BMW 550i sDrive Gran Turismo 2010 Review

Price Guide (recommended price before statutory and delivery charges): $192,900
Options fitted to test car (not included in above price): Adaptive drive $7000; rear seat entertainment system $5700; rear comfort seats $4000; 20-inch double-spoke alloy wheels $1100; lane departure warning $1400; lane change warning $1400; side view cameras $900; leather sports wheel $300; extended connectivity for mobile phone music player $220
Crash rating: TBC
Fuel: 95RON ULP or better
Claimed fuel economy (L/100km): 11.2
CO2 emissions (g/km): 263
Also consider: Audi A5 Sportback, BMW 5 Series or X5

Overall Rating: 3.5/5.0
Engine/Drivetrain/Chassis: 4.0/5.0
Price, Packaging and Practicality: 3.5/5.0
Safety: 3.0/5.0
Behind the wheel: 3.5/5.0
X-factor: 4.0/5.0

First impressions first -- BMW's Gran Turismo is an oddly proportioned vehicle. How one perceives it depends on the angle from which one first views it. From the front, it looks like a slightly taller 5 or 7 Series. But its posterior is maybe the only thing this side of the Great Wall of China that's visible via the naked eye from deep space. It towers over everything short of a full-sized SUV. The fact that it's not an SUV but a hatch gives the car the cartoon-comic effect of a Transformer toy.

But radicalism notwithstanding, it's a serious piece of work. In the top-spec 550i form tested here, it's as imposing as it looks, putting its twin-turbo 4.4 litre V8's 300kW and 600Nm to terra firma through ZF's up-to-the-minute eight-speed auto transmission and Tonkaesque 20-inch alloys.

It's enough to shove the two tonne-plus GT to 100km/h in 5.5 seconds with eerie serenity, although do so too often and you won't go near the state-approved combined-cycle fuel consumption claims of 11.2L/100km.

And before we go too far past the matter of terra firma, hard roads are where this vehicle belongs. Although its proportions suggest a scaled down version of the all-wheel-drive (‘xDrive' in BMWspeak) X6 and its ground clearance may deliver some advantage on soft surfaces, the rear-wheel drive (‘sDrive') Gran Turismo is a blacktop car, the luxury grand tourer its name asserts.

It feels as big as it is. That's some way bigger than the short wheelbase 7-Series platform on which it's based, although it's actually shorter.

This is perhaps as far from the ultimate driving machine as BMW goes – which is to say, still not too far, especially considering its mass. The 550i GT is a very swift vehicle indeed – much faster than it feels. But it's the least sports-oriented tar-tuned BMW regardless of what the frameless doors may announce about its intent. It lacks the directness of connection with the road marking conventional BMWs, so much is there in the way of automation and distance between backside and ground.

What they've delivered here is an easy-going, low-stress kilometre gobbler, most in its element galloping down freeways a something well beyond local speed limits. Driver and passengers are sequestered away from the elements in a cavernous, well insulated lounge room. In the extensively optioned up form here, it comes with the full quotient of gadgets to distract passengers.

What modest measure of sacrifice the GT imposes on the driver, it makes up for in sheer passengering pleasure. During our week with it, several people, adults and youngsters alike, declared the $4000 rear comfort package the finest back seat to which they'd ever had the pleasure of being relegated. The package replaces the standard three-seat bench with two reclining leather armchairs (electrically adjustable, with memory) divided by a full length extension of the centre console full of cupholders, switches and a huge storage bin.

Another $5700 buys them each a video screen mounted behind the front seat, with their own DVD player and lots more switches in the console. They also have electrically operated privacy/sun screens and individual climate control zones... All with the standard 7 platform's generous legroom and, care of an extra 80mm of height over the 7, X5 headroom

There are nice touches everywhere, such as the upward facing air vents set low in the B-pillar, around armrest height. It's a very, very pleasant way to get chauffeured around.

It's not bad fun for the chauffeur, either. While the steering lacks some of the marque's hallmark razor-edge, the $7000 Adaptive Drive option (which adds electronic suspension damping and anti-roll bars) makes the GT exceptionally sure-footed for a vehicle of its mass and proportions. Hurl it into corners and it remains flat and remarkably composed, helped by the prodigious grip of an acre of hard-pressed rubber at each corner. It's not hard to get a rise out of the stability control, but nor is it overly intrusive.

Something I found a little odd about the package is the lack of BMW's terrific symmetrical thumb/finger answer to paddle-shifters – even on our test car's $300 sports-wheel upgrade.

You can move between Comfort and Sport settings that remap the throttle mapping, transmission and suspension, including ramping it up to a Sport+ setting that detunes the stability control. On a decent ribbon of twists and undulations, this could make the 550i GT quite a handful for inexperienced drivers. Granted it's the most extreme option, but it's there for youngsters given to temptation. Ideally, they'd be able to keep both hands on the wheel when taking risks.

Beyond that, the GT's standard equipment list is substantial; the option list here elevates it to the last word in comforts and conveniences. You get front and rear parking beepers and a rear-view camera – all necessary by virtue of the car's bulk and the paltry vision through the high-set, coupe-raked rear windscreen (this example had the $900 optional side-view cameras as well, which helped plenty in parking manoeuvres).

Rear-view mirrors internal and external are electrochromatic; the heated, ventilated front seats are electrically adjustable through all the usual planes plus through the headrests and pneumatic bolstering. Daylight control includes a panoramic glass sunroof and electrically-powered blinds on the rear passenger windows and rear windscreen, all switchable from the driver's seat.

Thanks largely to the 10.2-inch LCD screen, the integrated entertainment-satnav-communications system is terrific, with a six-disc DVD/CD stacker and 'Professional' audio system with USB and auxiliary inputs, an analogue/digital TV tuner and Bluetooth connectivity. One grumble: the $220 “extended connectivity” option to accommodate mobile phone music players didn't accommodate Apple's iPhone.

With its countless trip computing functions and the like, there's an awful lot to learn about the way this car works. And even though the days of grumbling about iDrive are pretty much over, some of the kit isn't intuitive. The division between front and rear entertainment functions is a mite bamboozling, for example, and I had a spot of bother switching between the rear and side-view cameras.

But complexity's part of what you pay for in this automotive echelon, and giving yourself a bit of time to take it in bit by bit pays handsome dividends in driver and passenger satisfaction. There's little here that I could see would cause enduring complaint.

Of course, it comes with the predictably reassuring safety kit. Primary safety starts with conveniences like head-up display, rain-sensing wipers and active cruise control to take the load off the driver. The adaptive bi-xenons come with a high-beam assistant that automates the high beam according to changes in conditions moment to moment, and foglights.

Then come antilock brakes, stability/traction control, brake assist and dynamic braking lights to keep you out of trouble when you're flirting with it. Front, front-side and full-length curtain airbags plus active front headrests and seatbelt pretensioners are all standard.

You even get two ways of opening the rear end: a small bootlid opening up the vertical rear plane, or a very large, electrically operated hatch. If it doesn't match 7 for bootspace, it does serve up a decent 440 litres with the rear seats and separating partition up, expandable to 590 by moving them forward, then to 1700 if you fold them down fully.

This is part of the GT's selling proposition: the versatility of a hatch or wagon with the luxury of a premium saloon, along with the interior space and some of the height of an SUV.

Niche vehicles like the GT and the X6 are a gamble for BMW, albeit an affordable one, built as they are on existing platforms. The GT breaks the shackles of conservatism marking this end of the automotive market to deliver a mix of wagon versatility, coupe exclusivity and premium driving dynamics with little in the way of compromise on any of those fronts.

The company is cautious in its sales aspirations for the GT. Whether it works in establishing a new automotive genre long term only time will tell...

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