During my last trip to Germany, I’ve rented a BMW 530d Grand Touring – the somewhat odd looking 5 series with the curved roof line. I’ve test driven it in the US but couldn’t make up my mind in the short time of 1 hour if I liked it or not. A Sixt week-end special for this car rental gave me a chance for a more detailed analysis of this strange species.
I got it with the 3 liter Diesel, which produces 245hp, and more importantly 540NM torque. In one word, this power plant is stellar! It provides rocket accelleration, while saving you from a heart attack at the pump. I really liked the immediate and linear power delivery of this engine. It was matched with a 8 gear automatic and adaptive suspension. The settings could be adjusted from Comfort over Normal and Sport to Sport+. The last setting disables the traction control, which I didn’t know and only learned at the limit – oops.
The car had a brownish/reddish leather interior which really looks nice in combination with the black color of the car. The car had the panoramic sun roof and of course the GT trunc. This reasonably sized trunc can open only the lower part, or the complete door, including the window (like the 80ies Audi Avants). The rear benches fold. With the benches down the cargo space is huge. Otherwise the trunc is OK, but not large.
Cabin space is great for four adults including in the rear seats.
The Car had the I drive system in its latest generation and It is somewhat usable at this point. Still not a fan, but usable, and I appreciated the NAV and traffic guidance feature in heavy traffic.
The sun roof is probably the biggest disappointment in the car. Operating it takes lots of time, the sun shade opens seperately, and when fully opened there’s a very annoying buffet starting at low speeds. The deflector and fence that BMW provided is insufficient to prevent this buffet. After trying a couple of times (hey it was perfect convertible weather after all), I kept the roof closed.
I can’t say enough about the engine. It left me in awe. The power delivery to the rear wheels is so massive, yet seemless, I couldn’t get enough from pressing that pedal. The electric brakes are strong and very easy to modulate. Electric steering hides the size and weight (4400 lb curb weight) of the car from the driver. It’s very responsive, but not nervous at high speed autobahn speeds. I drove all the way to red line (245km/h) – and top speed is maybe one of the items that leaves something to desire. With 8 gears I was hoping for 260km/h. Autobahn is really where this car shines. In sport mode it has superior accelleration, combined with responsive steering and a communicative suspension. The overall noise in the cabin is very low when the sun roof is closed. With switching to comfort mode, you give up a little aggressiveness during accelleration (it shifts earlier), but you gain a lot in suspension comfort. Road imperfections nearly disappear. In this setting this vehicle can compete with my 740I for comfort. Definitely appreciated during long trips.
Another feature I liked a lot was the head-up display. Combined with the posted speed limit (it reads and interprets road signs by a camera in real time) it provides speed information projected into the windscreen. It isn’t distracting and allows the eyes to stay focused ahead on infinity instead of having to refocus to the instrument panel distance. A definite safety plus. The only downside was the polarization of my sunglasses that cancelled out the LCD – not a problem at night though.
Overall I give the vehicle a 4 out of 5 star rating. Everything is really solid. All the gadgets are sure to not age well though and therefore this is probably not a good car to buy used later on.
The design grew on me and I liked it in the end. I’m still not a fan of the steep front of the current 5 and 7 series, but that’s a different story. The roof line of the GT is beautiful and the rear looks great. I only realized how much I had grown to like it when I dropped it off at the airport, parking next to a regular 5 series sedan. That car looked outright boring compared to the GT.