we don't have a relationship with BMW Germany they're engineering so we have to wing it often times but to our rep's credit they do let us off the leash so we can talk very honest about these products but we just have to do some of our own research also because we couldn't get a press car that was a six-cylinder we James gave us a car that was perfectly specked out for this comparison so if you have any questions about BMW or Mazda and you live in Illinois hit up James he's a standup lad he is he is actually one of the most honest people in this industry he's just a good guy everybody says the same thing so thanks James check out his YouTube channel but in terms of the X5 compared to the Cayenne there's one key difference they split up two trims you get the inline six version or the V8 and that's how they separate all the features it's far less customizable than the Cayenne the Cayenne you could go well into the $150,000 price point so there's just a bigger spread the other thing is the Cayenne is on MLB Evo which you talked about which doesn't have to be so many different things it has to be a pure luxury product where BMW has to take clar which is what the X5 is built on and it has to be modular to be so many different things like sedans SUVs and they have so many products they have to scale it out to so if it's one disadvantage it's that but when you look at the underbody it has more coverings there's the skid plate the transmission case is covered up it's far more well at least appearance-wise looks far more covered up and aerodynamic suspension they both show the similar things double Wishbone or multi-link front and rear they only swap one thing whereas this the Cayenne gets a an aluminum front subframe the BMW gets a steel one but the BMW gets an aluminum subframe in the rear the key differences here is in the 40i you can't get rear steer you can't get adaptive sway bars and you can't get four whe air suspension you can only option the rear air springs for load leveling that has nothing to do with ride quality the other thing to talk about is on paper at least these are pretty similar they weigh nearly the same high 4,000 pound range for these specific trim levels and they're essentially the same length 194 in I think the X5 is technically a couple tents longer but the other thing I'm going to talk about is Towing where the Cayenne Towes 7700 lb according to BMW the X5 Towes 7200 honestly in the real world you're not going to notice that you're not going to notice they're so similar in their missions and I think that's why it's a very interesting comparison they're packaged differently their philosophies and Chassis tuning are different but they're trying to get at the same point and I think that's going to be the interesting part about driving this car jack there's a little difference though Mark well yeah I know I I was trying to avoid it tell tell me what the big have you heard of this little six-cylinder engine from from Germany it's called the b58 the b58 engine continues to deliver industry leading Dynamic performance using Cutting Edge design and material strategies divine intervention would be required to surpass This Modern Marvel of engineering I struggled in the Cayenne to get north of 20 m per gallon combined in the the X5 you're sitting in the mid 20s on the highway you can get almost 27 m per gallon and while the fact that they share the same engine sorry while they share the same family of gearbox the calibration in the BMW is different yes and we're going to talk about we're going to talk about that in the drive too I'm sure I'm not going to stop hearing about the b58 for the next three days AIO Toyota christened it as God's engine as well Mark and if it's good enough for Tumi it's good enough for me I'm home mark you a another Porsche product this time it's the V6 Cayenne base model I want to hear how it sounds oh likee the Shi is like all right right off the bat as much as I like Porsche's drivetrain tuning this V6 is not in the same category as my b58 Mark oh why is that a couple reasons yes this is technically quicker from 0 to 60 real world acceleration this is a faster car from a dig than the X5 but this does not get anywhere as near the fuel economy the trans tuning is not as good and honestly in gear acceleration in the X5 at least to my feel when I'm in the car driving that thing around feel like that engine does a much better job so you get 3 or four mesp gallon better in the X5 it just feels more powerful more of the time no one's doing launch control from a dig and their regular family SUV and it feels more powerful however what this thing does better than nearly anything we've ever driven is ride this thing has probably one of the best ride qualities of any two row premium SUV that I've ever been in any other than the Audi Q7 well honestly I think compared to the Q7 Q5 talking to some of the Porsche Engineers there's this perception that they're the same they're not when it comes as we have an ambulance coming by probably here he's going to he's I'm surprised he's not going to show up when you drive the uh X5 that b58 the they well the Basic Hardware is very similar the fine-tuning when it comes to the software is very very different I think they do a really good job between ride quality in this car and body control not only ises this ride softer than the X5 it has better body control than the x55 while I will say it is unfair technically that this base Cen can option and rear steer that's not something you can even do on a six-cylinder Cayenne you can't do it a six-cylinder BMW you mean sorry 6cylinder yeah BMW my apologies yeah and it does make a massive difference when you're going back to back between these two you realize how much the rear steer shrinks down the car um and the air ride in this definitely makes it far more Supple you have a better range of that adjustment from sport to just comfort and the X5 is just you know it's got adaptive damp but I will say coming from an an X7 that has air ride and has rear steer yes the rear steer makes a big difference but it it does not ride anywhere near this even with the air ride it's BMW doesn't have the chassis refinement that this brand has and their their knowledge of how to tune dampers the damper choice and the valving and their spring rates bars all of that it just it's always feels solid in a Porsche compared to a BMW and that's not to say BMW is bad no because I I had this conversation with you if you didn't drive them back to back you idea You' have no idea and you'd be like super happy with the X5 on like a back road or on the highway but this car in isolation is isolated it's at least I think 10 to 15% worse riding in the X5 than it is in the Cayenne yeah I I would agree with that and even being fair to Porsche and BMW this is definitely if you if you value ride refinement and isolation and body control and nimbleness over everything else this is better than the X5 I I would say that and the other thing going back to your transmission discussion um the transmission refinement in this is far worse it's much worse it doesn't matter what drive mode you're in it's far more clunky there's far more there's G-Shock between shifts where BMW like even manually controlling the transmission you don't get G-Shock in this car even in automatic mode there's G-Shock there's stuttering there's like this vibration that comes from it and then when you're in that higher Sports setting and automatic or manual the the gear shifting is uh I would want to say reluctant but it it lacks refinement and it shifts speed and shift parameters it doesn't feel anywhere as good as it did in the Cayenne SV6 that we drove in the past with the Cayenne sv8 I don't know what the Cal is for this particular six-cylinder with this 8-speed but it's not on the same Planet as some of more performance oriented um vehicles I the last thing I'm want to bring up before we hop into the BMW is the thing that this brand does very well in every single car that they have better than BMW is the cohesiveness between all the inputs the steering the throttle linearity the brake pedal feel all feels very well integrated together where you don't think about any of the inputs of this vehicle it just comes across as very very natural which is honestly hard to do in a big SUV right Porsche and BMW is trying to figure out how to get this two row SUV to replace the sports sedan and it largely has because it has to replaced sport sedan it has to basically defeat physics and get in and out of Corners maintain midc Corner stability feel Nimble and also ride exceptionally well and I do think of all of the luxury SUVs we've ever driven the cayenne and the X5 are probably some of the best that we've experienced yeah no I mean you know you're you're splitting hairs between these two vehicles of like oh one's better than the other they're both tremendous at what they do and you said this and I cut it out on my last video but you know with a sports sedan or sedans disappearing and cars becoming more expensive even luxury products this has to do more things it has to do everything and it has to be that vehicle like you were saying you have a lot of money you don't have a lot of time and your only fun you get is on your commute what do you want to spend your time in and this is like the answer to that you know in in basically from Comfort to driveing link an idiot it does all of it and it still hauls which is hard to do yeah well I mean we we've already talked about the pros and cons the interior segment yeah so Mark hit me with that sweet sweet inline six I don't want any this V6 garbage you hear that Mark you hear that balance in line six single turbo oh she sounds good listen to that I don't know how why you would even talk about Porsche when you got this engine revving up and uh Jack people are not going to be driving the X5 or the Cayenne like monkeys although you probably could let's get into why this SUV is dominant in some cases and we'll start with let's talk about the engine and the drivetrain or the drivetrain engine and of course the transmission programming of a mainstream non hypercar superar the ZF 8speed with BMW's calibration and the b58 is probably one of the best Drive drains on the market it gets good fuel economy makes excellent power it's smooth there's no Herky jerkiness it's reliable it's very reliable yeah they don't cost a lot to keep on the road this 48 volt system means the stop start which isn't bad in the Porsche it's way smoother it's way smoother here it's completely integrated into the car more so you notice it on a roll you know there there's I think the finer details of the drivetrain so shockingly compared to a Porsche because Porsche really does a good job with that this is definitely uh a highlight of it yeah it it it really other than the packaging which you've talked about from an interior segment and the fact that you you you are paying less money for this car substantially less money um that's the highlight of the vehicle it is the drivetrain great fuel economy great power no Herky jerkiness it feels honestly more expensive than the driv train that's in the Porsche um the thing that does let it down though and it's the thing that lets down all BMWs these days is I don't feel that this is that well integrated with all of the inputs for the car the steering while it is very fast and yes this doesn't have rear steer I don't feel like necessarily mels with your brain as well when it comes to one to one inputs but it is it's funny enough it feels slower in here when you get out of the Cayenne back to back with the rear steer because the rear steer you know shrinks it down so much that you do feel like there's more steering effort or turning effort to get this thing to get the directional change whereas the Porsche is very you know reactive and quick to turn in this doesn't have that it feels slower and even with the 22in wheels and tires on here you would think could be like more razor sharp but it's not you have 275s in the front 315s in the back which is hilarious in a vehicle like this hilarious so again you know you're we we said this in the other one there's not really a bad choice there's just the differences in philosophy priorities and priorities right um I think the the other thing that this does exceptionally well compared to the Porsche is the safety Suite when we're talking about BMW software they their budget for software their software development team including the safety system system in in my approximation and testing it is definitely in a different class to the Porsche software and I had a an event earlier where during a leftand turn much like we're doing here in the Porsche the car freaked out and saw a car on coming that wasn't there and it slammed on the brakes in the middle of the road and I don't have as many ghost issues or weird software bugs with this vehicle and I've driven BMWs before um where you you really trust the safety Suite in this car 90% of the time whereas the Porsche it's very invasive to me compared even when you have most invasive but less good at letting you autop pilot the car which is odd like the lane keep in this works very very well if you do the traffic Pro assistant stuff when you're stop and start you basically take your hands off the wheel below 45 miles hour does a good job it does really well and I mean honestly you could sit on in stop and go traffic in this thing and not think about it at first once you get over it it really does work the lane change assist where it's integrated into that it really does a good job Lane changing for you without you having to do it and these are the little things that matter in a car that you're using every day Less in a sports sedan or a sports car experience where you don't care about all that you at all cuz you're living on the highway right like what are the things that you want out of these cars that that are important and I think some of the things that are critically important to the Daily Driving Experience the BMW has definitely got an edge up on the Porsche product I don't disagree with you as much as I am John Porsche when ites to I think when you do get on a back though the ride as I mentioned is not as good it's not as quiet you know regardless of what the testing says to my ear in the Porsche it feels immediately quieter when we did other tests in the past you know DB measurements aren't always necessarily telling the entire story but the Porsche feels like a more refined car when you're on the highway yeah and the deciel readings are misleading and we really didn't explain this before but if we took a debel reading right now the Porsche probably would be quieter yeah but the main thing is is there's not just the the peak frequency it's the frequencies that are let in that that you don't see on a meter you have to look at the overall response and the BMW lets far more frequencies from the road and oscillations from the suspension in all over the place so while that Peak number may be close between the two cars this is noisier all over the place in low frequency high frequency and you can tell on this same road with a broken pavement there's far more jounced in both cars currently or yeah and there's far more vibration and oscillation that doesn't uh it's not damped out so once you hit a bump you feel it throughout the whole body in this car that doesn't dissipate as quickly as the Porsche did and that's where you were telling me earlier you know if you were on a 4 or 500 mile road trip with your family you would rather be in the Porsche on those long trips than this and I would agree with you 100% in isolation when you're you're driving both back to back but I'd say the Porsche is 25% better than this car in that regard in Dynamics Dynamics but if you didn't drive the Porsche this is an amazing car that eats up the highway miles as well this is night and day better than almost everything else in its class we've purposely for this test picked our two favorite premium rear wheel drive based SUVs that are non EV so it really go it boils down to this Jack like what do you value and I think that's a great discussion for the final thoughts all right so let's do it show me some b-58 final thoughts on our BMW X5 versus Porsche Cayenne comparison test first off huge thanks to our friend James Orton who works at Anderson BMW Mazda of Crystal Lake if you're looking for a vehicle we highly suggest you hit them up our Porsche reps Calvin Luke and Frank for providing us technical support of course our title sponsor Bridgestone tires so if you're looking for tires for your own SUV we highly suggest you look at the Bridgestone alenza these are tires I run on my own family car as well as Mark runs them on our lovely Nissan Roc cross caburet so what about these two SUVs well first off as I've mentioned already these are two of our very favorite products and honestly you can't go wrong with either of them however in this specific test it's a question of head versus heart are you looking at this purely objectively looking at Value family practicality or you looking at this from a product you want to drive and get behind the wheel of in the case of the Cayenne of these two vehicles it is the heart purchase it costs a lot more money it's not a value purchase it's not as usable from an interior perspective but it does drive better it rides better it's quieter it has better body control and all of the inputs are more natural the Interior Space feels more premium more of the controls are physical there's less gimmicks when it comes to the Interior Electronics and it feels like a truly Boutique luxury product you can customize this thing to nearly anything you want as long as you're going to pay for it it's K are unlike the X5 it doesn't do some of the family things as well that comes to the head or brain purchase the X5 is in this test case essentially $122,000 less which is a lot of money it's bigger does some of the family SUV things better it gets better fuel economy the drivetrain is far superior Jokes Aside the b58 is better than this 3 l V6 behind me in the Cayenne gets better fuel economy transmission is better calibrated the mild hybrid system which we didn't talk too much about in the shop leads to much better stop start operation the X5 has much better Interior Electronics the safety Suite works better it's easier to recommend the X5 due to the value side of things but having both of these side to side I I find myself gravitating to driving the Cayenne but again it's personal preference so I will leave that up to you thanks for watching hope to see you again soon ohthe BMW X5 and the Porsche Cayenne represent two of our very favorite two row premium SUVs these are our top picks in their class and in this video we're going to put them up against one another to determine which one is the king of the premium family hauler we're going to be talking about fuel econom interior usability interior cargo capacity noise levels audio tests we're going to take them both for a drive and then compare them from a technical perspective in the shop let's start with the Porsche Cayenne before Mark walks you through my beloved BMW this is a 2024 model which means it's the midcycle refresh the price is grown but you get more standard features this is the V6 model which represents the vast majority of cayenne sold cayen definitely attract a more premium or wealthy buyer their household income and average income is probably much higher than that of the BMW X5 buyer but when it comes to the two examples we are testing this Cayenne is 96,000 with the BMW X5 is tested or specked out to 84,000 and some change they are remarkably close to one another when it comes to Interior usability despite these vehicles essentially being the same physical footprint there is quite a big difference in interior storage specifically the trunk with the rear seats down the Cayenne unfortunately is the much smaller SUV and the rear seats up it's also a little bit smaller when it comes to actual usability though the door pockets and the cayen are quite good a full-size Nene bottle will fit in them there's good interior storage throughout I actually feel like this is a very well-laid out SUV for what it is Mark's going to get into some of the finer usability details between both vehicles though as far as updates for 2024 much like in the new 9911 along with basically every other Porsche product they've ditched the old analog tag and it placees a digital display love it or hate it this is the direction Porsche is going for this has Porsche's latest infotainment system and I will say this is something where Porsche is definitely behind BMW in their infotainment software at least this version of it that we've tested has had some problems with stability it would not pair to our Bluetooth audio testing and this is one of the few cars that's ever been a problem and I will tell you just listening to it and in the past the bow system has tested reasonably well and this is without a doubt a quieter vehicle than the BMW X5 but it is still telling that the software despite being Wireless Apple carplay Android automotive is not as good as what is found in the BMW however when it comes to the usability of this interior space it's far less gimmicky there's a lot less screens to hop through Drive Ms are centralized to the steering wheel easy to understand they're easy to customize to the head unit all your HVAC controls are physical and the other thing I will bring up as well is this interior space feels more more expensive Everything feels more solid the body feels more solid all the touch points feel more expensive and if you care you can fully customize out the Porsche Cayenne to be nearly anything you want in the configurator or the BMW X5 sort of more pigeon hols you into specific options this feels like a more Boutique product one however that doesn't necessarily have the same level of interior technology and interior usability all comes down to what you prioritize in your luxury SUV so that let's have Mark explain to you the BMW x5's pros and cons now we all know Jack is Mr Porsche you could put a Porsche badge on a porta potty and make excuses for it and this is where the BMW has a few advantages because they have an ax for everything they have ax one through a thousand they have more cuvs savs SUVs than they know what to do or have the right to make and what this has done for better or worse is giving them a great idea of how to blend sportiness with a huler and vice versa and the X5 is the perfect blend of all that from the outside that looks very cohesive it's still a bit boxy more traditional without going off the deep end of some of the newer BMW styling it really does look good namely when you sit it next to a Cayenne it looks far more aggressive now the Interior Space where you're going to spend most of your time is really really well thought out now granted this received a midcycle refresh where they changed over to their corporate threaded screen which this inter interior was designed not around that it used to have a screen more integrated into the dash not as well as the Porsche of course but they got rid of that and just plastered the screen here and the problem is is it looks really generic and tacton and the way that the dash slopes to the right makes the wheel look almost like it's tilted one way because of the way the dash is angled so there's some cohesion this is lost where the Porsche has a clear advantage and the fact that they got rid of all the HVAC controls that are physical with the exception of the the basics of the frost or defoggers so that's one of the most frustrating Parts conversely the interior technology namely the infotainment is some of the best in the business I can't imagine how much they are paying their software and integration division to to get this type of system done because they are so far ahead of most brands the problem is is they never stop to ask just because we can do it doesn't mean that we should and this is a perfect example when you over integrate too many core functions into the infotainment when you look at the menu structure it reminds me a lot of old windows where you just go to control panel and there's endless endless settings that is so convoluted to navigate to that you're forced into to making this top drag down bin your shortcuts of where you're going to use it and just getting around is a nightmare even using the search function is not that great however the software in terms of speed and processing power annihilates the Porsche where the Porsche gauge cluster lags when you switch screen screens or you try to get around menus and animations the Porsche is way worse than this so BMW has a huge huge advantage in this area also in the safety Suite which we'll talk about in the drive things like the the cup holder design in the door where you can just put it straight down where the Porsche is kind of angled forward it's harder to get at things the back seats uh while the back seat space and the X5 isn't as good as the Porsche there's not as much leg room they give you more cargo capacity in the back of the X5 it you can just tell right away opening the and putting things in here the X5 is a far more usable hauler with the seats down the other details are you can put the back seats down in the X5 with rear releases without having to open up both the rear passenger doors and trying to pull the handle to put the seats down it's like common sense like things like this that the BMW does much better the other thing is there's no HVAC controls in the uh Porsche that we're testing for $95,000 and there's only a center vent where the BMW has individual HPC controls in the back with seat heaters and they have vents in the center and the side and that's a big deal if you're putting car seats or have kids in the back something it's a major Miss on the Porsche for the price range again they there's the difference in like well people aren't buying it to be a hauler but I'd argue the Cayenne is their biggest car at this point so these are the little important things that you're going to notice you can split the differences in other areas in terms of the center console cup holders about as usual the storage space in terms of you know where you can put your phone in the armrest they're they're a little bit different here or there but overall I think the Porsche does a better job in terms of keeping Legacy physical controls and keeping the infotainment more simple to use although it's way slower but the BMW finds the better middle ground and that's the big difference between these two cars now if you're looking to do your BR summer the audio system in this BMW the harman Cardon uh ably it's okay it's a little bit on the base heavy side and I will say around 220 htz there is a lot of harmonic Distortion and you'll see a 20 DB dip in the frequency response there so you have this base elevation and then you have this kind of Crash down point at 200 htz and it does seem very kind of muddled in the mid-range the base seems to overtake it there might be some rattling or resonance in the cabin and you feel like the Bas is doesn't have a particular good dissipation effect compared to the Porsche but in terms of Base response it's still very base heavy in my ear uh little a little bit less than the Porsche so if you're big into you know grilling and jamming your electronic music in the summer this does a good job at that but other than that the frequency response kind of levels out at the higher end and it is a pretty neutral system overall but we're going to head in the shop we're going to talk about some Porsche stuff before we talk about the X5 in the shop with the BMW X5 and Porsche Cayenne V6 now from a highlevel perspective Mark the reason we put both both of these together are not only are they our favorite premium SUVs is they're kind of similar if you think about it they're both you know multi-link front and rear largely aluminum premium SUVs that are similar sizes and both six-cylinders let's talk about this Cayenne first it's a 2024 this is an e32 meaning the midcycle refresh I did a very long video talking about all the engineering BS on that car it was a KS but a lot of the technical details carry over to the base car this is the V6 multi-link front and rear this is an MLB Evo which is Porsche VW group's rear biased all-wheel drive architecture for premium SUVs uh in this car's case it is on airspring so for this generation all cayen come with adaptive dampers they call it pasm they've gone from a one valve to two valve damper meaning they can now separate compression rebound giving this better overall ride quality for the airs Springs that are on this car which is obviously an option than you're paying a couple grand for you yes you get adaptive height and all of that but they went from a three chamber to a two chamber airspring now that's because it can react faster deflate and inflate quicker and with the more premium damper they're using it's just an overall more capable system this car also has optional rear steer something you cannot get on the X5 that greatly helps in initial Turnin but from a practical perspective if you don't worry about limit handling what it's really doing is tightening your turning radius it makes it feel like a more maneuverable car in parking structures Towing wise this Towes a lot to 7700 lb which is very impressive for the size of SUV and when it comes to drivetrain this is VW group's single turbo 3 l V6 this makes more horsepower than it used to it's up like 13 horsepower and like 36 foot pounds of torque that's all software and just like the BMW this uses a ZF 8-speed automatic got a variety of different wheel options for this car unlike the M sport BMW that we're going to talk about here in a second as well so you thinking look all right Mark it's time to talk about a vehicle powered by Christ engine the X5 before we do that I want to say a big thank you to James Orton he is a big supporter of us he works for Anderson BMW in Crystal Lake he also supplied us with Mazdas in the past to fill in the gaps and we don't have a relationship with BMW Germany they're engineering so we have to wing it often times but to our rep's credit they do let us off the leash so we can talk very honest about these products but we just have to do some of our own research also because we couldn't get a press car that was a six-cylinder we James gave us a car that was perfectly specked out for this comparison so if you have any questions about BMW or Mazda and you live in Illinois hit up James he's a standup lad he is he is actually one of the most honest people in this industry he's just a good guy everybody says the same thing so thanks James check out his YouTube channel but in terms of the X5 compared to the Cayenne there's one key difference they split up two trims you get the inline six version or the V8 and that's how they separate all the features it's far less customizable than the Cayenne the Cayenne you could go well into the $150,000 price point so there's just a bigger spread the other thing is the Cayenne is on MLB Evo which you talked about which doesn't have to be so many different things it has to be a pure luxury product where BMW has to take clar which is what the X5 is built on and it has to be modular to be so many different things like sedans SUVs and they have so many products they have to scale it out to so if it's one disadvantage it's that but when you look at the underbody it has more coverings there's the skid plate the transmission case is covered up it's far more well at least appearance-wise looks far more covered up and aerodynamic suspension they both show the similar things double Wishbone or multi-link front and rear they only swap one thing whereas this the Cayenne gets a an aluminum front subframe the BMW gets a steel one but the BMW gets an aluminum subframe in the rear the key differences here is in the 40i you can't get rear steer you can't get adaptive sway bars and you can't get four whe air suspension you can only option the rear air springs for load leveling that has nothing to do with ride quality the other thing to talk about is on paper at least these are pretty similar they weigh nearly the same high 4,000 pound range for these specific trim levels and they're essentially the same length 194 in I think the X5 is technically a couple tents longer but the other thing I'm going to talk about is Towing where the Cayenne Towes 7700 lb according to BMW the X5 Towes 7200 honestly in the real world you're not going to notice that you're not going to notice they're so similar in their missions and I think that's why it's a very interesting comparison they're packaged differently their philosophies and Chassis tuning are different but they're trying to get at the same point and I think that's going to be the interesting part about driving this car jack there's a little difference though Mark well yeah I know I I was trying to avoid it tell tell me what the big have you heard of this little six-cylinder engine from from Germany it's called the b58 the b58 engine continues to deliver industry leading Dynamic performance using Cutting Edge design and material strategies divine intervention would be required to surpass This Modern Marvel of engineering I struggled in the Cayenne to get north of 20 m per gallon combined in the the X5 you're sitting in the mid 20s on the highway you can get almost 27 m per gallon and while the fact that they share the same engine sorry while they share the same family of gearbox the calibration in the BMW is different yes and we're going to talk about we're going to talk about that in the drive too I'm sure I'm not going to stop hearing about the b58 for the next three days AIO Toyota christened it as God's engine as well Mark and if it's good enough for Tumi it's good enough for me I'm home mark you a another Porsche product this time it's the V6 Cayenne base model I want to hear how it sounds oh likee the Shi is like all right right off the bat as much as I like Porsche's drivetrain tuning this V6 is not in the same category as my b58 Mark oh why is that a couple reasons yes this is technically quicker from 0 to 60 real world acceleration this is a faster car from a dig than the X5 but this does not get anywhere as near the fuel economy the trans tuning is not as good and honestly in gear acceleration in the X5 at least to my feel when I'm in the car driving that thing around feel like that engine does a much better job so you get 3 or four mesp gallon better in the X5 it just feels more powerful more of the time no one's doing launch control from a dig and their regular family SUV and it feels more powerful however what this thing does better than nearly anything we've ever driven is ride this thing has probably one of the best ride qualities of any two row premium SUV that I've ever been in any other than the Audi Q7 well honestly I think compared to the Q7 Q5 talking to some of the Porsche Engineers there's this perception that they're the same they're not when it comes as we have an ambulance coming by probably here he's going to he's I'm surprised he's not going to show up when you drive the uh X5 that b58 the they well the Basic Hardware is very similar the fine-tuning when it comes to the software is very very different I think they do a really good job between ride quality in this car and body control not only ises this ride softer than the X5 it has better body control than the x55 while I will say it is unfair technically that this base Cen can option and rear steer that's not something you can even do on a six-cylinder Cayenne you can't do it a six-cylinder BMW you mean sorry 6cylinder yeah BMW my apologies yeah and it does make a massive difference when you're going back to back between these two you realize how much the rear steer shrinks down the car um and the air ride in this definitely makes it far more Supple you have a better range of that adjustment from sport to just comfort and the X5 is just you know it's got adaptive damp but I will say coming from an an X7 that has air ride and has rear steer yes the rear steer makes a big difference but it it does not ride anywhere near this even with the air ride it's BMW doesn't have the chassis refinement that this brand has and their their knowledge of how to tune dampers the damper choice and the valving and their spring rates bars all of that it just it's always feels solid in a Porsche compared to a BMW and that's not to say BMW is bad no because I I had this conversation with you if you didn't drive them back to back you idea You' have no idea and you'd be like super happy with the X5 on like a back road or on the highway but this car in isolation is isolated it's at least I think 10 to 15% worse riding in the X5 than it is in the Cayenne yeah I I would agree with that and even being fair to Porsche and BMW this is definitely if you if you value ride refinement and isolation and body control and nimbleness over everything else this is better than the X5 I I would say that and the other thing going back to your transmission discussion um the transmission refinement in this is far worse it's much worse it doesn't matter what drive mode you're in it's far more clunky there's far more there's G-Shock between shifts where BMW like even manually controlling the transmission you don't get G-Shock in this car even in automatic mode there's G-Shock there's stuttering there's like this vibration that comes from it and then when you're in that higher Sports setting and automatic or manual the the gear shifting is uh I would want to say reluctant but it it lacks refinement and it shifts speed and shift parameters it doesn't feel anywhere as good as it did in the Cayenne SV6 that we drove in the past with the Cayenne sv8 I don't know what the Cal is for this particular six-cylinder with this 8-speed but it's not on the same Planet as some of more performance oriented um vehicles I the last thing I'm want to bring up before we hop into the BMW is the thing that this brand does very well in every single car that they have better than BMW is the cohesiveness between all the inputs the steering the throttle linearity the brake pedal feel all feels very well integrated together where you don't think about any of the inputs of this vehicle it just comes across as very very natural which is honestly hard to do in a big SUV right Porsche and BMW is trying to figure out how to get this two row SUV to replace the sports sedan and it largely has because it has to replaced sport sedan it has to basically defeat physics and get in and out of Corners maintain midc Corner stability feel Nimble and also ride exceptionally well and I do think of all of the luxury SUVs we've ever driven the cayenne and the X5 are probably some of the best that we've experienced yeah no I mean you know you're you're splitting hairs between these two vehicles of like oh one's better than the other they're both tremendous at what they do and you said this and I cut it out on my last video but you know with a sports sedan or sedans disappearing and cars becoming more expensive even luxury products this has to do more things it has to do everything and it has to be that vehicle like you were saying you have a lot of money you don't have a lot of time and your only fun you get is on your commute what do you want to spend your time in and this is like the answer to that you know in in basically from Comfort to driveing link an idiot it does all of it and it still hauls which is hard to do yeah well I mean we we've already talked about the pros and cons the interior segment yeah so Mark hit me with that sweet sweet inline six I don't want any this V6 garbage you hear that Mark you hear that balance in line six single turbo oh she sounds good listen to that I don't know how why you would even talk about Porsche when you got this engine revving up and uh Jack people are not going to be driving the X5 or the Cayenne like monkeys although you probably could let's get into why this SUV is dominant in some cases and we'll start with let's talk about the engine and the drivetrain or the drivetrain engine and of course the transmission programming of a mainstream non hypercar superar the ZF 8speed with BMW's calibration and the b58 is probably one of the best Drive drains on the market it gets good fuel economy makes excellent power it's smooth there's no Herky jerkiness it's reliable it's very reliable yeah they don't cost a lot to keep on the road this 48 volt system means the stop start which isn't bad in the Porsche it's way smoother it's way smoother here it's completely integrated into the car more so you notice it on a roll you know there there's I think the finer details of the drivetrain so shockingly compared to a Porsche because Porsche really does a good job with that this is definitely uh a highlight of it yeah it it it really other than the packaging which you've talked about from an interior segment and the fact that you you you are paying less money for this car substantially less money um that's the highlight of the vehicle it is the drivetrain great fuel economy great power no Herky jerkiness it feels honestly more expensive than the driv train that's in the Porsche um the thing that does let it down though and it's the thing that lets down all BMWs these days is I don't feel that this is that well integrated with all of the inputs for the car the steering while it is very fast and yes this doesn't have rear steer I don't feel like necessarily mels with your brain as well when it comes to one to one inputs but it is it's funny enough it feels slower in here when you get out of the Cayenne back to back with the rear steer because the rear steer you know shrinks it down so much that you do feel like there's more steering effort or turning effort to get this thing to get the directional change whereas the Porsche is very you know reactive and quick to turn in this doesn't have that it feels slower and even with the 22in wheels and tires on here you would think could be like more razor sharp but it's not you have 275s in the front 315s in the back which is hilarious in a vehicle like this hilarious so again you know you're we we said this in the other one there's not really a bad choice there's just the differences in philosophy priorities and priorities right um I think the the other thing that this does exceptionally well compared to the Porsche is the safety Suite when we're talking about BMW software they their budget for software their software development team including the safety system system in in my approximation and testing it is definitely in a different class to the Porsche software and I had a an event earlier where during a leftand turn much like we're doing here in the Porsche the car freaked out and saw a car on coming that wasn't there and it slammed on the brakes in the middle of the road and I don't have as many ghost issues or weird software bugs with this vehicle and I've driven BMWs before um where you you really trust the safety Suite in this car 90% of the time whereas the Porsche it's very invasive to me compared even when you have most invasive but less good at letting you autop pilot the car which is odd like the lane keep in this works very very well if you do the traffic Pro assistant stuff when you're stop and start you basically take your hands off the wheel below 45 miles hour does a good job it does really well and I mean honestly you could sit on in stop and go traffic in this thing and not think about it at first once you get over it it really does work the lane change assist where it's integrated into that it really does a good job Lane changing for you without you having to do it and these are the little things that matter in a car that you're using every day Less in a sports sedan or a sports car experience where you don't care about all that you at all cuz you're living on the highway right like what are the things that you want out of these cars that that are important and I think some of the things that are critically important to the Daily Driving Experience the BMW has definitely got an edge up on the Porsche product I don't disagree with you as much as I am John Porsche when ites to I think when you do get on a back though the ride as I mentioned is not as good it's not as quiet you know regardless of what the testing says to my ear in the Porsche it feels immediately quieter when we did other tests in the past you know DB measurements aren't always necessarily telling the entire story but the Porsche feels like a more refined car when you're on the highway yeah and the deciel readings are misleading and we really didn't explain this before but if we took a debel reading right now the Porsche probably would be quieter yeah but the main thing is is there's not just the the peak frequency it's the frequencies that are let in that that you don't see on a meter you have to look at the overall response and the BMW lets far more frequencies from the road and oscillations from the suspension in all over the place so while that Peak number may be close between the two cars this is noisier all over the place in low frequency high frequency and you can tell on this same road with a broken pavement there's far more jounced in both cars currently or yeah and there's far more vibration and oscillation that doesn't uh it's not damped out so once you hit a bump you feel it throughout the whole body in this car that doesn't dissipate as quickly as the Porsche did and that's where you were telling me earlier you know if you were on a 4 or 500 mile road trip with your family you would rather be in the Porsche on those long trips than this and I would agree with you 100% in isolation when you're you're driving both back to back but I'd say the Porsche is 25% better than this car in that regard in Dynamics Dynamics but if you didn't drive the Porsche this is an amazing car that eats up the highway miles as well this is night and day better than almost everything else in its class we've purposely for this test picked our two favorite premium rear wheel drive based SUVs that are non EV so it really go it boils down to this Jack like what do you value and I think that's a great discussion for the final thoughts all right so let's do it show me some b-58 final thoughts on our BMW X5 versus Porsche Cayenne comparison test first off huge thanks to our friend James Orton who works at Anderson BMW Mazda of Crystal Lake if you're looking for a vehicle we highly suggest you hit them up our Porsche reps Calvin Luke and Frank for providing us technical support of course our title sponsor Bridgestone tires so if you're looking for tires for your own SUV we highly suggest you look at the Bridgestone alenza these are tires I run on my own family car as well as Mark runs them on our lovely Nissan Roc cross caburet so what about these two SUVs well first off as I've mentioned already these are two of our very favorite products and honestly you can't go wrong with either of them however in this specific test it's a question of head versus heart are you looking at this purely objectively looking at Value family practicality or you looking at this from a product you want to drive and get behind the wheel of in the case of the Cayenne of these two vehicles it is the heart purchase it costs a lot more money it's not a value purchase it's not as usable from an interior perspective but it does drive better it rides better it's quieter it has better body control and all of the inputs are more natural the Interior Space feels more premium more of the controls are physical there's less gimmicks when it comes to the Interior Electronics and it feels like a truly Boutique luxury product you can customize this thing to nearly anything you want as long as you're going to pay for it it's K are unlike the X5 it doesn't do some of the family things as well that comes to the head or brain purchase the X5 is in this test case essentially $122,000 less which is a lot of money it's bigger does some of the family SUV things better it gets better fuel economy the drivetrain is far superior Jokes Aside the b58 is better than this 3 l V6 behind me in the Cayenne gets better fuel economy transmission is better calibrated the mild hybrid system which we didn't talk too much about in the shop leads to much better stop start operation the X5 has much better Interior Electronics the safety Suite works better it's easier to recommend the X5 due to the value side of things but having both of these side to side I I find myself gravitating to driving the Cayenne but again it's personal preference so I will leave that up to you thanks for watching hope to see you again soon oh\n"