Go! Drive & Camp – September 2019

82 | September 2019 go! Drive & Camp

Over the past 20 years, BMW has sold more than two million X5 SUVs worldwide.

But you don’t often see one towing a caravan. This is quite surprising,

because it’s very much at home doing so.

Words and photos Leon Botha

High 5, BMW!

T

he BMW X5 is a great
tourer, it’s also good
for towing. Take the
towbar as an example:
at the push of a button a towbar
swings out, and as soon as you
plug in, a computer detects your
caravan. Now add 620 Nm of
torque and there are few things
that can stop you on your way to
a campsite.

We first hitched a regular

road caravan and then an off-

road model, and drove roughly

3 000 km across the Bushveld

and the Drakensberg region, up

to the Mozambican border.

Towing made easy

As you’d expect from a BMW,

the X5 comes with everything

that opens and closes. The

car is chock-full of clever

gadgets, though the electrically

deployable towbar is optional

and will liberate R11 500 from

your pocket. Its button sits on

the right inside the luggage

compartment, and within 12

seconds of pressing it, it’s ready

for towing. (It takes the same

time to retract.)

It’s an Oris towbar, and as with

many European vehicles, the

loom socket fits to the left of

the bar’s neck. Of course, it

comes standard with a European

32-point socket, but you do get

an adaptor for our nine-point

plug thrown into the deal. When

you connect the caravan’s plug to

the loom, you’ll see “Trailer Mode”

is activated on the digital display.

The computer also reminds

BMW X5 XDRIVE30D

TOW TEST