Here is Car and Driver’s review on the 2011 BMW 5 Series.
“There it is.” BMW chief designer Adrian van Hooydonk is standing on stage near the 2011 BMW 5-series, looking self-confident. He believes that this time around, BMW won’t disappoint the aficionados. “I believe that we achieved the perfect business sedan, a tailored suit,” says the Dutch designer, the longtime number-two to departed design head Chris Bangle.
Driving dynamics are where BMW shines most brightly, and the fact that the company has achieved further improvement commands respect. We drove the 535i and the 530d, both equipped with silky-smooth, 3.0-liter inline-six engines. (We’ll get a crack at the 550i, with its 400-hp twin-turbo V-8, at a later date.) The new single-turbo, direct-injection gas six—which debuted in the 2010 5-series GT and replaces the old 535i’s twin-turbo six—makes 300 hp at 5800 rpm and 300 lb-ft of torque at 1200 rpm. BMW says 0 to 62 mph takes 6.0 seconds, yet we’ve clocked the previous-gen 535i at 5.2 seconds for the 0–60 sprint and expect much the same of the new model.
The other engine we drove was the 242-hp, diesel-powered 530d. We wish it was coming to the U.S., because it does everything just as well as the 535i but—in the real world—uses about half of the fuel.
Author: Horatiu B.
Source: http://www.bmwblog.com/2010/01/22/car-a ... rst-drive/