Epic trek in executive express
boot space has been increased to 530 litres. The leather sports seats which are standard on the M Sport offer great comfort and are fully electrically adjustable. Once you have selected your driving position you can also choose to heat them and in the test car operate the massage function – which proved to be a welcome feature during my 2000-mile dash.
Most cars in the range cost £3,000 more than the models they replace but BMW say that on average they contain £4,300 worth of additional equipment making them good value for money.
Packed with high-tech features including Gesture Control for key functions like navigation, telephone and entertainment, you can also opt to use the traditional iDrive Controller, use voice commands or simply touch the commands on the 10.25-inch colour touchscreen.
A new message centre enables you to read all incoming SMS messages, e-mails and information about the car.
The new car also has the best head-up display I have encountered which lets you have all the info you require without taking your eyes off the road. It also has its own WiFi.
You won’t get tired of driving this car but if you do it is perfectly able to drive and even park itself on its own – thanks to a bank of standard and optional driver assistance technologies.
With the heavily reworked 3.0-litre six-cylinder diesel under the bonnet, the twin turbo produces 261 bhp and a fantastic 620Nm of torque available from just 2,000 rpm.
This enables the 5 to sprint to 62mph in just 5.4 seconds before going on to a governed top speed of 155mph.
It proved to be extremely smooth and quiet and combined with the eightspeed automatic transmission it was a joy to drive.
It burned up the miles on deserted Spanish motorways with ease and cruised at high speed with very low revs. There was little wind or road noise in the cabin and the power made overtaking easy.
On the second day we rocketed up through France on motorways that were just as quiet but astonishingly expensive and avoided going anywhere near Paris.
The test car was fitted with BMW’s xDrive all-wheel-drive system which proved to be a bonus when we hit wild windy and extremely wet conditions on the last 200 miles of our journey.
xDrive is a £2,000 option on most models and a substantial amount of UK customers will choose it.
Even travelling at high speeds we averaged a superb 46mpg and BMW claim a combined figure of 56.5mpg.
The grip was superb and the steering razor sharp while the optional adaptive dampers took all kinds of bumps in their stride.
The driver can also select from various driving modes depending on mood and I can’t think of a car that would be any better for such a long journey.
BMW say they expect the new 5 to achieve 18,000 sales in the UK in its first full year and the lucky customers who order them will not have wasted their cash or rental money.