Vehicle Review: 2017 BMW 530i
5Series.net gets the keys to the entry-level version of BMW’s all-new 5 Series sport sedan.
No more straight lines. I had driven hundreds of miles of those. It was time to see how the 2017 BMW 530i behaved in curves. I pushed a button to set the Driving Dynamics Control (DDC) system to Sport mode. I bumped the shifter for the 8-speed automatic to the left to engage sport mode, then turned left onto City Park Road, the curviest strip of pavement in Austin, Texas I could think of.
Then I got stuck behind a ’90s Lincoln Continental whose driver was more interested in seeing each leaf of the nearby scenery than turning all of them into green streaks.
I stared at their turn signals, waiting for one of them to blink and tell me that they were about to turn off and leave me to enjoy the twists and turns they were wasting. They didn’t, which made me wish the BMW I was driving had somehow received the James Bond treatment and had missiles behind its adaptive LED headlights. It didn’t. And the Lincoln wasn’t going anywhere but where I wanted to – slowly.
Doing the speed limit (or less) on a road just begging to be driven hard wasn’t a complete waste of time, though. It gave me a chance to notice a few of the things the all-new G30 5 Series does well. The Integral Active Steering transmitted a confidence-inspiring weight through the wheel, which kept me informed about what the front Goodyears were processing. The transmission changed gears quickly with each pull of a shift paddle or each tap of the shift lever. The twin-scroll-turbocharged 2.0-liter I4 delivered its 248 horsepower and 258 lb-ft of torque smoothly and with little noticeable lag. I seemed to have more than a physical connection to the brake pedal. The 4-piston front and 2-piston rear M Sport brakes were so easy to modulate it was as if the left pedal was wired into my brain. Sadly, even in its most aggressive settings, the 530i was completely nonvocal. Its tires bit, but its exhaust didn’t bark.
After a few more miles of dawdling behind the lethargic Lincoln, I gave up and turned around, determined to make my Mediterranean Blue Metallic test car gush out of the land of beige driving. Too soon, I came upon more motorized sightseers. Then it was time to hit the highway and take right angles and straight suburban roads home.
Oddly, those more mundane driving experiences only deepened my appreciation of what I was wheeling around. Granted, my time in the turns was limited and hampered. However, when it ended I came away with a feeling that I wouldn’t have wanted to constantly blow through back roads in the 530i. Sure, it was capable, but I think only concentrating on clipping apexes would’ve been missing the point of it.
The 530i isn’t made to be an M5. It’s a starting point for the 5 Series, a way of showing what the line can offer. You can move up to the power of six turbocharged cylinders in the 540i or the M550i, which shoves its forced-induction V8 grunt through all four wheels. But that line starts between sport and luxury.
I had experienced some of the former. On my way from Austin to the Houston Auto Show and back, I experienced the latter. BMW had made sure I would. The 530i has a base price of $51,200, but my evaluation vehicle was loaded up to a sticker price of $72,135. The cabin was a mix of Ivory White Nappa Leather, Fineline Cove matte finish wood trim, and metallic accents. The front seats could heat, cool, and massage in a variety of ways at three levels of intensity. Shutting the soft-close doors only required bringing them to; they took care of the rest. If I didn’t want to use the steering wheel controls or the traditional knob to change the audio volume, I could just twirl my pointer finger in front of the 10.2-inch high-res touchscreen and let Gesture Control translate a left twirl into “softer” and a right twirl into “louder.”
The Driving Assistance Package added a rear view camera, Active Park Distance Control, and a head-up display, which I looked at more than the actual speedometer. Thanks to the Driver Assistance Plus and Driver Assistance Plus II tech suites, I had a variety of safety features such as Blind Spot Detection, Frontal Collision Warning with City Collision mitigation, and Active Lane Keeping Assistance with side collision avoidance ready to spring into action. During my trips to and from Houston, the feature that I found the most important was Active Cruise Control with Stop and Go. Those two journeys added up to about six or seven hours of driving, so I was grateful for the ability to just set a speed and following distance and not worry about doing a dance with my right foot – even when traffic slowed to a complete stop.
Beneath all of those gizmos was a sport sedan I’d expect from a luxury car company. The DDC’s Comfort setting made the 530i float over rough pavement without making it float-y. Designers nailed the new 5’s looks by coming up with a bold and aggressive take on the twin-kidney grille and the well-proportioned, sculpted body of an athlete made out of metal, not muscles.
Eventually, I had to say goodbye to the BMW 530i. My time with it had come to an end. However, the 2017 model year is just the beginning of the G30 5 Series. I’d say it’s off to a great start – as long as it stays away from Lincoln Continentals.
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