E39 528i Vs E60 530i
11-02-2005, 02:54 AM
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Well we got a demo to keep over night last night and my mom placed her order for a 530i yesterday as well. Just to set the scene the demo was a steptronic, up rated engine, 18" wheels, xenons, pdc, sunroof.
Firstly i'll start with how it compares with the E39 528i (my moms current car). I can't really comment on the logic of the cabin and the Idrive as my dad has a 645ci so both my mom and i are very familiar with bmw's current logic. However i must say the E60 is a massive improvement over the E39, more than expected. I think it goes without saying that the improvement in power puts the 530i in a different performance category all together. This is one POWER machine!!! (having just driven the 528 which always feels very lethargic BEFORE driving the 530)
The two other qualities that stood out as having been improved is the quality of the car and the noise insulation. Sure the demo was a brand new car but there has definitely been a massive improvement in the engineering and the qualities of materials used. You can feel it when you close the door (a more solid engineered thud), the quality of the wood, the plastics and padding on the doors. As for sound insulation the car had 18"'s so one would expect a bit of tyre roar which there was, but even so the car was much much quieter at speeds. This made the car a lot more reassuring to drive at high speeds but also leads me to wat i feel is the greatest improvement on this car:
The steering. The E39 steering always felt rubbery and indirect to me and made the car feel very big and unmanoeuvrable to drive. This steering (standard not active steering) is just so much sharper and direct, yet loses none of the insulation that a luxury car like this should provide. It truly astounded me! There have also been very big improvements in handling and just the general feel and drive of the car, making it far more rewarding to drive. As for the grip i know this car was 18"'s but despite my hardest efforts i couldn?t get the DSC to activate during cornering, only on accelerating. Boot is also much bigger, the use of a space saver and the moving of the cd shuttle to the dashboard has really paid off. i think the boot is also slightly longer. There is also a lot more rear leg room.
Ok well seeing as this has turned into a bit of a road test it would only be fair to mention the criticisms as well: The design of the rear arm rest is terrible! You kind of want to rest your hand in the cup holder and it looks really ugly, up or down. The drivers armrest is a better peice of design, but gets moved by the operation of the handbrake. Next is the nylon stuff they used as the headliner (something they're doing on all bm's now actually). it really looks cheap and that fluff stuff they used to use appeared to be far better quality. Why have bmw gone from offering 3 memory positions to 2? We need 3! Is anyone else irritated by that slight delay between locking the car and the indicator flasher confirmation? It just means i had to wait instead of locking the car and the flashers flashing instantly. Or you walk away and then your not sure whether the car is locked or not and instead of the indicators flashing the lights turn on which u cant see during the day anyway!!!
Hmm now im going to try do something very risky and try tell a board of experts something about the 5 series they didn't know
(because i haven't seen it mentioned on the board). On the standard sound system there are actually speakers under the two front seats, but the speaker housings by the side mirrors are empty. Also the lower storage compartment under the armrest has a cooling facility.
So my mom has ordered her car yesterday as mentioned. 530i steptronic, Monaco blue with beige interior, xenons (non adaptive), professional navigation, PDC, sunroof, comfort seats. A lot has been said about comfort seats on this forum and having the chance to drive around quite a bit with the regular seats and sit in comfort seats yesterday at the showroom all i can say is they're worth it!! The regular seats are... not bad. I found that the lumbar was set too high up so i got slight back ache. on the comfort seat thats obviously adjustable and i think the additional adjustment range and the extra softness of the seat will make a truly perfect driving position achievable.!
Firstly i'll start with how it compares with the E39 528i (my moms current car). I can't really comment on the logic of the cabin and the Idrive as my dad has a 645ci so both my mom and i are very familiar with bmw's current logic. However i must say the E60 is a massive improvement over the E39, more than expected. I think it goes without saying that the improvement in power puts the 530i in a different performance category all together. This is one POWER machine!!! (having just driven the 528 which always feels very lethargic BEFORE driving the 530)
The two other qualities that stood out as having been improved is the quality of the car and the noise insulation. Sure the demo was a brand new car but there has definitely been a massive improvement in the engineering and the qualities of materials used. You can feel it when you close the door (a more solid engineered thud), the quality of the wood, the plastics and padding on the doors. As for sound insulation the car had 18"'s so one would expect a bit of tyre roar which there was, but even so the car was much much quieter at speeds. This made the car a lot more reassuring to drive at high speeds but also leads me to wat i feel is the greatest improvement on this car:
The steering. The E39 steering always felt rubbery and indirect to me and made the car feel very big and unmanoeuvrable to drive. This steering (standard not active steering) is just so much sharper and direct, yet loses none of the insulation that a luxury car like this should provide. It truly astounded me! There have also been very big improvements in handling and just the general feel and drive of the car, making it far more rewarding to drive. As for the grip i know this car was 18"'s but despite my hardest efforts i couldn?t get the DSC to activate during cornering, only on accelerating. Boot is also much bigger, the use of a space saver and the moving of the cd shuttle to the dashboard has really paid off. i think the boot is also slightly longer. There is also a lot more rear leg room.
Ok well seeing as this has turned into a bit of a road test it would only be fair to mention the criticisms as well: The design of the rear arm rest is terrible! You kind of want to rest your hand in the cup holder and it looks really ugly, up or down. The drivers armrest is a better peice of design, but gets moved by the operation of the handbrake. Next is the nylon stuff they used as the headliner (something they're doing on all bm's now actually). it really looks cheap and that fluff stuff they used to use appeared to be far better quality. Why have bmw gone from offering 3 memory positions to 2? We need 3! Is anyone else irritated by that slight delay between locking the car and the indicator flasher confirmation? It just means i had to wait instead of locking the car and the flashers flashing instantly. Or you walk away and then your not sure whether the car is locked or not and instead of the indicators flashing the lights turn on which u cant see during the day anyway!!!
Hmm now im going to try do something very risky and try tell a board of experts something about the 5 series they didn't know
(because i haven't seen it mentioned on the board). On the standard sound system there are actually speakers under the two front seats, but the speaker housings by the side mirrors are empty. Also the lower storage compartment under the armrest has a cooling facility. So my mom has ordered her car yesterday as mentioned. 530i steptronic, Monaco blue with beige interior, xenons (non adaptive), professional navigation, PDC, sunroof, comfort seats. A lot has been said about comfort seats on this forum and having the chance to drive around quite a bit with the regular seats and sit in comfort seats yesterday at the showroom all i can say is they're worth it!! The regular seats are... not bad. I found that the lumbar was set too high up so i got slight back ache. on the comfort seat thats obviously adjustable and i think the additional adjustment range and the extra softness of the seat will make a truly perfect driving position achievable.!
11-02-2005, 03:00 AM
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alright well seeing as i know how much i like reading posts with pics, i thought i'd add atleast one of the demo 
(with sandton city in the backround for those of you who've been to south africa )
(with sandton city in the backround for those of you who've been to south africa )
11-02-2005, 09:26 AM
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Originally Posted by Ralph-NL' date='Nov 2 2005, 02:43 PM
Welcome to the e60 family ,
don't you need to armour such cars in Johannesburg, other safety measures?
,don't you need to armour such cars in Johannesburg, other safety measures?
[snapback]192367[/snapback]
Hhahah no johannesburg isn't nearly that bad!! Its not the sort of place where a woman would want to change a tyre or be stuck on the side of her road at night (so runflat tyres are
) but its not nearly as dangerous as say south america.
11-02-2005, 09:54 AM
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Originally Posted by colejl' date='Nov 2 2005, 08:01 AM
[quote name='diesel020' date='Nov 2 2005, 11:54 AM']Why have bmw gone from offering 3 memory positions to 2? We need 3!
[snapback]192370[/snapback]
[/quote]hmmm...didnt realize that, as my E63 does have 3 per key!!
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