BMW's 5 Series delivers just about everything you could ask for in a luxury sedan. It offers the features, comfort and convenience of full-size luxury sedans, the sporting character of smaller ones, and a better compromise between interior space and physical bulk. The BMW 5 Series has long been a big seller in the most popular, most competitive class of luxury cars. It's the benchmark for critics and auto industry engineers alike.
For 2004, the 5 Series is redesigned down to its aluminum wheels for the first time in eight years. BMW's premise for the all-new 5 Series seems to be more: more room, more equipment and more sophisticated technology, including BMW's controversial iDrive computer interface. Unfortunately, the new 5 costs more, too, and it follows the contentious styling theme introduced on BMW's full-size 7 Series.
BMW's smaller 3 Series may be the bigger seller, but the 5 is the company's original sports sedan and the oldest nameplate in its line-up. Since the 5 Series nomenclature was introduced in 1975, BMW has completely overhauled its mid-line sedan five times. The redo for 2004 is as extensive as any the company has undertaken. Because this sedan generates a quarter of BMW's profits worldwide, the engineers in Munich spared no expense in the redesign.
In a sense, the most important things haven't changed. BMW's 5 Series remains a true sports sedan in any of its three variations, the 525i, 530i, and 545i. All three boast precise handling, impressive power and outstanding brakes. Its appeal to luxury car buyers may ultimately come down to that new look.
at high speed. But it's not that simple. Active Steering is integrated in BMW's Digital Stability Control anti-skid electronics, and the system can actually make minor steering adjustments without the driver's intervention, or even awareness. Active Steering might intervene in a number of emergency situations, allowing safer, quicker recovery from a skid.
All the options on our 530i, indeed, nearly every option offered on the 5 Series, are available on all three variants. Other than an automatic, one of the more popular options missing from the test car was the Cold Weather Package ($750), with heated seats, heated steering wheel and headlight washers. The on-board navigation system is $1,800. Also available during 2004, the 5 will be available with a rear-seat entertainment package that includes a video monitor mounted at the back of the center console, a trunk-mounted multimedia changer and a pair of wireless headphones.
For the indefinite future, the new 5 will be offered in North America only as a sedan. An M5, the screaming high-performance four-door worshiped by enthusiast drivers, should debut by the end of 2004. BMW says it has no plan to bring a new 5 Series wagon across the Atlantic, because the 2003 wagon's sales don't justify the cost of certifying the new one for U.S. sale. Of course, the old wagon was never intended for the States, either, and eventually it found its way here.
The 2004 5 Series has been so thoroughly redesigned that much of it is unfamiliar even to BMW enthusiasts. The most apparent change is its exterior styling, but we'll start with what isn't so obvious to the eye.
The new 5 is 2.6 inches longer, 1.8 inches wider and 1.3 inches taller than the 2003 model, and its wheelbase has increased 2.6 inches. Nonetheless, all that aluminum keeps a lid on the car's weight. Depending on equipment, some 2004 models are up to 55 pounds lighter than their predecessors. A new aluminum driveshaft saves 13 pounds compared to the previous steel part. The hood, front fenders and frame in front of the windshield pillars are also aluminum, glued and riveted to the rest of the car to avoid the corrosion typical of aluminum-steel contact points. The lighter front clip also helps in BMW's never-ending quest for perfect weight distribution, and all three 5 Series sedans come within one percent of the ideal 50/50 balance, front to rear.
