Is the 2024 BMW X7 M60i the Most Controversial SUV of the Year?

BMW's X7 M60i is like the anti-establishment SUV. It's got bold looks and promises abundant performance, so it's sure to turn heads. But is it worth the controversial styling? Well, we owe it to ourselves to find out. Buckle up and let's go for a drive. I'm your host, Brian Maxx, racer, lover of driving fast, fun things. And on this channel, you get reviews for drivers from drivers. Now, this X7 is the one I've wanted to drive. Big V8 under the hood, capable chassis, lots of technology going on both in the chassis and in this interior. Plus there's tons of room in here where you can take about eight families on a very long road trip. But before we get into what this X7 M60i is like to drive, let's have a look at it in a little more depth. Mechanically, a lot of the bits in this X7 M60i are similar to those found in other BMW SUVs, but there's enough tech and enough good stuff here that you could argue this should be called an X7 M. Powering this big three-row SUV is a 4.4-liter twin-turbo V8 that makes 523 horsepower from 5,500 to 6,000 RPM and 553 pounds of torque from 1,800 to 4,600 RPM. And this, of course, it's a 2024 model, so it's a 48-volt mild hybrid transmission. It's an eight-speed automatic. It is X-Drive, which means it's all-wheel drive, and it is rear-wheel drive biased. There is an M Sport differential in the back, and what that means is that it's an electronically controlled limited-slip diff, which we will talk about later. Four-wheel steering is standard on the M60i. This also has a very sophisticated suspension with adaptive air springs, adaptive dampers, and active anti-roll bars. This one has the M Sport Pro package, so it's got the M Sport brakes. Wheels and tires are 22s on this one. They're staggered, as the kids say, with 275s at the front, 315s at the rear. Optional are some 23s, and those 23s come with non-run flat tires. You see a tow hitch here. Well, that means it will tow, and it'll tow up to 7,500 pounds. Curb weight of this X7 M60i is a little over 5,300 pounds. Did you know that about 80% of you are not subscribed? Yes, it's true. I checked the data, and 80% of you are not subscribed. So, if you enjoy the content on this channel, do me a solid. Hit that subscribe button while you're at it. Be sure to like this video and share it. And, if you don't mind, drop by our merch store. There's lots of great stuff for driving enthusiasts like us, including our very popular line of Save the Manuals merch. Now, back to your regularly scheduled episode. Like the refreshed X5 and X6 we've driven recently, this driver interface is BMW perfection. It's set up exactly the way I want it. Great relationship to the steering wheel and the pedals. Great shape and size of the steering wheel, and all first-level ergonomics are just completely dialed as well. The seat is relatively supportive. No, it's not a full-blown M seat, but it is still very comfortable, modestly supportive, and it's heated and cooled and has a massaging function. Given that this is a 2024 model year X7, the driving experience is dominated by BMW's big screen. I've said it in previous episodes. I love the big screen. They've done a great job to ensure its legibility in all lighting conditions. It's quite excellent. Love using it on Apple CarPlay. As for the system's UI, not a big fan of that. It's not as intuitive as I like. I'm kind of figuring it out as I spend more time with these things. I think if you spent about two or three weeks daily driving one of these, you might have it all figured out. This X7 is about the three-row lifestyle, and we have a pair of captain's chairs in this second row. What I do like is that you can move that third row from the hatch, so you open the hatch and there's some switches and controls there, so you can operate those rear seats. You can fold them flat, you can fold them up, whatever you need to do. Makes things a lot easier if you part of a busy family and need to set things up like that. What I do like about this X7 is simply the overall spaciousness of it. Anybody can fit themselves behind the wheel here. There's a tremendous amount of headroom. It's very, very spacious for yourself, your passenger, and your two second-row passengers as well, and kids can go way, way, way in the back in that third row and just keep them entertained with those tablets or whatever it is they play with and just enjoy the drive because it is massively spacious in here. The other thing you can do from under the hatch is actually lower the suspension to make it easier to load items into the back of your X7. It's a very clever thing that they've done here. Of course, there is the height adjustment switch here, but it's helpful if you've got that switch in the back and do need to load some heavier objects into the back of the X7. It's got an air suspension, so why not do that? Well done, BMW. Lastly, let's talk about visibility, and in one word, it's incredible. You're seated high off the road, big windows in every direction, so you can see outside of this thing from the driver's seat quite easily. Big mirrors on the outside. You can definitely see what's going on on the outside. And then when it comes to parking situations, of course, you've got cameras front and rear, so you can park this thing quite easily. Speaking of parking, this does have four-wheel steering, so it's very easy to park. We'll talk about that in a little bit. This is ridiculous. Massive, massive SUV that is capable of out-accelerating 99% of cars on the road. Officially, I'm not buying that for a second. This feels like a sub-four-second 0-60 SUV. It's incredibly quick, and on top of that, the entire driveline is optimized for acceleration. This is incredibly quick in a straight line. We'll get into handling later, but this thing is very, very quick. And while this may have M badges all over the place, may very well be deserving of them given all the performance-oriented tech that's on board, one of the things you have to consider about a luxurious driving experience is an abundance of power and torque, and that's what this particular X7 has. It just has a ridiculous amount of power and torque. This engine, with the mild hybrid, paired with the eight-speed automatic, and paired with the rest of the driveline, the limited-slip diff, and the all-wheel drive, is just incredible. And what it means to you on a day-to-day basis is that it's incredibly flexible. You have maximum torque available any time you want, and then when you're cruising along like this, it's just got a little bit of attitude. We happen to be in sport mode right now, but I'll put it in comfort mode just for a second, and there's always this little V8 rumble that's carrying a low-grade V8 rumble, which is just exactly what you want in a modern performance-oriented luxury SUV. And then on top of that, you can get decent fuel mileage, which we will talk about later. It's just an incredibly well-rounded package in terms of day-to-day usability, outright performance, and a touch of efficiency. Speaking of sport mode, when you do have this running in sport mode, and you can shift manually on the shift paddles, it does give a little bit of extra burble and pop on overrun on deceleration. It's just fantastic, gives this X7 a little bit more attitude than any of the other ones we've driven previously. The eight-speed automatic is almost imperceptible when it comes to shifting in normal sort of comfort mode. When you're in sport mode, while those shifts are a little bit more pronounced, it does rev-match downshifts on the way down the gears. It's just incredible in that regard. I do have to mention one thing about this 48-volt mild hybrid. Because it's basically an integrated starter generator after the engine, before the transmission, what this does is it fires up this V8 so smoothly. It's just incredible. It is very luxurious in that regard, and of course, luxury doesn't mean features of leather. Luxury distills down into delight and surprise, and that is a delightful experience firing up the V8 in this X7. The other thing we do have to mention, and it's like I'm beating a dead horse, like it owes me money, but electronically controlled limited-slip diffs are magical. They're far more interesting than a mechanical limited-slip diff, and the reason is they can completely vary lock from zero to 100%, and the zero is what's interesting. What a company like BMW will do is calibrate the diff and all the systems to tell that diff to be completely open, zero lock, under braking, and what that means to me and you is that this SUV is incredibly stable under braking, especially aggressive braking. If we're throwing this around in the corners, the fact that it's got an electronically controlled limited-slip diff makes it much more enjoyable in the corners. It is a lot of fun to throw around, and because it's stable under braking gives you a lot of confidence when you're braking hard if it's an emergency or just when you're having fun like we do from time to time in this channel. There's not much else to say about this motor. It is incredibly flexible, makes peak torque basically right in the middle of the rev range. It just does everything that it should do, and it makes abundant power. Peak power is up near redline, so it's fun to run all the way up to redline as well. It's just an incredible engine and works so well in this X7. When it comes to handling, it's kind of magical, and I think that is one of the highlights of this M60i. We've got adjustable air springs, we have adaptive dampers, and then we've got active anti-roll bars, and I think when you're dealing with a big, powerful, performance-oriented SUV, you need all of those things to make your big SUV handle properly, and that's exactly what they've done. It's an incredible compromise between ride and handling. The active anti-roll bars definitely help in that regard. Ride comfort is excellent, but then when it comes to throwing this through the corners, it's absolutely spot-on. It definitely drives much, much smaller than its dimensions and much, much lighter than its curb weight. Since this is a 2024 model year BMW and it is a high-end one, it does have advanced driver assistant high level 2, so it does have that highway assistant, that assist plus function where you can go hands-off on certain divided highways. I find it works wonderfully, and based on where I drive, I'm surprised this can read the road given how crappy the road markings are, but it does an incredible job, and it's very refreshing to go hands-off on a long-distance drive. Now, let's throw this around on my worst favorite road, or my favorite worst road, with some corners, and we are in sport mode. We've firmed up the suspension, and yeah, you do feel its high center of gravity, but the steering responsiveness, braking quite excellent, and all around for a big three-row SUV, handling is very respectable. You don't get a lot of feel or feedback from this chassis, but overall, you have the confidence to play with this in the corners a little bit. Also, what helps throwing it through the corners is manual control over the gearbox works great. This is a tricky corner because it's off camber on the exit. Actually, no trouble at all with road holding here, and again, this road is just terrible in terms of its road surface, and the suspension here just soaks up all the bumps, ensuring that the tires stay in touch with the road. It's an incredible suspension. Yes, it's still a big, tall SUV, but yes, you can also have fun with it in the corners, and speaking of which, these brakes are fantastic. No real complaints about this braking system. They work wonderfully, a lot of assist there, not a lot of pedal effort required to get a lot of braking, and once you're into the pedal, you've got a decent amount of control and a decent amount of feel. Thankfully, there's a little bit of chassis feel that comes through this and a little bit of feel from the brake pedal, but those brakes are big, powerful, and that's exactly what you want in a big three-row SUV like this with the capability performance that it has in addition to its towing capacity. It'll tow 7,500 pounds, so you definitely need good brakes, and these are the biggest brakes you can get on the X7, and they seem to work flawlessly. As for towing, I wouldn't have any concerns about towing a boat or a car behind this X7. I think it would be pretty easy to get up to speed and no trouble controlling it with the brakes as well. The thing about this X7 M60i is that it's an incredibly well-rounded package. The drivetrain is fantastic, suspension, braking, steering. It's just an incredibly well-rounded package for a big performance-minded SUV, and if you need to drive a big performance-minded SUV, you definitely need to look at one of these X7 M60is. In terms of performance, it's incredible, and in terms of dynamics, I'm very impressed. How do you spec yours? Well, it's pretty straightforward when it comes to performance options, and then when it comes to personal taste, that's another story altogether. What you are looking at is the Marina Bay Blue Metallic and the Ivory and Atlas Grey interior. Base price in the US is $108,700, and as tested, about $125,000. Here in Canada, base price is $132,000, and as tested, this is $156,900 before freight and local taxes, and of course, don't forget Canada's famous luxury tax that now applies. In terms of specking yours, there are only two real performance options to consider. One is the M Sport Professional Package, which comes with these bigger brakes. As well, if you choose the 23-inch wheel option, those come with non-run flat tires. These 22s run flat tires, so if that's your jam and you like those subtle differences in terms of dynamics, well, you definitely want the 23s and you definitely want these brakes. As for the rest of this X7 M60i, it's certainly best equipped with all of these options and all of these features, and all you need to do is pick your colors and be happy with your X7 M60i. My verdict? Well, let's start with something mind-boggling, and it's fuel consumption. This is a big three-row SUV. It's not very aerodynamic, it's incredibly powerful, over 500 horsepower, and it weighs over 5,400 pounds, and yet I'm still able to get almost 20 miles per gallon without even trying. Regular viewers of the show know that I do love using the throttle, not afraid to use it here, and in mixed city and highway driving, I'm getting just shy of 20 miles per gallon. That's about 12 liters per 100 kilometers. For my Canadian friends, I don't know if it's 48-volt mild hybrid trickery that allows it to do this, but that's what I'm getting, and it is incredible. As for this 2024 X7 M60i, incredible performance, incredible utility, and I just love that twin-turbo V8 under the hood. As for the styling, well, I think the performance capabilities and attitude of this X7 M60i make up for a lot, but if it's me, I would get my 2024 X7 M60i in black and call it a day. Thanks for hanging out with me today and having a look at this 2024 BMW X7 M60i. Hope you liked this episode, and if you did, you're not new to YouTube. You know what to do. Smash the subscribe button, turn on your notifications, like this video, and as always, sharing is caring, so please share this with your friends, especially on Reddit, because on Reddit, they really need to see reviews for drivers from drivers. If you have any questions or comments, please drop them in the comments below. I'll get back to you as soon as I can, and if you want to support the channel, please hit up our merch store. Links here and links below. Lots of great stuff for driving enthusiasts like us, including our popular line of Save the Manuals merch. Thanks again for watching. We'll see you again next time, and remember, cars don't understeer by themselves, not even BMW X7s.