Referring to a car as refined, luxurious and poised as the BMW 535d as a muscle car seems more than a little incongruous, given that the phrase generally conjures up images of luridly-coloured American cars with colossal petrol-slurping V8 engines and lots of tyre smoke.
In regards to that definition, the soberly-coloured, diesel-sipping turbo 3-litre straight six-powered 535d only has the ability to produce large clouds of smoke from the rear rubber in common with the traditional muscle car (and then only if you see fit to turn the traction control off… which would only be unseemly in such a car…) thanks largely to its massive 600Nm of torque.
And it is exactly this massive chunk of torque that makes the BMW 535d such a muscle car. It’s simply everywhere – caress the throttle at any speed and you are gently shoved back in your seat as the car gathers pace. Punch it to the floor and the super-slick 8-speed auto imperceptibly slips back a couple of ratios and the power simply pours on with a relentless insistence that is eye-widening…
The 535d romps from a standstill to the legal speed limit in 5.7 seconds, all the while sipping at diesel at the claimed average rate of 6.1L/100km. Of course, in the real world the actual consumption is a little different…
After a few days of around-town running and a quick trip from Auckland to Hamilton and back the fuel consumption readout was sitting in the low-to-mid sevens. I did say it was only a little different…
The most impressive part, however, is what happened next. A weekend of driving the 535d hard on winding back roads, as well as considerable stop/start short town use saw the figure skyrocket to – wait for it – a paltry 8l/100km.
So it’s frugal. And it’s fast, but it also has a brilliant mix of ride and handling that BMW seems to be so good at lately.
Combining the M Sports suspension and the run flat tyres of our test car does mean a ride that is on the jittery side of firm, especially over your average New Zealand road. It has the unfortunate effect of making the car feel busy and unsettled over any surface not motorway smooth and somewhat spoils the otherwise pliant, luxurious feel that permeates the 535d.
There are, however, three options open to a 5 Series buyer that remedy this: 1) simply don’t buy the M Sports kit, 2) tick the no-cost option to delete the sports suspension from the M Sports kit, or 3) go for the $3,380 Dynamic Damping Control option that adds a plush Comfort setting to the standard cars Normal and Sport modes. It just all depends how much you want to spend.
Speaking of spending, while the standard 535d retails for $148,500, our test car added a further $15,970 in options, taking the price up to a not inconsiderable $164,470.
On top of the already healthy level of standard spec – that includes high-beam assist, parking sensors and a rear view camera, adaptive xenon headlights and BMW’s heads-up display – the test car added the M Sports kit ($8,350), 19” alloys ($390 with the M Sports pack), heated seats ($980), navigation ($2,050), lane change warning ($1,590) among other things.
As usual, the amount of money that BMW asks for some of the options is questionable at best, but that takes nothing away from the fact that the basic package is just so damn good that it makes $150,000 seem like an absolute bargain.
This article first appeared in New Zealand Company Vehicle magazine.
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