That's was my initial anticipation, but why then are they giving it the same head lights as the X6.

In late May 2008 BMW registered the following trademarks:

X5 M

X6 M




Imagine: both X5 & X6 coming with M-tuned N64 V8 bi-turbo engines. Testing & preparing public to turbo powered upcoming future M-cars.
Am I right, or am I not?

if it's not a bloated V8 but R6?

I hope you are wrong..

I for one would love to see what M can do to the TT V8.

You're wrong. BMW registers new trademarks every week, doesn't mean anything.
There will be no X5 M. Totally against everything M stands for. The 850CSI was tuned by BMW M as well, but sure wasn't called an M car.
I am not saying BMW M is not going to tune the engine. But tuning the engine is not the same as making a whole M car out of it.



Because the new frontbumper on both cars is identical, and probably designed around the X6. So they slap those lights to the X5 as well to save time and cost.
Imo, having the same front lights doesn't say anything whatsoever about it being an M or not.

X6 fenders have M gills and X5 does not. So Klier may be right.

i played alittle around with photoshop

>the extension of the rear wheel fender tells me that its still not really finished - so maybe the M front gril in the fender is still coming

From what I have read: BMW have always said that X6 will always be more powerful than its X5 counterpart. So if they both get same engine then at least they will have to tune the HP/torque settings differently.

Good work. You forgot to color the open hatch part.