2008 BMW X5 4.8i: Poor Entertainment System Design

And guess what would happen to your elbow in the event of an airbag deployment?
 
It will be driven backwards into the screen resulting in a nasty and potentially crippling arm injury.
 
Speculation some will say. True, but that's what happened to my wife 7 years ago (although the culprit was the hard plastic center storage cover, not a DVD screen). Her arm was broken in 4 places include the tip of one bone.
 
This strikes me as a lawsuit waiting to happen.

Wow, this is so much worse than Chevy Malibu Maxx that had same kind of center console mounted screen.

Yeah, this is extraordinarily lame, lame enough that if rear-seat entertainment were a priority for us, the X5 would be out of contention.

This design really does bite. What's even worse it sitting in the second row of seats and trying to load a DVD. Especially if you are in the middle seat. You cannot see what you are doing, and everything is by your feet.
Worst. Design. Ever. Bag on this, not the intentional design of the 135i's wood dash trim strip!

From the picture, does that mean you have to flip up the screen first to flip open the armrests to access the center console? If it is, this is a truely ridiculous design.

I can only guess BMW didn't want to suspend from the ceiling to avoid impacting rear-sight visibility?
 
Fair enough, but in this price range you should go with two LCD's integrated into the front seat headrests in that case.

It's not color and texture matched?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
That's completely vulgar American thinking!
 
They must have added this feature to fit in with the South Carolinans who build this vehicle.

"Yeah, this is extraordinarily lame, lame enough that if rear-seat entertainment were a priority for us, the X5 would be out of contention."
 
Agreed, but what priority would put the X5 in contention?
 
SUV abilities?... Nope, sucks as a truck.
 
Sports sedan? ... Better then SUV's but worse then everything else.
 
Family wagon? ...blown away by the lowest of the minvans.
 
The rear seat LCD screen fits in perfectly with the other compromises that make this lame choice for transportation.

Lame choice?
 
Well why? Because you don't like the fact that they're more practical vehicles out there?
 
Practicality isn't the only factor in buying a car.
 
Blown away by a minivans with it's people/cargo hauling capability's don't mean a damn thing to me. Sport Sedans are great and all but they don't look like an X5, and they don't have the same driving position.

you're all wrong. i have an 06 750i with the entertainment pack. thats now how it properly folds.flip the screen towards the second row ad push the screen down towards the second floor row.

I agree practicality is the only factor in buying a car. There's looks, performance, economy, etc. Trouble is the X5 isn't really good at any of them.
 
I would buy a 535xi touring if I really wanted an over priced wagon.
 
If I wanted a high performance SUV, I would buy the faster, much cheaper Grand Cherokee SRT-8.

This is an SUV for laywers to go to their downtown high rise office. It's a status sumbol not a practical car. After all it's BMW.

It's not a BMW, and the X5 is a great performer, the jeep is ugly and the interior is truly awful. The 5 series Wagon, looks like a wagon, the X5 looks like an SUV, doesn't have the space as one.
 
All of these sound like silly reasons not to buy a wagon over a crossover/X5, but it's the reason why they're selling. People hate the way a wagon looks.
And because most people don't haul stuff around all day in their SUV's/wagons, or tow for that more than maybe 3500lbs.
As noted anyone spending this kind of dough on an SUV can afford 15mpg fill ups.
It's a matter of preference, I like the way the X5 looks, the wagon isn't anything special. It has five seats? Check. Great handling? Check. Great performance? Check. Good styling to me, check. Excellent lease deals?
 
Where do I sign?

I agree with cx7lover, this SUV isn't for everyone. You don't buy BMW's for practicality and whatever it is you buy other lower prices vehicles for. It's a niche vehicle for those that like to enjoy life, enjoy driving, and have the best of the best.
 
My cousin has one and I fell in love with its firm suspension, very minimal body roll, v8 twin turbo power, and just the excellent execution of every bit of the vehicle. He didn't have the DVD system, but I'm guessing it'd be quite difficult to mount it to a massive glass sunroof.
 
And don't even bring up a fast Jeep in this discussion. I drove a Jeep GC as a rental and hate it. The body is so awkward from the inside and that thing is less practical than an Aveo. There shouldn't even be a back seat because of lack of room in every category.

my family has an 06 5.7L hemi GC Overland as a "dog car" and the interior is truly awful. I drive an 06 Range Rover and its soo much better to drive. the Jeep is way to bouncy and I think that a $43k SUV should not have a plastic dashboard, doors, or front fascia.

Another sucky design from BMW? What's new?

Not that I approve of this design or anything, but after looking at the owner's manual, it seems that the idea is that you won't fold the screen down unless you _have_ to:
 
http://www.analogstereo.com/pdf/om/2008Manual-X5.pdf
 
On page 194 of the PDF, (192 of the actual manual) it says "When using the ski bag or when transporting bulky pieces of luggage, the display screen should be folded in, as otherwise it may be damaged."
 
I was actually only looking it up to see if spencerkatz was accurate. After looking at interior pictures of the X5, I noticed that they always had the screen upright and not folded.
 
Not to say it's a good design, but that's probably why it's in the way.