The 5 Series BMW has been the market leader for executive saloons for close to five decades. However, in recent times there have been some pretenders to the throne – from Jaguar with the XF to the new E Class Mercedes. The Mercedes had been seen as the new king of the castle, until the new 5 Series was released earlier this year. From the outside, the BMW is more of an update than complete new design, which is no bad thing as the previous car was very pretty. It keeps the classic lines that have made the 5 Series the icon that it is. Climbing into the Beemer, you are met with a beautifully finished place to sit. Sliding into the sumptuous leather seats, you are instantly comfortable. One thing that you notice is that you are surrounded by a world of technology. More about that later.

On the road

Getting the BMW fired up is as simple as placing the giant key anywhere in the car and stab the start button and the 190bhp diesel fires up nearly silently. There are so many different settings on this car that you could lose half a day pushing buttons before you even get moving. I went for the ‘comfort’ setting and fully automatic gears to get going. Once on the move the BMW barrels along very comfortably and doesn’t seem as big as it is. The steering is nice and direct without being too aggressive, the eight-speed automatic gearbox makes for seamless changes from zero to whatever speed you settle at.

As I said, this was in comfort mode. Flicking the switch to ‘sport’ causes the dashboard to turn a rather angry shade of red. Once in sport, the ride firms up and can be a bit jarring at slow speed cross-country but brilliant when pushing on a bit. The steering sharpens up and it turns with sublime accuracy. The aggressiveness of the gear changes is very noticeable in this mode and sometimes manual mode on the steering-mounted flappy paddles gave a better choice of gear and timing of change. This car had the BMW xDrive four-wheel-drive system which made it very sure-footed and would make a huge difference to the ability of it to get around if there was a covering of snow. During the week I drove this car I couldn’t get to the bottom of all the possible driver settings, but each and every one I found had a place and was very good.

Technology

This car came with all the bells and whistles, so much so that the extras pack came to a little along with €16,000. For that money, you get semi-autonomous driving with the driving assistant plus. This system gives you lane assist and very impressive adaptive cruise control. These two systems working in perfect harmony are truly amazing. The car will steer itself between the lines, keep a constant distance from the car in front and accelerate up to the pre-set cruise speed when your lane is clear. In theory you could take your hands off the wheel while motorway driving and the car would safely navigate its way to the end of the motorway. Obviously, changing lanes needs to be undertaken the old-fashioned way. Once the indicator is engaged, the lane assist disengages and doesn’t fight the driver’s input. BMW has built in a sensor on the steering wheel to stop geniuses testing to see how far it can go without your hands on the wheel. It will beep and give a visible warning on the dash if there is no contact for more than 15 seconds. This car also comes with some very useful technology that you never knew you needed, like the heads-up display which transfers essential information to the driver’s direct line of vision. Information such as your speed and the local speed limit are shown. Prior to using this system I wouldn’t have thought I needed it, but getting back into a ‘normal’ car I found looking down at the dials a distraction. The other major piece of technology on this car is the big key, which included a display. This display shows the status of the car, whether it is locked or not. It also allowed me to have the climate control working before I got into it, so the temperature would be exactly as I want it. This would be very handy on a cold January morning or on warm summer days.

Verdict

Having spent a week and nearly 1,500km with this BMW, I found that this car was very capable both as a cruiser with all its driver aids and comfort and as an enjoyable driver’s car on the twisty stuff. This is what the 5 Series has always been known for and this iteration seems to be a step forward on both fronts. Having recently driven the new E Class, there is little to choose between the two on the motorway but when driving them cross-country the BMW gives you a far more involved and enjoyable experience. Having said all that, the BMW that I had on test had a retail price of €76,107 of which €60,630.00 was the base price. I personally couldn’t bring myself to spend an extra €16,000 on the bells and whistles when I would have a superb car without all the extras. I would even go one step further and say that I wouldn’t spend the extra money on the four-wheel-drive system as I don’t think it adds to the driving experience unless you’re stuck on that rare snow day in this country. Despite all this, the new 5 Series is definitely back at the pinnacle of this sector of the market but it doesn’t need all the extras to make it the class leader.