BMW announce details of new 5 Series Touring

Details of BMW’s 5 Series Touring, which upholds a long tradition of being a suitable estate car for the premium car buyer who wants it all, have been announced. It comes to the market hot on the heels of the new 5 Series Saloon and will make its world premiere at the Geneva Motor Show in March.

Four engines will be available from launch here in Ireland in June, while the BMW xDrive intelligent all-wheel-drive system will be fitted in two models. Additional rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive models will join the line-up later. The BMW 5 Series Touring is available to order from February 2017 and prices start at €56,590 for the 520d and €63,880 for the 530i petrol model.

The new 5 Series Touring is 36mm longer than the outgoing model (at 4,943mm), eight millimetres wider (1,868mm) and 10mm taller (1,498mm). The wheelbase has been extended by seven millimetres to 2,975mm.

Up front the headlights now extend as far as the BMW kidney grille, which comes with active air flap control, as does the lower air intake in the front apron, meaning the flaps remain closed when little cooling is required. In the closed position, additional vertical kidney grille bars become visible to give the front end a more imposing appearance.

Apertures in the front bumper direct air into the wheel arches, where it is channelled along the wheels before escaping again through breathers built into the flanks, reducing air resistance. All models have twin exhaust pipes, either circular or quadrilateral depending on engine and trim. Improvements have also been made to the airflow at the rear of the car and along the underbody. Thanks to these measures, the drag coefficient is now 0.27 on some models.

It will be powered by new-generation EfficientDynamics engines, equipped with BMW TwinPower Turbo technology. The 2.0-litre four-cylinder petrol in the 530i Touring delivers 252hp (up 7hp on its predecessor), peak torque of 350Nm at just 1,450rpm, and a zero to 100km/h time of 6.5 seconds. Combined fuel consumption of 6.1L/100km and CO2 emissions of 139g/km are an improvement of almost ten per cent over the outgoing model.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.