2023 BMW XM: Everything We Loved and Hated About Munich's Hybrid Monster

In light of that, I like to revisit cars after a review has been written for a final pass consisting of things that may have been left out for one reason or another. That can be anything from minor complaints to favorites that just didn’t get the airtime they deserved. With that in mind, these are the things I loved and hated about the new BMW XM.

Love: BMW ADAS

I first sampled BMW’s latest Advanced Driver Assistance System (ADAS) on the media drive of the then-new BMW X7. It was, quite honestly, a very small part of the time we were allowed to spend with the cars – only a short highway drive back to our hotel. With the XM, I had much more time to push the system and confirm my beliefs surrounding it.

BMW has one of the best, if little discussed, ADAS on the market today. In particular, the brand’s lane-change assistant is phenomenal. It managed to toe the line between a quick transition and a safe one without scaring anyone in the vehicle. Moreover, the brand’s steering assistant is great, though the hands-free one from the X7 wasn’t offered in my XM tester. Like the rest of the system, the lane-keep and adaptive cruise control functions work beautifully.

While the XM tends to bounce around lanes due to its size, BMW has said before it is working on unspecified updates to the system continually. Still, the stuff works, as does the cruise control, which again manages to toe the line between confident movements and safe transitions well. It’s probably something almost no one mentioned in their reviews of the XM, but the software is truly excellent.

Hate: Wireless charging and phone mirroring

This, for the sake of clarity, isn’t something that is exclusive to the BMW XM. Instead, my time with the car is simply an opportunity to discuss it. In fact, I don’t actually hate phone mirroring software like Apple CarPlay or Android Auto. Too often, the pair are a better solution than a brand’s own infotainment. What I despise is the toll the wireless charging/projection combo takes on your phone.

Most wireless charging docks in cars, like the one in the XM, are poorly ventilated. Wireless charging produces heat as a byproduct, and that heat just sits in your center console, cooking your phone while it runs a labor-intensive program (i.e. CarPlay). Those two factors mean that phones often overheat or lose battery life while charging wirelessly and running phone projection software.

My almost-new Pixel 6 Pro certainly does, and a friend’s brand-new iPhone had the same problem. While this isn’t unique to the XM, we both experienced the issue and concluded that a simple USB cable is a superior solution that isn’t as taxing on your phone. Frankly, wireless mobile charging feels like a bit of a techy fad in some new cars, like the XM. I’d be happy with a small spot dedicated to a USB dock for my phone.

Love: Playful color selections

The BMW XM isn’t cheap. These cars retail for some $160,000 before options. Thankfully, some of these options are fun colors you won’t get in other places in BMW’s lineup. That’s what a halo product like the XM should be bringing to the table – something you can’t get in other places in BMW’s lineup. At least in this very small way, the XM succeeds at that.

Yes, there’s the standard run of greys and whites and blacks, but BMW offers some really fun colors as well- though I can’t understand why more brands haven’t emulated Porsche’s Paint-to-Sample program. Across the XM’s seven color choices, I’d consider four of them to be “interesting.” It’s all subjective, but colors like Carbon Black Metallic (black paint with blue flakes), Marina Bay Blue, Toronto Red, and Cape York Green are all items that add to the look of the XM.

Hate: Climate controls (or lack thereof)

This, like the CarPlay stuff, isn’t really limited to the XM, but the SUV is an avenue via which to discuss this. iDrive 8 is the issue here, but we’re going to count it because I’m writing, and you aren’t. iDrive 8 arranges all of a car’s climate options into a row of dials on the center touchscreen. However, they aren’t fixed, like many systems, and are put behind a menu. Some controls are, like the temperature and heated seats, which occupy the bottom of the screen pretty much always.

These controls, for some reason, all look the same. The only thing to differentiate, say, the heated seat control from the fan speed or defroster or any other, button is an icon in the middle and perhaps the color of the dial readout. Inevitably, you’ll end up reaching for one and hitting another. In just three or so days with the XM, I did it nearly every time I got into the car. Thankfully, BMW is getting a lot of heat for this, and it’ll likely be fixed in some update down the line.

Love: The little things

We’ve gotten through 99.99% of this list without touching on the XM’s design. It’s horrible, and with that out of the way, I’ll concede that aspects of it are actually very cool – even when they don’t gel with the rest of the car. Perhaps the most controversial of these items is the swoop running down the windows. In any color, including the available gold, I think it adds a little something.

The same can be said of the BMW roundels on the rear glass and the notches in the roof. These are a nod to the M1 and one that again works very well. Again at the rear, I love the upright exhaust formation – it looks cool, and you can see the butterfly valve in the exhaust articulate if someone switches drive modes while you watch. I even like the somewhat superfluous M badging.

It was a real struggle to finish on something that I loved about such an obviously aesthetically conflicted car – even if it is probably the best-driving SUV I’ve ever tested. The XM has a way of being like that. Some aspects are so great you forget other, very poorly executed items. Still, these items got airtime because they either worked or they didn’t, and BMW still managed to build one hell of an SUV.