Test Drive BMW 5 E39 2000 Series 2003 Sedan

UnderStatement.

UnderStatement (English)
in Russian, the direct analogue does not have. Individuality, non-evidence, but full of hidden, unspoken meaning.
 
The new five begins for me from the smell of dear skin. With a smell that you feel just pulling at a massive handle and opening the door, freed by a light, injectively solid cluster of the castle.
 
Who would doubt: they know in this sense, these people in overalls and bathrobes with a round blue-white emblem. They can be able to provide a customer with their own importance and dignity, pleasure from ownership is not just a thing, but a thing developed with skill and thoroughness. And not tomorrow, but immediately, from the first seconds.
 
And no matter how you treat the creativity of the team of Chris Bangla, whatever you think about the appearance of the latest BMW models, impeccable joints and pairing, impeccable materials and finishing, impeccable fit and adjustment it always remains unchanged. The highest refined in everything they concern the hand and look.
 
I repent, I do not just give up the visual associations who have entered into the consciousness. And somewhere there, inside me, the appearance of BMW sedans is still the old elegant rigor of lines, devoid of even a hint of formation of shape, rapid squumbness of silhouette. And I'm in confusion, although well-known with a new seven, and even (it happened) with Christopher Bangle. And I leave it for later when I get used to when he perceived consciousness. And now I'm leaving, I hide from her appearance, looking for an understanding there, inside, where ergonomics and technique are reigning, where the highest engineering skill is dominated. Because it is an objective, independent of fashion and looks. And I, without lingering, I fell, I will take this handle, I open this door, I feel this smell.

  

And I sit in this seat. And, it seems, I already know that the best, probably, nothing in modern automotive ergonomics. I know it in advance, because almost the same was in the seven, and it almost belongs to things completely secondary. To the buttons and adjustment handles (as opposed to the seven, more traditional for BMW), to the absence of built-in ventilation and massage (pleasant things, but not the main). The main thing is that, even despite all the non-standard of my launch figure, I loan here is exactly the posture that I want. And, when mbinding my exhausted spine, the lumbar side will find the most necessary place. And the front of the seat will move forward to give rest the muscles of the legs. And the ears of the head restraints will not let your head hang out side. And support rollers, obeying the button pressing, squeeze my skinny back, giving such a pleasant feeling of unity with the car. And not when I go, but now, immediately, from the first seconds.
 
A strange feeling when you see something seem to be familiar, but, remembering and comparing the details, do not find a complete coincidence. As if he got into the crossroads of two worlds. As if you see the imposition of two different reality caused by the failure of a fantastic space-time machine. New seven? Former five? Maybe that and other just familiar elements intertwined in a single composition? And yes and no: almost all the old was reborn, taking a new look, but exactly so much so as not to destroy the feeling of recognition.
 
Pyaterarny three-spoke steering wheel, and behind him breaks two visors, almost seven panel, concise, beautiful already in its simplicity, ability to handles and buttons.
 
Familiar five-paced device combination, but suddenly matte aluminum silver relief scales and arrows. Volumetric, as if hanging in front of black protective glass: It seems to be a hand of a hand and it will be possible to touch each cube of divisions. Black Salon, Acute Edge, Silver Devices, Metal Lining on Inner Door Handles Techno? BMW in the style of techno?

  

The familiar five-paced gauge selector on the tunnel console, but next to the seven IDRIVE handle. Seven? No, the algorithm is different, in something simpler, and in something more difficult. And the handle rotates completely freely, without resting in the extreme positions of adjustments! Raisin idrive seven Feedback, the most Force Feedback is not! Democratization from 100 to 70 thousand euros? I'm sorry, because I already know this feeling when communication with the car is going on without looking, at the level of tactile sensations, at the subconscious level
 
But I am ready to put up, because it is more important for me. The other thing is what you think about it first when you only hear or see the BMW abbreviation. You think initially, immediately, from the first seconds.
 
No, it's not about how many times the number of engineering achievements here exceeds the average industry. And not about how Dynamic Drive or Active Steering works. And it is not that all these almost reasonable systems have recently been possible to consider science fiction. All this is there, in the second plan, and on the first car BMW, one and solid. We must be a sample, an ideal control object, absolutely understandable, born a sense of absolute fusion of the movement in time and space.
 
A dense urban stream and a straight level highway is replaced by an uneven and winding country highway. Descents, climbs, turns, fast overtaking are not anywhere in dacnis, all this is our.

  

The accelerator pedal spars the car, but something is wrong, something occasionally violates the harmony of overclocking for BMW. Motor? No, only one thought about him in my head: here will be a modification with seven V8, but why? For what exploits of this flawless three-liter six may not be enough?
 
Then what's when, why? Here it is: a six-speed automatic, the perfect creation of ZF engineers, sometimes thinks for a second! Only at the first moment of overtaking, with the very first fireplace in kick-down, but this was not seven! Children's diseases of the first batch?
 
But what is childhood diseases from BMW? Three months ago, a colleague, returning from the first press presentation, was compiled by active steering. And I suddenly catch myself thinking: After all, it does not surprise me at all that razor on average speeds, the blade acuity of reactions somewhere after a hundred begins to gradually leave, replacing the moderation of behavior. That for reversal at the crossroads, it is enough to turn the steering wheel less than on the turn. Everything happens so natural that this is not only not being grown, but you don't even think about it. Higher skill of engineers!
 
But what then does not give me rest? Why, despite the excellent stability of the speed movement on the highway, despite the excellent informativeness of the steering wheel, despite the lack of rolls and the accuracy of correcting turns, I can't believe this car to the end? Why can't I get rid of alertness when the smooth coating is replaced by waves and patches?
 
Maybe the fact is that, having met irregularities in turn, the five slightly shifts from the trajectory? Probably it is not always pleasant, but does not lead to loss of control. Then, maybe case in vertical accelerations, which she rewards my insides, carefully tracking the profile of the road? In that without swaying on the first of the gentle waves, she, nevertheless, can go into a breakdown on the second? Or maybe in the fact that both at the speed, but the paid asphalt straight line is still reacting to irregularities, forcing it to focus?
 
Actually, the answer to these questions is not so important. Much more important than the answer to the question Why does this happen? And it is unlikely to be able to find out while on my way another new five does not meet on such crazy wheels.
 
And who knows, perhaps, then no need to look for an answer to any questions will be simple and understandable.
Immediately from the first seconds.
 

Text: Dmitry Filonov
Photo: Alexander Nozdrin
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 

A source: Magazine "Wheels" [№71 / 2003]