Speed, safety and substance.
(Find Used in Your Area)
By Ray Thursby
Overview
Where you drive has a lot to do with your impressions of the BMW 5 Series sedans. If there's an autobahn outside your front door, it's only natural to look at speed potential. A narrow, winding road built into the daily commute focuses attention on suspension design, while a stretch of speed-limited smooth freeway brings considerations of silence, comfort and, perhaps, gas mileage to the fore. Logic suggests that any car capable of standout performance in any one of these environments will be compromised to a notable degree in the others. Fuel efficiency and velocities high enough to allow use of the fast lane on a German superhighway don't often mix; neither do responsive handling and cruising comfort. In most cases, anyway. But BMW's 5 Series lineup is something special. We've had the opportunity to spend time in these sedans in all of the situations listed above, from foot-to-the-floor hurry-up mode to back-road barnstorming to gentle commuting. The conclusion: Competence is always in evidence, and compromise is not. Less evident, but very welcome, are manifestations of the company's efforts to improve safety. This is the area where the 5 Series cars have received the most attention for 1998. Availability of side airbags, already standard for front-seat occupants, is extended to rear-seat passengers this year. A new Head Protection System joins such expected safety enhancements as standard traction control, ABS and dual-mode airbags. The dual-mode changes the deployment speed of the airbag depending on whether occupants are wearing seat belts; and the front-passenger airbags will not inflate if that seat is unoccupied.
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