What's New With the Bmw E60 5 Series?

BMW offers several new striking advances for its E60 5 Series.

The new E60 5 Series has more space in the interior, more efficacious and dynamic engines, and more refined features that depict BMW’s commitment to quality driving, safety, and best of all, comfort.

Some of the striking innovations include the second-generation I-Drive technology, brake force display, adaptive headlights and other BMW lights, new six speed manual gearboxes, and all-aluminum suspension and body front section components to form an extremely steady yet lightweight platform that is very much lighter than its predecessor.

All these advancements result to quality performance, fuel efficiency, and an ideal front/rear weight distribution. The durable chassis and perfectly-tuned suspension are entirely made up of aluminum.

The 2.5-liter and 3.0-liter 6-cylinder engines and the 4.5-liter V-8 are among the several engine options. Other features which are optionally offered include dynamic drive control, active cruise control, and active steering.

As to the vehicle design, the German auto maker has developed Active Front Steering (AFS). This maintains a mechanical connection between the front wheels and the steering wheel. This makes the steering transmission ratio vary electronically in direct proportion to the style and speed of driving, and different road conditions.

The steering is more direct, obliging less steering effort and increasing the car’s agility in city traffic or when parking under normal road conditions at low and moderate speeds. Steering becomes less direct offering improved directional stability at high speeds. When undertaking sudden movements or when cornering at high speeds, the steering stiffens up by detecting increases in the swerve rate.

Functioning hand-in-hand with Dynamic Stability Control (DSC), AFS detects the swerve rate and changes the steering angle appropriately. In effect, this minimizes the number of DSC interventions. It thus provides more control to the driver and further comfort for the passengers.

Filtering out bumps and virtually suppressing the entire body roll on cornering is the Dynamic Drive active suspension. This comes optional and works with the presence of two active anti-roll bars that are physically incorporated into the front and rear axles. The result is induced stability and speed. And that’s not all. This also implies safety. The Dynamic Drive removes 80 percent of a car’s normal body roll in sharp bends. Further directional stability is achieved when taking emergency slippery actions.

Another option for the new E60 5 Series is the Active Cruise Control. First launched on the new 7 series, it controls automatically the distance in the front of the car. Especially designed for driving along the highway, this detector helps to maintain a safe and comfortable distance from the car in front to avoid a crash.

The driver will select a snug distance to look behind other auto mobiles and the cruise control automatically put the car’s power down if the car is already too close to the other car in front. However, Cruise control will still remain as soon as the selected distance is available again. Then the vehicle speeds up automatically to the desired cruising speed.

The new BMW E60 5 Series does not lack safety features to minimize accidents in the front and rear. The new vehicle has optional adaptive bi-xenon headlights. These turn up to 15 degrees left and right. The swiveling depends on the car’s steering angle, swerve rate and speed. These adaptive headlights illuminate more of the road ahead when driving through a bend. Another safety feature is the Brake Force Display that makes the brake light area large enough whenever the driver brakes suddenly.

Another optional safety feature is the head-up display. This exudes on a wide screen in the driver’s line of vision the essential information say the current speed of the vehicle or any instructions related to automobiles. Any wanted information can be seen without taking the driver’s eyes off the road. This is indeed another break through from BMW.

Added to these advancements is a better air conditioning system that offsets normal drying effect of conventional air-conditioning systems. This will come standard on all E60 5 Series models.

The vehicle also has a refined dashboard that mixed the interior concepts of the 7 Series and Z4. And along with the dashboard is a second generation I-Drive system.

And to complete the lists of engine options that were mentioned earlier are: the 520i with a 170 horsepower 2.0-liter in-line six coupled with 175 lb-ft of torque; the 530d diesel that has a 218 horsepower engine and does 0-100 in 7.1 seconds and gets 40.9 mpg; and the 4.5 liter V-8 that uses double VANOS variable valve-timing, VALVETRONIC throttle-less engine control and infinitely variable intake manifold runner-length control, that produces 325 horsepower and 330 lb-ft of torque.

Standard on all three versions is a 6-speed manual transmission, while the fully-electronic STEPTRONIC six-speed automatic will be optional.