F10 – New 5 Series Test drive
Had a new 5 series for a couple of days on an extended test drive as I think about what car to get when mine is up for replacement later this year. The nice team at alphabet arranged for Berry in Heathrow to supply a test drive car of the new F10 5 Series. The car was delivered on Monday afternoon and collected this afternoon.
The car was a 530d SE Saloon with the following specifications:
- Black Sapphire Metallic paint
- Black Dakota Leather interior
- Dynamic Pack
- Sports Front Seats
- High gloss shadowline
- Sports Steering Wheel
- Anthracite headlining
- 19″ W Light Alloys style 332
- Media Pack – Professional
- 10.2″ widescreen sat nav
- BMW assist, portal & telematics
- Hard drive
- Heated Front Seats
- Fine Brushed Aluminium trim
- Automatic Gearbox
The interior was very comfortable and the sports seats are better than the ones on the E60 Touring I have at the moment. I would prefer a slightly smaller and chunkier sports steering wheel, but the one fitted was comfortable and worked well with the cars new all electric steering system. The central tunnel is much higher than that of the E60 touring and therefore gives the impression of a smaller more enclosed cockpit. The rear seats had plenty of legroom, but given that most passengers in the back are likely to be no older than 3 in the short term this is not a big issue. The boot is massive, but not a big as the new E Class Merc, but plenty big enough for most trips.
Now for driving the engine is a peach, in comparison to my current 3.0 diesel this one responds immediately so no gearbox or turbo lag and is very free revving all the way to the red line. But for me the highlight of this car is the eight speed automatic gearbox, it is fantastic piece of engineering and drives beautifully. You don’t notice the changes and when you want to push on it just gets on with it without fuss or hassle. I reset the fuel consumption meter when I got the car (it was reading average of 36mpg) and managed a respectable 33mpg over a very short amount of driving mainly on twisty roads or in rush hour traffic, plus I did take advantage of the sport mode a few times. This is going to be a massive improvement over the 27.1mpg I have averaged over the last 20months with my current car.
The handling of the car was good, but was slightly upset by the 19″ wheels on run flats, I expect I would go for 18″ wheels instead as a better compromise of looks versus handling. On twisty roads it changed direction without fuss, but did get a little unsettled on those fat boys. The ride is softer than the E60, but that is also due to the E60 being an M Sport variant.
So as a car I want one, it ticks all the boxes for me. The only thing that I would change is I would be more inclined for the M Sport version that is due later in the year, but currently it is not available so would not fit with my timescales and is going to be at least a couple of grand more expensive. I got to see the new 535d M Sport Touring at the PGA on Sunday and it looks fab in carbon black, but I think the SE version looks good and BMW have done a better job of the SE look in comparison to the E60 SE saloon.
The other person to give the F10 the thumbs up was LCJ as you can see below…
