Test drive BMW 5 series E39 2000 - 2003 sedan

Ay, Drive!

Celebrity children love to complain about how hard they are in life: they are compared with eminent parents. Surely, the new BMW 5-ER will be compared in the same way.
In fact, the new five has a very respected predecessor. Firstly, cars of the fifth series are the best sold in our country among BMW. They are the most expensive cars of domestic cars: Zilov members are also collected in Russia, but when did you see the new ZIL for the last time? Thirdly, the five BMW is the most popular business class sedan, if we scatter our souls and exclude the Volga competitors. In general, everything is so good. And according to the people from BMW, it should become even better. In July, sales of the new five will begin.
How to see. They talked about the new model for a long time - spy photos appeared more than a year ago. Official - this spring. But none of the journalists have seen a car to the test drive, so no one could say what impression it leaves in life.
When the five appeared before her eyes, it became clear: it was simply nascent. Not to say that in the photographs it looks bad, but still - in life it is better.
The appearance is very modern, but without those bold finds, for which envious people have passed along the seven more than once.

v, generally, nothing bad except the good, what the five looks like, it will not work to say. Well, does anyone notice that she has become more feminine. Or, as Sharapov Fox described, not finding suitable expressions, in a word, such women like such women. But, of course, not only them. Still, BMW is a driver for a driver who believes that he understands the car in driving a little more. And so the test drive began at the training ground.
Strength in the movement. The landfill, as in a standard Hollywood action movie, was the territory of a cargo port on the Italian island of Sardinia.
Here, journalists were given the opportunity to try two new items in the case. The first is Active Steering. The fact that in a modern machine with a set of speed the steering wheel begins to heavy, you will not surprise anyone. BMW went further, having developed an active steering. The meaning is that, depending on the speed, the steering wheel changes the sharpness: in the parking lot, to facilitate maneuvering, from one extreme point to the other, the five with an active steering wheel less than two revolutions against the standard three. The amplifier is on the right angle of the wheel, which is desired, from the point of view of the computer. At high speeds, control becomes less sensitive, while providing confident and relaxed steering. So in theory. As in practice, it was necessary to find out at the training ground.

The test site for checking Active Steering was a bunch of turns of various steepness and snake. First, trial on an inactive BMW. Then on active. The difference was not very impressed: the steering wheel had to rotate less, but in the skid the car was broken regardless of the activity of the steering wheel, but only if a reasonable speed exceeds. Later on mountain serpentines-with height changes, but without gorges-it turned out that active steering requires addiction: you think that in this turn the steering wheel needs to be turned on such and such an angle, and the car has another opinion on this. This is intriguing.
The sensations from the first acquaintance, of course, are superficial, but the obvious advantage of the active steering wheel is felt only in the parking lot. Further it would be possible to do without him. Well, at least turn off for comparison. However, this is not possible. Another thing is that Active Steering is an option, and no one will impose a smart steering wheel to you.
But another new option for the fifth series, with which we were introduced at the training ground, was very impressed. These are the so -called self -supporting wheels that are not afraid of punctures.
Without punctures. BMW has developed them together with Bridgestone. The tires have special hard sides, which in a lowered state do not bend under the weight of the car. By car - discs of a special design that do not allow the tire without air to jump off. However, on the same discs you can mount simple rubber of a suitable dimension. First, the film was shown to journalists. The tester in the helmet rides along the landfill. Suddenly the front wheel bursts and spreads into pieces, and the car at a very decent speed begins to rotate around its own axis. The same situation, only with self -supporting tires: the steering wheel twitches, but the wheel remains on the disk and the car continues to move. The end of the film.
They didn’t blow up the wheels under us, but Nipple was twisted from the rear right tire (about the loss of pressure of the owners of the fives now prevents the sensor on the dashboard). No matter how hard the journalists tried, everyone wanted to shame the novelty - but it was not possible to tear the wheel from the disk even with the most desperate turns of the steering wheel. It is stated that at least 150 km at a speed of up to 80 km/h can drive on a self -supporting tires, and therefore cars equipped with such wheels (like an active steering wheel, this is an option), are supplied without a spare, which adds an extra 35 liters of the trunk. And it with a reserve has a volume of 520 liters - two buckets are more spacious than in the new, seventh series.
The five grew not only with a trunk. She, in general, became 66 mm longer and 48 mm wider than his predecessor, and the place was added mainly to the rear passengers - suddenly the owner of the car will order the driving from driving to his driver and crossing the second row?

Collection of amenities. Five somewhat reminiscent of the best Japanese cars. It contains such technical solutions as options, about which, on the one hand, it cannot be said that they are used for the first time in the world, but you can’t find such a similar car on every second car.
For example, smart headlights, the optics of which rotates depending on the position of the steering wheel, thereby better illuminating the road in the bend. And parking sensors, which displays information about the car surrounding the car. Or here is the projection system: the most necessary information is displayed on the windshield (visually above the hood edge) - the navigator’s prompts, warnings about the malfunctions, the speedometer readings. How much does a person who sits behind the wheel of BMW need to know? In the combination of devices of the new five, there was no room for even the engine temperature indicator. Imagine only four arrows - a speedometer, a tachometer, fuel level in the tank and the instant consumption of fuel. Between them - an electronic board with auxiliary information. Worthy minimalism. The management of second -order functions - communications, navigation, audio system and microclimate - is carried out through the IDRive washer. It is almost the same as on the seven, only knows fewer functions. Unlike the seven, you do not need to rummage the menu to turn it on-turning off the stabilization system-a separate button is provided for this.
Not only Idrive, but also the Dynamic Drive system, which reduces the rolls of the rolls in a turn, which in practice, however, is not very noticeable due to the pumped stabilizers, moved from the seven to the five.
Like the seven, now the fifth series is equipped with a six -speed automatic gearbox. The machine is magnificent, as it, in fact, was before, when he had less on the step, that is, in the old car.
Although why old? On the Kaliningrad Automobile, the fifth series in the current body of E39 will be assembled until July, until new cars from Germany come to us. Five in the new E60 body will begin to be collected in Russia next year. And then the price for them should fall - 15 percent. Which, of course, will not stop those who have already aimed at the new five. And the fact that there are a lot of such people, you will see very soon, once going out into the street.
Text and photo Sergey Sherestnikov
 
Model/Modification BMW 520i BMW 530i
Manufacturer/country Bayerische Motoren Werke AG/Germany
ENGINE
Type/number/location of gasoline cylinders/6/in -line
Working volume (cubic meter) 2171 2979
Power (kW (L.S.) at about./Min.) 125 (170) at 6100 170 (231) at 5900
Moment (nm at about./Min.) 210 at 3500 300 at 3500
TRANSMISSION
The rear drive
 
Mechanical gearbox 6-speed automatic 6-speed, sectral type
Brakes, safety
Front/rear circular ventilated
ABS, assisting electronic systems 4-channel, system
stability control when passing turns (CBC), system
dynamic stability control (DSC), a dynamic system
traction adjustments (DTC), a system of dynamic control of brake
systems (DBC); Option - Dynamic Drive roll prevention system
Frontal airbags - for the driver and the front
passenger, lateral and curtain type - in front and back
Dimensions/mass
Length/width/height (mm) 4841/1846/1468
Wheel base (mm) 2888
Tires 225/55 R16 W
Asselled/complete (kg) 1560/2025 1580/2065
The volume of the fuel tank (L) 70
Maximum speed (km/h) 230 245
Acceleration to 100 km/h (sec.) 9.0 7.1
Fuel consumption (city/highway, l/100 km) 13.0/6.8 14.2/7.5
The price in Moscow from $ 55 thousand has not yet been determined

 

Source: "Autopilot"