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Car and Driver publishes a comparison between four high-performance luxury SUVs: the 2012 BMW X5 M, 2012 Mercedes-Benz ML63 AMG, Porsche Cayenne Turbo and the Jeep Gran Cherokee SRT 8. Among the competitors, the BMW X5 M has the highest power at 555 horsepower at 6,000 rpm and 500 lb-ft of torque from 1,500 to 5,650 rpm, thanks to its 4.4 liter V8 engine with twin-scroll twin turbo technology and High Precision Direct Injection. Read this excerpt and learn why the 2012 BMW X5 M wins this comparison:
Viewed from head-on, the X5 M’s monster radiators, intercoolers, and gill intakes lend it the look of an industrial HVAC unit that might more appropriately be attached to the Trump Tower. But that’s the sort of cooling you’ll need when you funnel 555 horses through the launch control—three or four times in a row—just to hear yourself spontaneously come up with increasingly profane variations of the exclamation “Holy Moses!â€
In this group, no SUV could match the X5 M’s 4.0-second dash to 60 mph—same as our last X5 M—nor its 12.5-second blast through the quarter-mile. No SUV could match the BMW’s brake feel nor the gratifyingly  forceful “click†with which it autoÂmatiÂcally selects each of its six gears.  And despite all that oomph produced by the BMW, no SUV in this group could equal its engine’s low levels of NVH. Tack on superior ergonomics in an SUV offering 75 cubic feet of cargo space behind the front seat, and you’re off  to what we’d call a very strong start.
With a push of the M Drive button, the X5 M enthusiastically undertakes the transition to a taut, crisp, and sophisticated Mr. Hyde, making the most of 500 pound-feet of torque available just off idle—as low as 1500 rpm. This ute felt far more agile than the Benz and the Jeep, especially in traffic, where it was aided by its upright stance and its vast, nearly flat expanses of glass. On freeways, it tracked like a BNSF locomotive, and in the hills, well, the BMW felt as if it had been schooled there. “It manages fast transitions with real poise,†noted Alterman. “In sport mode, the transmission is always in the perfect gear.†Every bizarre road condition we could throw at the X5 M left it unfazed, unflustered, unflummoxed.
