# BMW X5 M vs Audi SQ7: which to lease?

URL: https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/guides/bmw-x5-m-vs-audi-sq7

Last checked: 2026-09-11

**Both are from our own fleet, both run on a three-month minimum term, and both are quoted on request. Take the Audi SQ7 for seven seats, the lighter cost stack and a minimum age of twenty-five. Take the BMW X5 M Competition for the sharper car — it holds £5,000 to the Audi’s £3,000 and charges £2 a mile to the Audi’s £1.50.**

Five seats and a sharper edge against seven seats and a lighter cost stack. Both are ours, so both are quoted directly, and everything the site publishes on them sits side by side.

## Why is this the most straightforward comparison on the site?

Because both cars are ours. The [BMW X5 M Competition](https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/cars/bmw-x5-m-competition) and the [Audi SQ7](https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/cars/audi-sq7) are in our own fleet, which means we own them, prepare them, deliver them and carry the risk on them. Nobody else has to be asked whether either car exists or is free on your dates.

Most head-to-heads between prestige SUVs have a partner standing in front of at least one of the two cars. This one does not, and that shows up in how fast a real answer arrives rather than in what is printed on the page. It also means everything the site does publish on these two — the deposit, the excess, the mileage rate, the minimum age — can be weighed against each other now, before you speak to anybody, and on this pair those four numbers do most of the deciding.

## What does each one cost over three months?

Both run on a three-month minimum term and the structure is the same on both: one month up front, then one a month, with 1,000 miles a month included. The opening payment is a single month rather than a multiple of one, and nothing is taken through this website at any stage.

The monthly figure itself is quoted on enquiry rather than published, on these two as on every car we list. What is published is the rest of the stack, and on this pair the rest of the stack is the argument: the SQ7 holds £2,000 less of your money, charges 50p a mile less beyond the allowance and accepts a driver five years younger. That is what the BMW's extra sharpness is being weighed against.

## Five seats or seven?

The SQ7 has seven, and it is the only car in our own fleet that does. That single fact decides this comparison for a lot of families, and no amount of argument about how the BMW drives will move it. Three rows means the school run with other people's children in it, two adults and four bags, a set of grandparents collected from an airport without a second car.

The X5 M Competition has five. They are excellent seats in a large, well-finished cabin, and for four adults and luggage it is entirely sufficient. But if you have ever needed a sixth and seventh seat you already know how rarely they are optional. If seven seats matter and the SQ7 does not appeal, the Mercedes-AMG GLS 63 in the sourced catalogue is the larger answer, priced on request.

## How different are they to drive?

More different than the shared shape suggests. The X5 M Competition is the full M treatment: an eight-speed M Steptronic automatic, four-wheel drive and a chassis tuned to make a large SUV change direction like something considerably smaller. It is the car you notice on a good road, and it is also firmer on a bad one.

The SQ7 is the more relaxed object. Four-wheel drive, an eight-speed tiptronic automatic, seven seats and a chassis set up around composure rather than edge. It is quick and it is calm, in that order, and for most journeys most of the time that ordering is the right one.

## Do you need the M car?

It is worth asking before the badge answers for you, because there is a third car in our own fleet that sits between these two and it is easy to overlook. The [BMW X5 xDrive40i M Sport](https://performanceandprestige.co.uk/cars/bmw-x5-m-sport) is the same body as the X5 M Competition with the M Sport appearance package rather than the M division's hardware: a straight-six mild hybrid, four-wheel drive, five seats, and the M look without the M firmness.

It runs on the same three-month minimum term as the other two, holds a refundable £2,000 deposit against a £2,000 excess — the lowest of any car we own — and charges £1.50 a mile above the allowance. Its minimum age is twenty-five with three years of licence, which is more accessible again than the SQ7. If what you wanted from the X5 M was the way it looks rather than the way it corners, this is the car to ask about: same shape, same fleet, and the lightest stack of anything we hold.

## Which can a younger driver lease?

The SQ7, and it is one of very few cars of this size and price that a driver under thirty can take. Its stated minimum age is twenty-five, with a full licence held for at least five years and no more than six points. The X5 M Competition is set at thirty, with the same five-year licence requirement and the same six-point allowance.

That five-year gap is a function of the insurance profile of the specific car rather than of its price, which is why it does not track the cost of the car in the way people expect. Criteria are provisional until the insurance arrangement is finalised, so we confirm where you stand at enquiry, before anything is agreed and before any money moves.

## What about the deposit, the excess and the miles?

The X5 M Competition holds a refundable £5,000 deposit against a card in the hirer's own name and carries a £5,000 insurance excess. The SQ7 holds £3,000 and carries a £3,000 excess. On the cars we own those two figures always match, so the deposit tells you your maximum exposure on a claim the policy covers.

Mileage above the included allowance is £2 a mile on the X5 M and £1.50 a mile on the SQ7. The allowance is 1,000 miles a month on both, so if you cover real distance the Audi is cheaper again at the back end. Add it up and the SQ7 asks for less at every published point in the stack — deposit, excess and per mile — which is worth saying out loud before the badges do the deciding.

## Which is the better three months?

Take the SQ7 if you need seven seats, if you are between twenty-five and thirty, if you are covering distance, or if you want the one that asks least of you on every published measure. It is the more sensible car by a clear margin and it is not a compromise in the way that sentence usually implies.

Take the X5 M Competition if you will actually use what the M division built — if the way it drives is something you will notice on a Sunday rather than a line on a specification — and if five seats are genuinely enough. Both are ours, both are delivered to an address you choose in mainland Britain, and on both the figure is ours to give rather than a partner's to confirm, which is not true of most of the catalogue.

## Frequently asked questions

### Is the Audi SQ7 really a seven-seater?

Yes, three rows as standard, and it is the only seven-seat car in our own fleet. The third row is the reason most people choose it over the X5 M, and it is the one thing in this comparison that cannot be argued around.

### Can a 25-year-old lease the BMW X5 M Competition?

No. Its stated minimum age is thirty, with five years of full licence and no more than six points. The SQ7 is set at twenty-five on the same licence and points requirement, and our BMW X5 xDrive40i M Sport is also set at twenty-five with three years of licence.

### What is the difference between the X5 M Competition and the X5 xDrive40i M Sport?

The M Competition is the full M car, with M-specific hardware and a firmer, sharper setup. The xDrive40i M Sport is the standard car with the M Sport appearance package. The published gap between them is in the stack: the 40i holds a £2,000 deposit against the M Competition’s £5,000 and charges £1.50 a mile against £2. Both are ours, both are five-seaters, and both are quoted on request.

### Do either of these come with a mileage allowance I can increase?

The included allowance is 1,000 miles a month on both, and excess miles are charged at the rate on the car and reconciled at the end of the term. If you know your mileage will be higher, say so at enquiry and we will structure the agreement around it rather than leave you to absorb it later.

*Pre-launch note: the driver criteria, deposits, excesses and mileage allowances quoted here are read from Performance & Prestige's own catalogue data, which is still being confirmed with the owner and the insurer. Read them as the shape of the figures rather than as a quotation. What binds is your written quote and your agreement.*