Style: July 06, 2017

62 STYLE | motoring
A BMW WITH
POWER AND POISE
Motoring writer Ross Kiddie spends some time behind the wheel
of the brand new five-series.
THE SPECS
PRICE: BMW 530d, $144,800
DIMENSIONS: Length, 4936mm;
width, 1868mm; height, 1479mm
CONFIGURATION: Six-cylinder,
rear-wheel-drive, 2993cc, 195kW,
620Nm, eight-speed automatic
PERFORMANCE: 0-100km/h, 5.7sec
FUEL USAGE: 4.7l/100km
Cyclone Cook was doing its darnedest to
drench Christchurch but there was little
choice, I had to make a journey to my mother’s
country home.
The car I was driving was BMW’s new fiveseries
– the 530d to be exact – and it was the
perfect vehicle for the wet conditions, offering
the poise and control you can get only with
quality engineering.
As it turned out, the further west I went
the drier the roads became, but that mattered
little as the new five-series is a car that you can
drive much the same wet or dry. Yes, the 530d
has mammoth power outputs – 195kW and
620Nm – but such is the way it puts power to
ground, and the superb traction control devices,
that there is little fear that grip in any situation
would be lost.
The 530d has a high level of specification
for comfort and convenience in addition to
the aforementioned safety aspect. It sells at
$133,900 in standard form, but with BMW’s
long list of optional extras, the test car hits
the road at $144,800, with some of the
specification items including an M-Sport
package – consisting of 20in wheels, dynamic
damper control and special brakes. While it’s
quite an outlay, you do get a lot of car for the
cost.
For one, the BMW five-series is big; at almost
5m it sits squarely in the large luxury car market
and has all of the on-board elements to cocoon
its occupants in elegance and opulence, while
imparting a sporty feel from behind the steering
wheel.
Under the bonnet sits a 2993cc, straight sixcylinder,
turbocharged diesel engine. Not only
does the engine stand out for its high power
and torque figures, but the level of refinement
and smoothness is most un-diesel-like, as it is
immensely quiet at all speeds. It is also a freerevving
engine; a lot of the latter is due to the
never-ending supply of gearbox ratios.
The engine is paired with a silky-smooth
eight-speed transmission. One of the aspects
which impressed me the most was the
undetectable gear shifts; while the rev counter
flicks back and then forward at the point of
change, the transmission itself is so clean at
shift-point there is no feel.
As you would expect, the driver can take
control over the shift process through steering
wheel-mounted paddles, and there are also
sport and comfort drive management protocols
which the driver can use to set up the vehicle
for any particular drive route.
With the strong torque figures and the
area at which maximum torque is reached
(2000rpm) there is a strong feeling of urgency
within the engine, the five-series in this form
will lunge to 100km/h from a standstill in 5.7sec
and will make a highway overtake – 80km/h-
120km/h – in 3.8sec.
These figures don’t come at the cost of fuel
waste. BMW claims an amazing 4.7-litre per
100km (60mpg) combined cycle rating for the
big six, although I’ll have to be excused for
a 6.9l/100km (41mpg) figure during testing
time. The trip computer also lists a 5l/100km
(56mpg) instantaneous reading at 100km/h
which, taking into account my heavy foot, are
spectacular figures.