BMW 535i Gran Turismo 2009 Review - International

BMW 535i Gran Turismo

What we liked
>> Comfortable, practical interior
>> Superb engine/gearbox combination
>> Terrific chassis balance for a big car

Not so much
>> Heavy, heavy car
>> Minor rear-suspension bump-thump on broken ground
>> That front-end look will take some getting used to

About our ratings

There is a point at which the 5 Series Gran Turismo (GT) makes a lot of sense. That point won't come while you look at it from the outside, though, or reading about BMW's rationale for it.

People are clamouring, they say, for something larger and more luxurious than a 5 Series Touring, but don't want to own something as ostentatious as a 7 Series or as ponderous (not BMW's term) as an X6 or X5. And so, hey presto, BMW has created an all-new, breakthrough market segment.

Like its styling or its concept or not, you have to appreciate it as a car, because BMW has made itself a very capable machine here. Sure, we'll reserve judgement on the hype and self-justification, but the truth is that there's nothing much wrong with the machine that has come out the end of the process – except that it's very, very heavy.

It is the second BMW (after the low-volume 760Li V12) to use its generation-next TwinPower technology, which combines twin-scroll turbocharging with direct fuel-injection and variable valve timing in a petrol engine, and it all bolts on top of its much-praised 3.0-litre inline six cylinder.

It is also follows the 760Li in using BMW's new eight-speed auto and it's the first real look at other bits and pieces that will debut in next year's all-new 5 Series (which BMW regards as its techno-halo car) including the rear suspension from the Touring and the backbone of the chassis.

There's also a lot of 7-Series in it, too, and it shares the big limo's wheelbase and the front suspension dimensions.

But, BMW insists, it's not a parts bin special. It's a new model in its own right and, to our surprise, it actually drives as such. For a start, it rides brilliantly. It's comfortable in all four seats. The seats themselves are comfortable and offer strong support. It has technical innovations, like the new eight-speed automatic gearbox and breakthrough engines. And it has miles of space and its looks are, well… Individual.

The front seats are comfortable, with masses of adjustment. There is, in a breakaway from recent BMW philosophy, a wide assortment of spaces to put ‘stuff' and the latest generation of i-Drive multi-media controller (with Return button) makes it much-less frustrating.

It also marks a return to the more-classical BMW dash layout, which unashamedly tilts everything towards the driver – a philosophy gleefully picked up by fellow Bavarian, Audi, when BMW abandoned it with at the beginning of the last 7-Series' life cycle.

BMW makes a lot of fuss about the accommodation in the rear, and with good reason. It's 7 Series good, if not better.

While a bench rear seat is standard, its middle seat is tiny and uncomfortable; only for children and only for short distances. Even then, the seat adjusts fore-and-aft, and so does its backrest. However, the largest sales, BMW thinks, will come from its four-seat setup, where the massive central rear console is fixed to the left seat and the rear seats adjust independently.

Sitting on the 7-Series wheelbase, there's plenty of legroom and there's as much headroom as there is in an X5, too, even with the full-length panoramic glass roof. Even then, BMW moved to flush-fitting, frameless windows for the first time to eke out another 8mm of headroom for people clambering in and out of the back seats.

Those rear seats fold flat, too, giving 1700 litres of luggage space, which is more impressive than the trick two-mode bootlid (a la Skoda Supeb) that has a small opening (so the passengers aren't disturbed by cold or hot air from the hatch) and a big, conventional liftback one.

So it's all change here, with BMW delivering on its promises of not-quite anything else we build. But is it good?

The hybrid nature of the GT shows up in all sorts of places, but it's evident all over the chassis. The front suspension, for example, is pure 7 Series and the rear is next-generation 5 Series Touring. The result is a large car (2mm shy of five metres long) with a lot of weight. Just 60kg short of two tones (1940kg) is getting up there for a six-cylinder engine to handle, no matter how good it's been in the past.

Yet the inline six instantly feels strong when you fire it up, settling quietly into an unfussed idle before revealing its smooth, quiet nature. and has had its performance boosted by its latest technical enhancements, which also reduce its emissions.

And it helps the cause that the engine isn't all about the top end power, produced when the motor is screaming away at maximum revs. Instead, the way it's been tweaked delivers 400Nm of torque right from 1500rpm (it idles at 700) through until 5000rpm, by which time the power curve has taken over for the glamour jobs at the top of the rev range.

On our test, it turns out that the straight six still has plenty to offer, because it punches the two-tonne 535i GT to 100km/h in 6.3 seconds and is still pulling hard when it strikes the speed limiter at 250km/h. But it's not just a sporty engine, either. The key to it is flexibility.

At 130km/h (the fastest Australian speed limit these days), it's only pulling 2000rpm and it's right in the meat of its torque curve, which means it can relax in top gear and still have the strength to climb hills without kicking down. It also means it's got plenty of muscle to pull the big GT out of corners when you feel the need to punch it a bit.

It helps immensely that the eight-speed transmission is so good; enabling the GT to use a closer-ratio gear set and still offer good economy. It can also slip through its gears with barely perceptible changes and still, in the aggressive Sport+ mode, downshift directly from eighth gear to second if that what you want it to do.

The Dynamic Drive Control helps with that, electronically tuning the throttle, gearshift and skid-control responsiveness, the steering weight and accuracy and the suspension damping and allowing you to choose between Comfort, Normal, Sport and Sport+ modes. And it works.

Comfort is a bit too soggy for Australian tastes (and Sport+ is really only there for, well, who knows, because it'll never see a racetrack?), so Normal and Sport will be the ones used most often.

And, when you use them, you'll be surprised. The GT isn't just a bunch of words from marketing and a bunch of parts from engineering wearing new clothes from design. It's actually a proper car. And it has its own character.

The height of the driver's hip point is exactly halfway between where it would be in a 5-Series and where it would be in an X6, and that pretty well sums up the car. It handles strongly, it stops strongly, it rides magnificently in most conditions and it's quiet and stupendously comfortable.

There's a genuine balance here that is impressive and, strangely, surprising, and the car is just as easy to drive quickly as it is rewarding to drive lazily – a very un-BMW trait.

It's not all good, though. On our test, the broken Portugese roads showed some unexpected bump-thump from the rear suspension as the air springs pushed the wheels back down very quickly on square bumps.

We were told it was because the springs had been set up for the full 600kg payload as well. It's not great but, strangely, it's only noise because none of the vertical shock from the bump ever finds its way to the cabin.

The other issue is fuel economy. And fuel range. BMW pushes economy quite hard and, while the instant fuel readout showed that you could indeed maintain its claimed combined fuel consumption average of 8.9 litres per 100km, our test (which combined high-speed, low-speed, winding-road and city driving) saw us average 16 litres/100km without pushing excessively.

With a fuel tank of only 70 litres, if you drive the GT too hard, you'll be stopping much more regularly than its comfort levels would otherwise demand.

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