Lads, this morning I took the plunge and went for a 3 hours test drive in a new 530d Touring with the auto gear box. I've always liked the looks of that car and even though I have never owned a beemer in my life, I thought that that car would be an ideal addition to my RRS. Employer would pay for the lease

The test car had the sport package and all the other goodies and very very comfortable seats (I am 6'4"). If pushed hard it's a hell of a driving machine. Power, torque and grip are just unbelievable, especially if coming from a humble unchipped TDV6 RRS.

Now, after 30 minutes on motorways (rather boring with road and wind noise quite noticeable ) and an hour on twisting roads up hills (lots of fun ), I began to wonder why I would like to own such car: interior looks and feels kind of cheap for a car in that bracket, design of cockpit and dash so so, feel of switches, etc. rather flumsy, ride quite harsh (OK, car had sports package), satnav's map display looks crappy, etc. etc. Overall quite a disapointment to be honest. Compared to the RRS (sticker price about the same) the beemer just feels and looks kind of cheaper, if you know what I mean. As for diesel consumption, brochure promises 6.8 litres/100 km which sounds great. I have set the trip computer to zero at the beginning of the trip and at times pushed it quite hard up the hills, but still the average of 10.2 litres/100km after about 100 miles were rather disapointing. I consistently manage to achieve 9.2 ltr/100km with the RRS if driven conservatively (not slow) on open roads or motorwys, and that's for a 2.6 ton 4x4.

To cut a long story short, getting back into my beloved RRS was a revelation. I own my RRS for a year and a half now and seemingly I'm still not getting tired of it (I normally change cars every two years or so). The car's looks from the outside (very very much so, still the best looking car around) and inside (stylish and a bit different to all other cars), comfort, engine, gear box, it's just the perfect mix, and don't fotget it's offroad capabilities. With the RRS LR have just managed to build a truly great car.

As for the beemer as a potential second car, no thanks! It's fast and exciting allright, but ONLY if you go real fast, and who can afford to do that in our modern times with speed cameras behind every corner.

Roland SOMETIMES YOU'RE THE BUG AND SOMETIMES YOU'RE THE WINDSHIELD

2010 TDV8 Ultimate Edition, zermatt-ebony-grand lacquer, and all the goodies, plus Superchips Bluefin ECU performance upgrade, Gibson Performance exhaust tips

gone after only 7 months: MY10 TDV63.0 HSE, zermatt-ebony-anigree, Dynamic Response, Rear diff-lock, flappy paddles, premium leather, Sunroof, PTI, privacy glass, S/C design 5 Spoke Diamond Turned alloys

interesting comments - I'm no fan of the 5 series personally - got rid of mine for an RRS, however am suprised to hear your comments on the quality feel of the interior plus the Satnav layout - i always thought the Premium Nav system was pretty good (although it didn't have post code input) plus the interior quality was very high imo

Yes Kaine, a high quality of the interior is always something the majority of car testers put forward as one BMW's strong points, it just hadn't had that feel for me. As for the satnav IMHO the coloring was kind of tacky and the sharpness of the display was nowhere near as in the RRS.

Actually I think it's very much an emotional thing or a matter of taste. BTW the car's ergonomics are great, better than the RRS. SOMETIMES YOU'RE THE BUG AND SOMETIMES YOU'RE THE WINDSHIELD

2010 TDV8 Ultimate Edition, zermatt-ebony-grand lacquer, and all the goodies, plus Superchips Bluefin ECU performance upgrade, Gibson Performance exhaust tips

gone after only 7 months: MY10 TDV63.0 HSE, zermatt-ebony-anigree, Dynamic Response, Rear diff-lock, flappy paddles, premium leather, Sunroof, PTI, privacy glass, S/C design 5 Spoke Diamond Turned alloys

I only had mine for 6 months - the car had no soul if you know what I mean - interestingly Tom Ford almost had the balls to say the same thing on 5th Gear, but chickened out and said something like 'it gets under your skin' or something similar

We looked very closely into a 5 Series Touring M Sport. It would have been on '06 likely 525i.

In the end, its dodgy styling, dodgy I-drive and dodgy everything ( ) caused us to get a Volvo instead (a real estate car ) "CY from DISCO3"

CY - that was the exact spec 5 I had - in fairness to it, its extremely comfortable, rewarding to drive and imho the idrive is pretty cool (but I like gadgets) - it just never made me look back once I'd parked it up - it just isn't special enough in my book

It's all subjective I suppose...

There are some "odd" things about the current BMW interior design, some good and some bad. When Tom Ford was taking that M5 Touring down to the south of France on 5th Gear, he did mention that it was a little soulless, but concluded that it was actually "ruthless efficiency". In my opinion, you do have to respect BMW for this.... people accuse BMWs of being boring, but it's a bit like Michael Schumacher winning every race known to man - it took the excitement out of F1, but you had to respect him for simply being a cut above everybody else.

Personally I think the build quality of my Beemer is way ahead of my RRS, but then I loved my RRS for other reasons too. I still miss it to this day. However you feel about iDrive or the Bangle designs or what have you, but you can't accuse the 5 series of being a bad car  

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shmoogle wrote:

... but concluded that it was actually "ruthless efficiency". In my opinion, you do have to respect BMW for this....

I thought you'd have come out all guns blazin' on this one!

I had a 320Cd Sport Auto as well as the RRS in UK and agree that the ride was v. firm on MSport suspension but I agree with Shmoogle, the interior quality was streets ahead of the Sport Runner up - 2009 Best Avatar Award
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06 RRS TDV6 HSE, Java/Ebony, PTI, Running Boards, Privacy, S/C Grille/Vents, Stormers, Tasmods - GONE - (