RE: New BMW 5 Series - full details

[Hoofy]

Liking the way the iPad is seamlessly nailed to the dashboard. You almost don't notice it.

[AreOut]

Blakewater said:

How many of those 21 colours will be different shades of grey? No 535d or M550d either, at least for now.

You can't blame BMW for being cautious with the styling though. When they tried to be adventurous with the E60 everybody was up in arms about how ugly it was and BMW were ridiculed.

it was ugly for me when it appeared but today it doesn't look that bad maybe they should have postponed it for a decade or two

[SWoll]

Trabi601 said:

SWoll said:

Poverty spec in that class of vehicles no longer exists. All come with leather, auto, bluetooth, DAB, Climate, cruise, satnav etc. It's the same with MB and Audi. Unless you really must have a panoramic sunroof, HUD or radar cruise control the basic spec would happily suit 99% of owners IMHO.

One BMW tradition remains, though - awful stereos in base models! - although they do provide a stereo these days, the base spec. is awful. You really do have to spend money on this - it's inexcusable, really.

I've never really understood this TBH. I had an F10 for 2 years and although the basic stereo wasn't anything amazing I it was far from bad IME. Having driven a number of cars during the period (E Class, C-Class, A4, 3 Series) I thought it was better than or equal to all of them with standard fit systems.

AreOut said:

it was ugly for me when it appeared but today it doesn't look that bad maybe they should have postponed it for a decade or two

Always like it personally and ended up owning 2 of them over the years. In comparison to the E-Class and A6 of the same period it was at least interesting and has aged very well to my eyes.

Edited by SWoll on Sunday 23 October 15:11

[Bladedancer]

Wills2 said:

Bladedancer said:

And while it hasn't quite happened yet, you can certainly see this looming on the horizon.
As an exercise, take, say, a 10 year old 3 liter diesel powered German exec that needs a set of injectors, turbo refurbed/replaced and DPF replaced.

I've owned a BMW from new for the last 9 years hasn't wanted for anything bar a service every now and then, in that time I've also owned another 9 along side it and done 300-400k in them they didn't need anything else either.

The internet proving that opinion is better and experience since 1990.

I'm not sure I get it, all 9 cars have done 400k between them? Or do they have 300-400k each? If the first then that's 44ish k a pop, next to nothing. Your post isn't very clear.

Last 9 years you say. So you most likely have an M series engine, which while complex aren't as complex as current N series. And nowhere near as complex as new triple or quad turbo jobbies they're churning out now.
Also, what's the mileage on that particular car?

And I love when people say "well this has always been reliable so it will be reliable". Accidentally, people who had Merc W124 we're thinking the same thing when they were "upgrading" to W210
Also, 9 years in car tech is a lot of time. I've got an 8 year old car and I know though complicated it might be, its still considerably less complicated and a 1-2 year old.

[Ares]

Bladedancer said:

And while it hasn't quite happened yet, you can certainly see this looming on the horizon.
As an exercise, take, say, a 10 year old 3 liter diesel powered German exec that needs a set of injectors, turbo refurbed/replaced and DPF replaced.

But thats not the electronics??

[E65Ross]

Ares said:

Bladedancer said:

And while it hasn't quite happened yet, you can certainly see this looming on the horizon.
As an exercise, take, say, a 10 year old 3 liter diesel powered German exec that needs a set of injectors, turbo refurbed/replaced and DPF replaced.

But thats not the electronics??

In general, I think it's actually quite rare for electrics to write a car off, and I still suspect that in years to come it'll still be the mechanicals. But, mechanicals are getting more expensive to sort out due to complexity....

[Ares]

Wills2 said:

.... you do realise that a 640dGC is 535d in drag don't you?

Is that a bad thing? Take a class-leading exec saloon and make it better inside and out?

[rayyan171]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

Have to agree - Dakota is awful. Nevada leather is much, much better, very thankful I got it in our car.

[Bladedancer]

Ares said:

Bladedancer said:

And while it hasn't quite happened yet, you can certainly see this looming on the horizon.
As an exercise, take, say, a 10 year old 3 liter diesel powered German exec that needs a set of injectors, turbo refurbed/replaced and DPF replaced.

But thats not the electronics??

True enough. Well sort of. Some mechanical problems might be caused by electronics malfunctioning.
In the example above you might have had ECU giving it the wrong dose of fuel.
Regardless, as someone who writes software for a living I prefer as few gizmos as possible because it's fewer things to go wrong.

[E65Ross]

Bladedancer said:

Ares said:

Bladedancer said:

And while it hasn't quite happened yet, you can certainly see this looming on the horizon.
As an exercise, take, say, a 10 year old 3 liter diesel powered German exec that needs a set of injectors, turbo refurbed/replaced and DPF replaced.

But thats not the electronics??

True enough. Well sort of. Some mechanical problems might be caused by electronics malfunctioning.
In the example above you might have had ECU giving it the wrong dose of fuel.
Regardless, as someone who writes software for a living I prefer as few gizmos as possible because it's fewer things to go wrong.

But your example of the injectors isn't something that's common, is it....if that even happens these days? I've heard of injectors getting blocked/clogged up etc, but never an electronics problem causing what you describe? Can you give another example of electronic systems in a car writing the car off? I would be willing to bet that, even today, most cars getting written off are because of mechanical issues, or bodywork (eg damage, rust)

[768]

The article said:

Usefully BMW says three child seats can fit across the rear bench too, so there's even less need to buy an MPV.

Having just tried and failed to get three car seats in the back of a new E class that sounds promising. Back to the multimac site to scratch my head I think.

[edo]

Looks great.

One thing that stumps me these days is making screens look stuck to the dashboard like a tablet rather than integrated?

Much prefer this: (#biased)




To this:

[Burwood]

much prefer this. I personally think the 'new' 5 looks old before its very release. The new 7 looks similarly old. Im just not a fan of BMW interiors. They may be quality but they are behind audi and merc by some margin.

[Trabi601]

Burwood said:

much prefer this. I personally think the 'new' 5 looks old before its very release. The new 7 looks similarly old. Im just not a fan of BMW interiors. They may be quality but they are behind audi and merc by some margin.

I think that looks awful. The tech. may be there, but the implementation looks very dated.

[edo]

That Merc screen just doesnt look well integrated; clumsy, like a Tesla. "we have this big screen, make it fit".

And dont start me on the grinning steering wheel!

[kambites]

Do you really thing the Merc's screen looks less well integrated than the BMW's? Shows how hard it is to get this stuff right I suppose because I'd have said exactly the opposite.

[Alan_I_W]

Trabi601 said:

I think that looks awful. The tech. may be there, but the implementation looks very dated.

The one thing I hate about my Benz is that horrid sat nav screen. It isn't well implemented at all.

[Blakewater]

Has anyone seen the film yet?

http://bmwfilms.com/film

I fully expect the new 5 Series to be bulletproof and capable of pulling a helicopter out of the sky.

[silent ninja]

Blakewater said:

Has anyone seen the film yet?

http://bmwfilms.com/film

I fully expect the new 5 Series to be bulletproof and capable of pulling a helicopter out of the sky.

That was pretty good. High production values for an advert!

I thought this was would be too big, but just checked the dimensions against an XF and they're pretty similar. The XF doesn't feel big and handles remarkably well. I can see the BMW handling just as well for it's size.

[st4]

Guvernator said:

Sorry but they just seem to get duller and duller, the E34 and E39 were lovely looking things. The E60 while a marmite car at least got a reaction and I think the design has actually aged really well. However the last two generations have been dull to the point of anonymity. If you took the BMW badge off, this could almost be any manufacturer including the Koreans. Where is the traditional BMW aggression and taughtness?

I completely disagree. The E60 was one of the ugliest cars they've ever made.

The E39, F10 were wonderful desgins that have aged greatly. Nothing wrong with conservative design. The best styled cars are the current Audi range and Mercedes range.