BMW 5-Series: Still a driving enthusiast's car, featuring high-tech, active steering
Ann M. Job, For The Associated Press
11/21/2003
When a car is being replaced by a newer-generation model, sales sometimes lag as consumers wait for the latest model to arrive.
But shoppers kept buying BMW's 5-Series this year, even as a much-heralded, fifth-generation version was due in late summer/early fall.
In fact, 5-Series sales through October in the United States are up 13.4 percent from the same period in 2002, to more than 38,000. And company officials expect the strong pace to continue, now that the new 5-Series is here.
Sold as the 525i, 530i and 545i sedans, the new 5-Series rides on a new platform, is a bit bigger than its predecessor with a wheelbase that's 2.3 inches longer, has sleeker styling and yet is a bit lighter in weight.
Starting manufacturer's suggested retail price, including destination charge, is $39,995 for the base, 525i sedan with 2.5-liter six-cylinder engine.
This compares with the Mercedes-Benz E-Class, which starts at $48,170, and the Audi A6, which starts at $36,640.
Maybe some of the 5-Series sales momentum came because BMW aficionados have been critical of the automaker's new styling direction and wanted to get a 2003 5-Series rather than the new version.
Like the flagship BMW 7-Series, which was redesigned a couple years ago, the 2004 5-Series comes with a high trunk lid with taillights and rear design that look like they're from a Japanese car.
But the 5-Series is more smartly done than the 7, with a sleekness along the sides and a smoothly sinister front end. As always, BMW's distinctive kidney-shaped grille and ample wheels and tires are present.
Long a favorite of so-called automotive buff book magazines, the 5-Series remains a car for driving enthusiasts who need, at times, to carry four or five people.
The test 2004 530i with 3-liter six-cylinder was a car for people who love to drive. It's not a vehicle you just point in the direction you want to go and then float over road surfaces with nary a sense of being connected to anything.
Fitted with optional sport suspension, run-flat tires and active roll stabilization that's designed to minimize unnerving body roll, the 530i tester felt closely linked to the street.
Even when road bumps and slanted pavement made the suspension stretch as it sought to maximize the tire patch on the asphalt, I could tell just how managed the suspension was, how much it worked to keep the driver firmly in control and the car stable.
Indeed, during a lengthy test drive that included mountain twisties at highway speeds, the car seemed like a road-hugger that always tried to maintain a very flat, stable attitude.
Drivers have to try the new active front steering in the 5-Series to believe it.
Gone is the need to turn and keep turning the steering wheel when leaving a parallel parking spot, for example. BMW's high-tech, active steering realizes, based on the car's speed, that a lot of turning is needed and automatically adjusts the steering ratio for quick response. So getting out of a parking spot is much easier.
But when the car is at highway speeds — and could get into big trouble fast if small movements of the steering wheel brought quick response — steering is more predictable as the ratio adjusts.
Another surprise: Fuel economy isn't as bad as expected for such a sporty car.
Indeed, during a 7.5-hour trip that was mostly highway, the test 530i with six-speed manual got a tad more than the official highway rating of 30 miles a gallon. The official city rating, though, is 20 mpg.
The 530i engine is the same 225-horsepower, 3-liter, double overhead cam, inline six that was in the predecessor 5-Series and provides strong pull from a standstill and good passing power.
Peak torque is 214 foot-pounds at 3,500 rpm, helping move the 530i with manual transmission from zero to 60 miles an hour in 6.6 seconds, according to BMW.
The V6-powered Mercedes E320 has 221 horses and 232 foot-pounds of torque between 3,000 and 4,800 rpm, while the Audi A6 3.0's 220-horsepower V6 generates a maximum 221 foot-pounds at 3,200 rpm.
There are some 5-Series idiosyncracies, however.
BMW's iDrive, which integrates controls for such things as audio, interior temperature and trip meter into one doorknob-size knob in the front center console, can be frustrating.
I wound up thumbing through the owner's manual three times so I could teach myself exactly where to find specific controls in the various menus on the iDrive dashboard display screen.
And I found the smooth, silver-colored surface of the iDrive knob could be slippery.
Drivers also must get used to the blinkers in the 5-Series. Like those in the 7-Series, they have two levels of activation and don't turn off the traditional way, so drivers can become flustered when using them.
Storage spaces such as door map pockets and center consoles in the 5-Series are small relative to those in many other vehicles.
Because the 2004 5-Series is new, there's no reliability rating by Consumer Reports magazine. The 2003 5-Series was a Consumer Reports recommended buy, with the 530i receiving the highest rating of any vehicle the magazine tested.
Seventy percent of 5-Series buyers are men, with median age of 47, BMW said.
Annual household income is $150,000-plus, 37 percent have families, and 35 percent have post-graduate degrees, the company said.
Annual U.S. sales for the new 5-Series are expected to be at least in the 40,000 range.
When a car is being replaced by a newer-generation model, sales sometimes lag as consumers wait for the latest model to arrive.
But shoppers kept buying BMW's 5-Series this year, even as a much-heralded, fifth-generation version was due in late summer/early fall.