I'm a current E39 owner with an E60 530 diesel on order, due for delivery in a couple of months. I've been keenly looking out for any niformation over the last six months, and placed an order based on the info released earlier in the year. Anyway, the car was officially launched in the UK today, and the dealers have demo stock, so I went along to see the car in the flesh - they can arrange a demo next week.
Having seen the car inside and out, I now wonder what all the fuss is about. Externally the car is neither ugly nor beautiful, merely a logical, and rather unremarkable, evolution of the old shape. Inside, the feel sitting in the driver's seat will be familiar to any E39 owner, notwithstanding the lack of orientation towards the driver, which is not really noticeable. There's a bit more legroom in the back, and the boot (trunk) is a bit bigger. The window switches are a bit cheap looking, but nothing to get upset about.
Overall, my current feeling is that it will be a minor improvement on the E39 in all areas, but nothing to write home about. Sorry to sound lukewarm, but I feel strangely let down, having expected to have strong feelings about certain elements of the car, and as it turns out, having none.
The salesman said that the car drove more like a 3 series, so hopefully the combination of dynamic drive, active steering and a more powerful (diesel) engine will shake me out of my indifference.
Anyone else feel the same? I haven't read a single post along these lines.

Scotty,

I am also in the UK and have a 530d on order for delivery late October. I have come to the E60 via the X5, then an Audi A4 cab. Having been very disappointed with the handling dynamics of the Audi I sold it after only 3 months and was at a loss what to replace it with. I nearly went for another X5 but realised that there was a facelift due in early 2004 so that ruled it out as I didn't want to buy a pre-facelift model. I then saw some spyshots of the 5 series which at first I thought looked awful, but which grew on me over time. I am a firm believer that good design takes time to appreciate as it often challenges your initial preconceptions of what looks right. As the E39 is such a common sight and the E60 has a number of very different styling cues, it is obviously challenging peoples attitudes.

I had a preview of the styling over three weeks ago at a pre-launch dealer event. I was never a huge fan of the E39 5 and thought it has looked very dated for a couple of years now. The E60, IMHO, has moved the styling goalposts forward considerably and BMW has given the new car a more muscular, taught and less fussy look. Styling is obviously a subjective opinion but I think that it is fair to say that the design is colour sensitive and requires the 18" alloys to make the overall proportions look "right". I have seen silver, silver grey, titanium grey, sapphire black, olivin and mystic blue cars thus far at various dealers. I believe that the car looks better in the darker colours (silver grey and sapphire looking the best IMO)as these show off more of the styling lines. The titanium silver cars looked flat and featureless with no obvious relief lines on the side which tends to give them a slab sided appearance. Once the cars start to appear on the road in greater numbers (as they surely will) I believe everyone will start to say how old the E39 looks. The same thing happened with the E34. And lets face it, the E39 hardly looks good with small wheels and some of the colours available also do it no favours either.

I haven't bothered with any of the new electronic gizmo's such as active steering or the adaptive headlights but the car has somehow still managed to cost ?40k. I am going for a four hour test drive tomorrow so my fingers are firmly crossed that I'm going to like it - I'm sure I will.

ISUK.


Please let us know how the test drive goes!!

Scotty,

I have never been a great fan of Monsigneur Bangl? - but after having had my E60 for a few weeks now I must say that he does have a point...the whole car seems to have some kind of an "idea" within and around it.

I don't diasagree with anything that ISUK is saying. The car is more taut and agressive, and the history of german new models is that the older car starts to look old fashioned very quickly, although more so with Mercedes than BMW IMO. My only criticism of the design is that the car has a much taller stance than the E39, and at the moment appears to me to lack a certain cohesion, appearing more as a set of disparate styling elements. I'm sure this feeling will disappear quickly with familiarity. I just seem to have lost some of the "desire" that I had - up to now, I've been counting the weeks until the UK launch and until I get my own car. I'm still looking forward to it, but with less intensity.
Incidentally, my car is also costing ?8k over list, and there were no options specified that I felt comfortable without. ?90 for floor mats is totally bizarre in a ?30k car. With my current car, I specified around ?2k in options, and felt like I had everything I needed. A sport package like they have in the USA or on the E39 would certainly have helped.

I'm in UK would generally agree with all of the positive comments made so far. As a previous E39 owner (and 330iSE), I pre-ordered a BMW530d for delivery today 19 Sep - one day after the UK launch. I'm also surprised that all the options I wanted added 9k to the price.

The car is in the UK, but unfortunately BMW had some slight mishap with my car (a damaged trim I was told) therefore I won't get it till next Friday :( . I could not make the pre-launch viewing but the dealer allowed a private viewing a few weeks ago. I am very happy with the styling and from what I hear/read about the drive I lookforward to ownership.

Also, I missed out on lastnight's UK launch due to work pressures though my wife went. She came away with a goody bag containing some marketing bumpf, a small bottle of champers plus glass, E60 mouse mat and a key ring........amazing!
If you attended a launch evening how did it go?

Just back from the dealers. There must have been a misunderstanding between us as I only managed to get a 30 minute test drive! No matter.

The demo car was in Olivin Green with the 18" style 124 alloys, sports suspension, black leather, steptronic, and adaptive steering. First off I have to say that the Olivin looks good - I really didn't expect to like this colour. I didn't bother with any preamble on how everything works as I was only really interested in the driving characteristics.

It is easy to find a comfortable driving position even with the manual seats fitted to this car (I'm 6'2"). I felt at home very quickly with the controls. The indicator has been mentioned by other posters but I found that after a couple of goes it was intuative to operate.

The car only had 25 miles on the clock and it was an accompanied test drive so I didn't go wild but I had a good mix of A and B roads with a final few miles of dual carriageway. My impressions? The car seems much smaller than it actually is in terms of handling. The diesel engine is very responsive with a good spread of torque. At no point inside the car did I feel that I was in a diesel as noise supression is impressive. I only had the car up to 80mph but can report that the most noticeable sound was some slight wind noise. This engine has a nice induction sound as you apply the power. The car felt as though it would be pretty quick once run in (around 1500 to 200 miles I was told).The adaptive steering felt a bit light to me at first with only a small amount of lock required to turn the car. I was pushed to really notice any difference in taughtness as speed increased.

I prefer a firm ride to give good handling and I always specify larger wheels and sports suspension. Having driving a car thus equipped I cannot agree with some road tests that have said the combination of run flat tyres and sports suspension give a harsh ride. I thought the car rode extremely well and gave a nice balance between providing a comfortable ride whilst giving good feedback to the driver on what the car was doing.

The parking sensor display is very good and gives you a large pictorial diagram of the car with coloured warning bands to show how close you are to other vehicles/objects. As it is impossible to seen any corner of the car from the driver's seat I think this will be an invaluable item.

I didn't get a chance to try out the i-drive or navigation system due to the short time period but overall I am pleased with my choice and am looking forward to getting my new car.

Thanks ISUK. I also saw an Olivin E60 at my dealer today and was pleasantly surprised too. I had a look at an Amethyst Grey too ~ must admit, pushed to see it as anything else but a light chocolate browm. Certainly not to my liking.

Took delivery of my 530dA on the 18th September. The dealer pulled out the stops to get it out for the launch... the car was still at the Thorne Uk distribution centre at 8am that day!!! Highly delighted with the apperance and drive of the car. The silver grey/ black leather looks great. went for 116 wheels, sunroof,advanced a/c, business nav, servotronic steering, bluetooth. Car mats are not yet available and currently no snap in adapter for Nokia 6310, otherwise highly delighted. The drive is tighter than E39 and the engine noise from the Diesel is almost non existant. I had tested the 730d beforehand and the 5 is very nearly as quite. Enjoy yours when it arrives.

The wheels I am most interested in too, do you have any pics of the complete car with those wheels?