Test drive BMW 5 series E39 2000 - 2003 sedan

Bavarian modest

When in the distant 88th the five BMW appeared in the thirty-fourth body, she, without exaggeration, made a splash. It was Munich's answer to Chamber ..., that is, Mercedes with his e-class.
The current BMW-5 against the backdrop of the eyes of a Mercedes looks modest. Perhaps, of all the barriers, it is outwardly most neutral. But does everyone need a decent, but discreet appearance? And are everyone ready to pay a tidy amount for this?
You can reduce the price by taking the BMW Russian assembly of the Kaliningrad plant. After all, the details are at least native, German. Savings on customs payments and cheap Rabsil will be released about twenty percent, in comparison with his native German, which means that a car with a volume of two and eight liters will cost you thousands of forty -eight dollars. And this is a fully refined unit, stuffed with everything that is possible and impossible.
Outwardly, the car is very balanced. Over the past years, his eyes were striking to chubby and at the same time rapid forms. But I will express a seditious thought: the exterior is not the main advantage of the five. In Drivers Car, the running qualities and amenities that the pilot have is in the first place.
But before he joyfully rushing into the salon, we will raise the hood. In the latest models, it is alligator-type, that is, it leans back, as in most cars, and not forward (in Zhiguli), which was a distinctive feature of the bi-mashed.
In addition to the ultramodern, quiet in-line 6-cylinder engine, the sign is noteworthy, on which it is written in Russian: Autotor, BMW, RUSSLAND TRADING. In the motor, it is okay and in German is rational steel with aluminum adjacent to plastic and rubber, and thoughts about the possible intervention of a home doctor from a neighboring garage seem blasphemy. No, it’s better we slam the hood to slam carefully, like a lid of an expensive piano, which is allowed only to an experienced and wise tuner.
The salon and, first of all, the place at the wheel is what seduces us in this seductive car. How is it comfortable or ... even better? Indeed, now, after a cheaper, a simple representative of the middle class, easily laying out forty to five pieces, will sit for this excellent steering wheel. Yes, like that, with a capital letter. After all, he has so many advantages in comparison with an ordinary trunk! Firstly, immediately after turning on the ignition, he drives up directly to your hands (which means he used to go up in order to let out from the saddle). Secondly, it is leather, very convenient and, of course, with a pillow of safety inside. Thirdly, mysterious buttons and keys are sketched along the edges of this pillow. This is made by control of a cruise control and a music center, the volume of the built-in phone GSM band with the Handsfree system. Naturally, all this farm drives, slightly buzzing, along with the column up and down and back and forth. And finally, heating included in the northern bag is mounted in the lamb.
In this configuration, there are also heating seats and heated enlarged batteries. Even the process of washing and cleaning itself is pleasant. You slightly pushing your finger at the end of the wiper lever, and powerful jets, accompanied by conductor waves of brushes, pour three or four seconds on the glass. In general, everything here is not even at hand, but right under the fingers.
The only thing you need to deign to pull the hand, climate control. Yes, yes, because of which even in the summer we catch a cold. The local condo reacts to the impulse of your switching painfully actively. A precisely faithful dog, which with ardor and agility performs each command of the owner. It ended in the fact that we refused the services of this refrigerator sneak, leaving ourselves only the opportunity to indulge in switching the circulation of air in a closed salon (and this is with the finest filter of external air fence). By the way, this button is also on the steering wheel ... Yes, when you control this machine, sometimes you think that soon there will be no levers, regulators and pedals, but there will be one continuous steering wheel. True, leather and very convenient.
Now the gaze and hand reach for the automatic transmission lever, which strictly lays in the palm of your hand. Ah, if there were mechanics! Some are exclaiming. But how convenient the machine is! Others will dispute. Here, as in the best houses of Munich, Steptronic two in one. The lever from position D is taken to the left, and, at first puzzling the transmission with the S-sport function, in which the motor is spinning almost to the ringing, we pull it to ourselves. In an instant, it picks up the lowered, and the revolutions are scaling somewhere in the red zone. A short push forward, crossed, rushed further, another lever forward, and that’s all, enough, otherwise it is possible to break the firewood with such excitement ... It cannot be said that the driver with passengers smeared the seats with overloads, but the acceleration is quite noticeable if not Say impressive.
Interestingly, if you go one hundred and fifty and pull the lever for yourself three times, the box will break before the first transmission? I remember that in childhood we also experienced the strength of the first seven -fed unclear glasses and until all half a dozen have split the stone steps and battery, we have not calmed down. But here is another case BMW. The box does not respond to bad strength, and if your actions go beyond the reasonable way categorically refuses to listen to its owner.
Interestingly, 2.8 liters can be considered the optimal volume of the engine: 2.5 is still not enough, and 3.5 is already unnecessarily. 528th exactly what is needed. It is characteristic that in the cabin, when shaking, almost unrealistic silence and peace are preserved. Not a single part of the sheathing gives a voice. Only the restrained baritone of the motor pleases the ear. Do most other automakers really cannot take an example from Bavarians, redeem or, in extreme cases, steal the necessary technology?
So, if you focus on the smoothness of the course? Here, competitors are clearly resting. And this is with minimal rolls in the bend! And in the rearrangement, the car clings extremely tightly to the road. Little things such as tram rails swallow at any speed. And larger obstacles, for example, high sidewalks? Naturally, we are already talking about slowly crawling, and not about a cavalry scum. It was here that you feel that it is not easy to cling to the currency for the currency for the curve of the Kaliningrad car 23 millimeters more than the purebred German. And at the same time, knowing the love of our citizens to throw, wherever, cobblestones and other solid items, the tray of the engine crankcase is strengthened. And there is also in our 528th and a thermostat that allows you to accumulate the heat of the exhaust for further cold start. Antifreeze, passing through the drive, is slightly heated and allows you to start even fierce winter.
But back again to the workplace. It is not only simple to adjust the seat for yourself, but also pleasant, and, most importantly, the profile of the pillow and back adjacent to your body, as if made to order. What is inconvenient is the right armrest, he fidgets back and forth. Also, you cannot call sufficient visibility. No, the point is not in the mirrors, but, probably, in the high waist line. So the hood and trunk are not read at all, and besides, you don’t even feel the side dimensions.
But not only frontal, but also four (!) Side eirbeg for the front and two for the rear passengers warm the soul. The back is very spacious in all respects. A good review through the central mirror is provided due to a reduced middle head rest for the fifth passenger. In reverse movement contributes to automatically when the box in R is turned on the right mirror and the cleaning (from the place of the driver) electric curtain of glass.
The inconvenience of parking is compensated by parking sensors of the distance to the obstacle. True, they work somewhat too early, somewhere around 40-50 centimeters, when it is still too early to worry, and a nasty zummer is squealing in the cabin.
You can talk about this beautiful car endlessly. The most interesting thing is how the BMW 528 semi -quality crew is in demand by the highest Russian authorities, who wants to look patriotic in the eyes of taxpayers. And now the five from Kaliningrad with high -ranking numbers decorated with a large Russian flag, the once popular in the SAAB 9000 and Audi A6 bumps.
And for an ordinary buyer, we note the advantage that the corpuscles of the 528th slightly less catchy models of competitors. Although in the crowd you can’t get lost on it, because the Bavarian charm spreads at a distance. Is not it?
Vladimir Smirnov
Photo by Alexander Nozdrin

 

 

Source: Cars