I agree! That’s what my wife always used to say when she drives my former S-class, as she daily drives a well equipped X5. The S is just different regardless. VERY different… same for the 7 series, they’d never make the SUV just as good and I wish I know why. GLS Maybach is close but it’s overly priced. X7 Alpina is just a tuned X7 M60.

We don't have one yet, strongly considering a 2025 X5M60. Should pair well with out new M8 I'll need to check on the AC issue, good to know.

See here...according to the thread with the poll ~50% of the LCI's MY 24+ have a weak ac issue.
More evidence of a very weak A/C (bimmerpost.com)

2023 X7 with Anemic Air Conditioning (bimmerpost.com)

Tested Two '25 X7's Today 40i/M60 (bimmerpost.com)

yeah you definitely need to consider an excellent tint all around (including windshield) to avoid any potential issues. I see a lot of these complaints. Both BMW SUVs I have are tinted with the beest tint I could find on the market, so my feedback isn’t relevant at all even for the V8).

I don't see that, I have mine on a low fan setting because I don't like fan noise, and it's still easily up to the 90 degree days we've had so far. Air volume at that low setting is roughly equivalent to what I saw in the 580 which I also kept at a low fan setting. Turn the fan up and it gets very loud, too, but there is a lot of air coming through, to me it seems like more than enough to handle things in any weather. But, like I said, Seattle, and 90 aint 110, maybe it does suck there, can't say. Here it seems to work just like every other car I've owned.

I would say that there are a lot of weird settings with BMW. Like being able to have heat coming out of the dash vents even when you're above the set temp and trying to cool the interior. It's possible if you set it up that way, and people will sometimes complain about it not working right when it's doing exactly what its been told in that scenario. It would be too much typing to describe it all, but the other BMW guys will know what I'm talking about. They've made it harder than it should be IMO.

Q7 is also really excellent.

The Q7/Q7 prestige are the same car, just a different trim level. I greatly prefer the Q8 because I don't want a 3 row, and they gave it more room in the second row versus the 7. I'd also say it's the only "coupe" SUV, that isn't a coupe, I find attractive. To me the X6, the GL whatever "coupe" and whichever Cayenne "coupe" you want to mention, look like ***.

On the other hand, the refresh was a bad joke, it did almost nothing to refresh the car, and I think most people couldn't find a difference without reference material. Meanwhile, MMI was never the greatest, is now quite dated, and riding on hardware that is far slower than the current expectation. The base car will get beaten about the head and shoulders by an X5, Even without considering value. Throw value in there and now you're looking at a loaded Q8 for close to 100k with far fewer features, much less performance, and a meaningly higher cost than a loaded X5. The S will get it's buttocks handed to it by the 60i, but in this case the pricing is close enough to set aside, but it's still behind on features. The RS will have sand kicked in its face and see its girl walk off with the X5M. It does have a more compliant ride than the M and might be a better choice for some.

I say this having driven most of the cars mentioned here quite recently.

I just meant from a ride and drive compared to a sedan perspective

Yes the MLB ll platform is superb, wish Audi made a large full-sized SUV

When I bought ours in 2017 from what I remember there were two engine options a 4 banger and SC6, and I believe the SC6 wasn't available in the lowest trim level. In addition to additional creature comforts, the Prestige was the only one that offered 21's at the time. The turbo 6 that replaced the SC6 was a downgrade to us, as the SC6 was a supper smooth jewel. The 8 speed trans Audi uses is also fantastic - never an issue was a harsh shift up/down - ever.

We almost traded the Q7 in for Q8 when they first came out but didn't care for the frameless windows on the Q8 as they made a racket rubbing on the weather stripping going over bumps etc. We also like the frames around the windows on the Q7 because people tend to close the doors by the windows and that makes us crazy.

We are in the market for a large full-sized SUV and are considering the X7, GLS, RR, (6 cyl or hybrid versions) as they will be for our CA place where prem fuel is not exactly inexpensive.

The SQ7 is quite nice but it appears for '25 they did not go MHEV/48V which would have helped with MPG's etc. and BMW/RR did. The GLS is a contender, but MB trans issues/rep has us concerned (rightfully so), we are to test one next week and see how it goes, as it would check most of the boxes. Question, I believe MB also went MHEV for the 580's - correct? BTW the BMW did for the X5's V8 etc. but not the M850's.

The 8 series is EOL, no solid word on what goes down next.

I like Audi interiors, but they're getting old, feel old. MMI feels like yesterday in terms of layout, and it needs more pep, system responsiveness is behind what is expected now.

You've also got the driving feel, which can behind both MB and BMW; MB in ride quality, BMW in the sport department. Whichever way you want to go, you can do better.

Excellent packaging in the Q7/8, material quality is what you'd expect, and matches likely competitors.

The Q7/8 were great cars, and very competitive, an automotive lifetime ago. Now, everything is dated, and the refresh did nothing to change that. As refreshes go; I'm not sure if I've seen one as ineffectual. Maybe I have, but it doesn't come to mind. Really disappointing.

Going back up the thread, I wouldn't have compared the X5 and X7, different segments. Hard for me to make any meaningful comment on the 3 rows, I didn't look at them in depth. Offhand, I wouldn't think you'd suffer too much in any of those.

I recently purchased a (new to me) 2023 S500 with about 10k miles on it. The car has been flawless so far, and I recently took it on a long road trip across several states. It was an absolute pleasure. I was also curious about the longevity of the car. I went to autotrader.com and looked at every S class across the country, filtered by the highest mileage. I went through several CarFax reports to see if anything odd would stick out, but I did not come across much that concerned me. I came across several 2022 and 2023 S500 and S580 models in the 75-85k mileage range. That gave me some confidence in the decision to go with the W223.

Welcome to MBWorld. Very happy to hear that you are pleased with your car. Wishing you continued good luck and many thousands of safe, happy miles!

Thank you! Happy to be here with you all. I am looking forward to learning a ton!

My 2017 S63 went to 88K miles with not a single problem. Traded it for a 2019 S560 and drove it up to 30K....again, not a single issue.

My 2020 S560 needed a $9,000 valve cover seal repair at just under 50k miles. I think anybody who has one of these and wants to keep it just has to be prepared that something can certainly go wrong and when it does its going to be expensive, so have a fund for that or a warranty etc.

They couldn't offer the insurance if it wasn't more expensive than the average cost of repairs over time, so as long as you don't get unlucky, lunch an engine for example, you're going to be ahead of the game without the insurance. You all know that, I'm just prefacing the rest of my thoughts.

What if you do need to pull out the Amex for an engine? In the real world, back in the C6 days, I know a guy that lost an engine. He was out of warranty, and out of pocket for 5k. That was a better than new engine, in the car, total price. What's it going to cost for one of these V8s in this car now? Four times that? I just saw an AMG engine for over 50k. The game is a little different now, where you can have some truly eye-watering emergency expenses with a car out of warranty, that many will struggle to pay, or wont be able to pay at all. Remember the number running around where most people couldn't produce the cash to cover a 400 dollar emergency?

I'd guess that most of the people on this subsection could get themselves out of hot water if push came to shove with an out of warranty expense, even a major failure. But I wouldn't blame them if they'd rather just drop ching on some warranty coverage, if it came to owning out of warranty, because I think it's what I would do. I could buy that AMG engine, but I can tell you a real world tear would roll down my cheek.