28 Mar 03
BMW is planning a major product offensive over the next few years and we've got the first pictures - leaked from BMW's German headquarters a few days ahead of their official launch - of the all-new 5-Series, which will go on sale this September.
Design chief Chris Bangle has clearly taken styling cues from the latest 7-Series, but they are better integrated on the 5-Series than on its bigger, luxury sibling. Even so, it's a drastic departure from the current 5-Series, which has been on sale since 1996.
From a driving point of view, key features of this new 5-Series are Active Front Steering - a first on a production car - and an all-new, aluminium-intensive chassis featuring Dynamic Drive air-suspension. Active Front Steering varies not only the amount of effort required to turn the steering wheel, but the rate at which it turns the wheels. So, in low-speed parking manoeuvres, you'll need to turn the wheel less for a given radius, but at high speeds the steering gear will respond more slowly, for greater stability. Air suspension is fast becoming a luxury car essential - electronically controlled, it allows the suspension to react more effectively to bump and surface variations by adjusting both spring and damper rates. And the car can also be lowered at speed to reduce aerodynamic drag. With these developments BMW hopes it will return to the top of the executive car market in terms of driving dynamics and comfort.
As these pictures show, the Five's cabin is more conventional than that of the 7-Series. There's a normal handbrake lever instead of the button-operated, electronic one, and it's sited in a traditional position on the centre console. The gearlever is on the centre console, too, because the 5-Series will have six-speed manual or five-speed automatic gearboxes, unlike the automatic-only 7-Series, which has its gearbox controls on a column-mounted stalk.
On the dashboard, you'll also spot the silver wheel of BMW's controversial iDrive system, a single knob that controls a variety of settings. BMW says that this second-generation iDrive unit will be simpler to operate than the much-criticised version in the 7-Series, however. We've heard there'll be four sub-sections to navigate on the iDrive's centre-mounted screen, titled 'Communication' (telephone, roadside assistance and so on), 'Navigation' (sat-nav), 'Entertainment' (Hi-fi, TV), and 'Settings' (miscellaneous controls such as traction control, automatic gearbox modes and trip computer).
