BMW 5 Series long-term test

What’s more, there’s an even bigger gap between the BMW and the Volvo when it comes to their respective infotainment systems. While the S90’s is rather slow to respond and forces you to take your eyes off the road, the latest iteration of BMW’s iDrive set-up is almost impossible to fault.

Its screen is touch-sensitive, so you can quickly punch a destination into the sat-nav when stationary, but it’s complemented by a rotary dial and some shortcut buttons that are far less distracting to use on the move, plus the menus are more intuitive and there’s none of the Volvo system’s sluggishness.

Perceived quality is another 5 Series strength, with the interior feeling as solidly constructed as it is plush. And while I find that taking my baby daughter for a ride in any car is a good way of getting her to sleep, the 5 Series seemed to work particularly well, perhaps due to the ambient lighting, which lets you choose from 11 colours to create a suitably relaxing atmosphere.

Any complaints? Well, the boot is a little awkwardly shaped, although not to such an extent that it ever stopped me transporting anything I wanted to. And to my eyes the 5 Series looks a bit too much like the smaller 3 Series and bigger 7 Series; I miss the days of Chris Bangle when every BMW had its own distinct look.

But the fact the latest 5 Series is based on the same Cluster Architecture (CLAR) as the Seven is a real benefit because it incorporates aluminium, magnesium and titanium to help reduce weight by up to 100kg.

This is most obviously felt in fuel efficiency, with the 520d averaging 47mpg during my time with it, despite my daily commute involving plenty of congested urban roads. Meanwhile, on long motorway runs I found the car would top 60mpg without me trying particularly hard.

Okay, the latter figure still falls slightly short of the official average, but it was put into perspective for me recently when I swapped into a plug-in hybrid SUV for a few days and averaged just 24.4mpg in similar conditions.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so keen to jump out of our diesels – and our saloons – after all.

Second Opinion

While it alters the gearbox, throttle response and steering to maximise efficiency, the Eco Pro driving mode also shows you how many extra miles you’re able to cover thanks to your green driving. My record was racking up three extra miles of range over my seven-mile commute.

Darren Moss

Final report mileage: 9940

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Life with a BMW 520d: Month 6

A capable key - 21st March 2018

One of the options our 520d SE was specified with is the £235 Display Key, which lets you remotely check on things like the remaining range and whether the doors are locked. However, its most useful feature during the recent cold spell has been the ability to put the heater on a timer so that the car is warm when you climb into it. But couldn’t BMW let you do all this via a phone app?

Mileage: 9602

A drive in an Alpina - 7th March 2018

Last week, I briefly swapped the 520d for Alpina’s new D5 S, which was in on test. And while the D5 is faster and has more leather inside, above all it reinforced just how good the 520d is. It still has loads of poke and an interior that’s genuinely luxurious, plus a superb blend of ride and handling. Yet the test D5 was more than twice the price. 

Mileage: 7924

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Life with a BMW 520d: Month 5

xDrive is a neccesity, for some – 21 February 2018​

If I were to spend my own money on a 5 Series, I’d specify xDrive. With family spread between Yorkshire, North Wales and Scotland, a lot of my time behind the wheel is spent on lanes covered with leaves, mud and snow. Although our rear-wheel- drive 520d SE is incredibly engaging, there are times when I feel jealous watching quattro Audis scythe past as I’m slipping and sliding about.

Mileage: 7776

Life with a BMW 520d: Month 4

Bergerac’s nice, but getting there in this is a birthday treat in itself – 31 January 2018​

“We’re going to France!” “ I exclaimed, grinning. “Oh, wow. Lovely,” returned my wife, lying. We were on the M20 at this point, at some god-awful time in the morning, nearing the beautiful port town of Dover. I’d managed to keep this surprise trip for my wife’s 30th birthday exactly that until now but, given the ferries from Dover go to only a handful of destinations, and most of them are in France, I thought now was a good time to spill the beans.

At least our eight-hour journey on the other side (I’d forgotten to inform her about that bit) would be carried out in what I was hopeful would be a superb mile-muncher: our BMW 520d. And it turned out to be just that. BMW’s 2.0-litre diesel engine offers all the performance you realistically need, it’s extremely quiet under load and at a cruise, and our trip down, which combined six hours of motorway plus a couple more on country roads, was covered with 44.1mpg on the trip computer come the end of it.

Which reminds me: the 5 Series can do country roads well too. Okay, so you’d get a bit more agility with an M Sport 5 Series on its larger alloy wheels, but our SE is more comfortable more of the time and is still capable of changing direction remarkably well for a hefty luxury car. It’s made even more enjoyable by the steering, which is precise and well weighted, and certainly helps build confidence when tackling tricky bends.

But, being an impeccable husband, there were yet more surprises for my wife, who after eight hours was beginning to dislike me very much indeed. We pulled into Bergerac airport and, after joking that we were going skydiving (not as funny as I’d hoped), she saw her two good friends,who had flown over without her knowing. Which brings us to another of the 5 Series’ strong points: its boot. It’s a saloon, yes, but there’s good access considering, and weekend bags for four went inside with room to spare. Which was good, because I’d booked us a vineyard to stay at and that extra room would be taken up by copious amounts of wine. It was only another half an hour or so to the vineyard, and I was feeling remarkably fresh.

Frankly, eight hours in anything would take its toll, but my lower back wasn’t sore (you’ll need the optional lumbar support) and BMW’s class-leading iDrive infotainment system had once again proved why it’s top of the tree. Not only is it easy to use with its rotary dial and menu shortcuts, but the in-built sat-nav is easily oneof the most intelligent and easy-to- understand systems available.

Plus, the addition of Apple CarPlay makes the business of syncing and using your phone far more pleasurable – I’d wholeheartedly recommend specifying it.

All sounds pretty positive, doesn’t it? But the thing is, this latest 5 Series is among the best allrounders you can buy. In fact, the only real issues I had were with the cruise control, which was sluggish to keep speed up particularly steep motorway hills, and the sound of the indicator in the cabin. To be honest, we can probably discount that second one – I doubt many people will be bothered by it.

So when it was time to jump back in and drive to the UK at the end of a brilliant weekend drinking wine with friends (with a boot full of the stuff), the journey home didn’t seem so bad.

Mileage: 5246

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Life with a BMW 520d: Month 3

520d meets a newborn’s approval – 10 January 2018​

Any new(ish) parent will tell you that if you’re struggling to get a baby to sleep, you should take them for a ride in the car.

But I find the 5 Series works particularly well, probably because it provides the motion babies like, while isolating them from most bumps and potholes and shutting out unwanted noise.

The ambient lighting, which lets you choose from 11 colours, also helps.

Mileage: 4322

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Life with a BMW 520d: Month 2

Qualms reading the 5 Series speedo – 15 November 2017​

Sometimes you don’t realise how dependent on something you’ve become until it has gone.

As I mentioned in my first report, I ran a Volvo S90 before the 5 Series and, in most respects, this experience serves only to highlight how much better the BMW is in key areas. However, one thing I really miss about the Volvo is its head-up display.

BMW does, of course, offer one of these. It costs £225. But this box on the options list wasn’t ticked when our car was being ordered – a mistake that I’d urge anyone currently considering a 5 Series to avoid duplicating.

Having to look down at the instruments from time to time might not seem like that much of a hardship.

However, in a car that’s as good at shutting out wind, road and engine noise as the latest 5 Series is, it’s actually all too easy for your speed to creep up between glances without you realising. And in the speed-camera-infested world in which we now live, that’s obviously a concern.

What makes it worse is the fact that the speedo isn’t particularly boldly marked in the 5 Series – when it’s being driven in Normal mode, at any rate – so checking how quickly you’re covering the ground actually requires a little more than a glance.

But at least there’s a solution to this: switching to Sport mode not only turns the instruments red, but it also brings a large digital speed readout.

As a bonus, this Sport setting can be customised, allowing you to have the Sport instrument display but return the suspension, steering and engine to their more comfort-orientated settings if you wish.

Personally, I think the 5 Series is at its best when everything but the suspension is set to Sport. That way, it feels sharp and responsive, yet it glides across poorly surfaced roads and still keeps body roll well controlled in bends.

Unfortunately, there are still a couple of irritations, most significantly that you have to reselect Sport every time you start a new journey. Having gone to the trouble of setting up my preferences, I can’t help thinking that the car should then default to these.

The other issue is that the engine stop/start system doesn’t work when the car is in Sport, even if you return the engine itself to Normal mode. I’m not sure if this is actually costing me much in fuel economy, but I plan to test it in the coming weeks.

800km in the @whatcar COTY yesterday. My trumpet is out and I’m blowing it - we made a bloody good choice. pic.twitter.com/dZFvHnElVv

— Rory White (@RoryWhite12) September 29, 2017

At the moment, with stop/start off most of the time, it’s averaging almost 45mpg, which I’m quite impressed with, given that my daily commute usually involves plenty of congested urban roads.

Meanwhile, the car will top 50mpg on long motorway runs without me really making a particular effort to drive efficiently.

Okay, these figures are no more than you’d expect from a modern diesel executive saloon. But they were put into perspective for me recently when I swapped into a plug-in hybrid SUV for a few days and averaged just 24.4mpg in similar conditions.

Maybe we shouldn’t be so keen to jump out of our diesels after all, despite fears that they may be subject to additional charges in future.

As for the 5 Series, the next thing on the agenda is a family holiday in France.

More on that in my next big update.

Mileage: 3543

Life with a BMW 520d: Month 1

Complicating the situation with gestures – 18 October 2017

While the optional Gesture Control lets you impress passengers by rotating a finger in the air to adjust the stereo volume, it’s simpler to just reach for the button on the steering wheel.

The way the system lets you answer or decline calls with a swipe of your hand is more convincing, although I’m still not sure it’s enough to justify the £160 cost.

Mileage: 3280

Welcoming the 520d to our fleet – 27 September 2017

The BMW range may have mushroomed over the past decade or so, with the brand moving into every market niche imaginable, but that doesn’t mean it has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to traditional models like the 5 Series.

Blending supreme ride comfort with a cutting-edge interior and – whenever it takes your fancy – exciting and entertaining rear-wheel-drive dynamism, the latest 5 Series’ numerous talents make it our pick of the current executive car crop.

Predictably, it was close when we tested it against the Jaguar XF and Mercedes-Benz E-Class earlier this year but the 5 Series won out by virtue of it being the best all-rounder.

Here’s the thing, though: can all the people who now buy SUVs instead of big saloons be wrong?

Or when you start a family, as my wife and I recently have, do you suddenly see the light and start to wish you had an X as well as a 5 in your BMW’s name?

I’ll be finding out for myself in the months ahead but, for now, I’m still marvelling at just how far BMW has moved this new 5 Series on from the previous version, which, let’s be honest, wasn’t exactly shabby.

Okay, the new car maybe looks a bit too much like the smaller 3 Series and bigger 7 Series, but being based on the same Cluster Architecture (CLAR) platform as the 7 Series is a real benefit because it incorporates aluminium, magnesium and titanium to help reduce weight by up to 100kg.

This is good news for both performance and fuel efficiency, and the sense that you’re basically getting a 7 Series limo for a lot less cash continues when you climb into the cabin of the 5 Series. The switchgear is pretty much identical and the materials are just as classy, plus six-footers have enough space to stretch out in the rear as well as in the front.

When deciding which engine to go for, we were tempted by the effortless performance of the 530d’s 3.0-litre diesel unit but, ultimately, we’ve gone for the 2.0-litre 520d because this is bought in much bigger numbers.

To be more accurate, it’s easily the most popular version among the company car drivers who make up the bulk of 5 Series ‘owners’, thanks to sub-110g/km CO2 emissions that bring correspondingly low benefit-in-kind tax bills.

Where most people opt for the sporty-looking M Sport trim, though, we’ve stuck with the cheaper SE specification because this has smaller alloy wheels that improve the ride and it still comes equipped with everything from satellite navigation and leather upholstery to front and rear parking sensors and an eight-speed automatic gearbox.

BMW also offers a long list of optional extras, from which we selected the Electronic Damper Control system (£985), which lets you soften or firm up the suspension to suit the road conditions.

The £895 electric front seats with driver’s memory seemed like another sensible addition, given that lots of different people will be sampling the car during its time with us.

And although it feels a bit cheeky of BMW to charge £335 for split folding rear seats, these do bring useful extra versatility.

Our car also has several options that BMW was keen for us to try, including gesture control (£160) and a Display Key (£235) that lets you remotely check whether the doors are locked and the lights are off, and even prep the air-con to come on in time for your return to the car. I’ll report on whether these features are worth the money after I’ve spent more time using them.

In the meantime, first impressions of the 5 Series are almost entirely positive, and I’ve been particularly impressed with the engine refinement. In the past, four-cylinder BMWs have been a bit grumbly at town speeds and when cold, but the latest 520d is always super-smooth.

In this respect, it’s significantly better than my previous long-term test car, a Volvo S90. Although both cars are comfortable cruisers, the S90 feels like the heavyweight it is on winding roads, whereas the 5 Series disguises its bulk brilliantly when you put it in Sport mode.

Perhaps the biggest difference, though, is in their respective infotainment systems. The S90 features a large touchscreen that looks smart and lets you swipe, pinch and scroll as you do with an iPad.

Unfortunately, although this sounds good in theory, the system is actually rather slow to respond and can cause you to take your eyes off the road.

By contrast, the latest iteration of BMW’s iDrive set-up is almost impossible to fault. As in the S90, the screen is touch-sensitive, so you can quickly punch a destination into the sat-nav when stationary, but there’s also a rotary dial and some shortcut buttons that are far less distracting to use on the move, plus the menus are more intuitive and there’s none of the Volvo’s sluggishness.

As for gripes, there really is very little to report at the moment. Fingers crossed, that won’t change – but, if it does, you’ll read it here first.

Steve Huntingford

Second Opinion

Can we talk about how brilliant iDrive is? This 5 Series was the first BMW to receive the latest version, which allows you to set custom tiles on the home screen for your favourite functions, and it has made an already good system great.

For sheer ease of use, it leaves the Audi MMI and Mercedes-Benz Comand set-ups leagues behind.  

Darren Moss 

BMW 520d SE specification

Prices: List price new £36,185; List price now £37,725; Price as tested £43,105; Dealer value now £28,745; Private value now £27,560; Trade value now £25,985

Options: 18in multi-spoke alloy wheels (£995), Electronic Damper Control (£985), electric front seats with driver’s memory (£895), Glacier Silver paint (£675), enhanced Bluetooth with wireless charging (£475), sports front seats (£475), reversing camera (£375), folding, anti-dazzle door mirrors (£335), split-folding rear seats (£335), Anthracite headlining (£265), Apple CarPlay (£235), Display Key (£235), adjustable lumbar support (£225), Gesture Control (£160), online entertainment (£160), High-beam Assistant (£95), run-flat tyres (£0), wi-fi hotspot (£0)

Fuel consumption and range: Claimed economy 68.8mpg; Fuel tank 68 litres; Test average 47mpg; Test best 64.8mpg; Test worst 35.8mpg; Real-world range 703 miles

Tech highlights: 0-62mph 7.5sec; Top speed 146mph; Engine 4 cyls, 1995cc, turbocharged, diesel; Max power 187bhp at 4000rpm; Max torque 295lb ft at 1750rpm; Transmission 8-spd automatic; Boot capacity 530 litres; Wheels 18in alloy; Tyres Michelin Pilot Sport 225/40 R18 92Y; Kerb weight 1635kg

Service and running costs: Contract hire rate £366; CO2 108g/km; Service costs None; Other costs None; Fuel costs £1143.24; Running costs inc fuel £1143.24; Cost per mile 12 pence; Depreciation £7440; Cost per mile inc depreciation 89 pence; Faults None