Sensible car, the 530d Touring. All that space and versatility combined with a torquetastic yet thrifty 3-litre turbodiesel. And all for an on-the-road price of £39,400, which is reasonable enough for a large slice of premium BM wagon. Except that our test car came laden with more than £20,000 worth of extras, including the desirable Dynamic package (£2820) and Adaptive Drive (£2220), taking the total to a whisker under sixty grand. Bonkers.
The new 5 looks sober, smart, if perhaps just a tad dull. It feels more substantial, more refined, more grown-up than ever. The optional 19in alloys and stiff-sidewalled Bridgestone run-flats thump and bump over ridges and craters but generally the ride’s good, even in the sportiest of the Dynamic pack’s four settings. The trade-off for the cavernous load-space is a slightly echoey shell that exaggerates every thump.
Subscribe to evo magazine
What's it like to drive?
The steering’s meatier than you might imagine, accurate and nicely geared, but devoid of real feel. The eight-speed (eight!) paddle-shift auto is discreet and sharp-acting, and the performance is strong.
The Touring never quite throws off its size and weight, but it never gets unwieldy either. Can’t help feeling it’d be a bit more fluid on the standard 17in wheels, and better still with regular tyres rather than run-flats. Oh and a high-revving, petrol engine would be nice. But I suspect that would be missing the point.
Specifications
| Engine | In-line 6-cyl, 2993cc, turbodiesel |
| Max power | 242bhp @ 4000rpm |
| Max torque | 398lb ft @ 1750rpm |
| 0-60 | 6.4sec (claimed) |
| Top speed | 150mph (claimed) |
