The BMW 5 Series was born in 1972, and the latest BMW 5 Series is the seventh generation. The original 5 Series was only available as a four-door sedan, with only a manual transmission, and later automatic transmission versions were exclusively available in the United States and Japan. From the second generation, the 5 Series was introduced in the M version. The third-generation 5 Series (E34) entered China in the early 90s, becoming the first BMW to enter China with the addition of a station wagon version. The fourth-generation 5 Series, codenamed E39, ushered in the "Chris Bangor" era, based on the 7 Series, codenamed E38, with an increased wheelbase and length, and a new design language. The fifth-generation 5 Series was launched in 2003, the same year BMW Brilliance was founded and began production of the locally-produced BMW 5 Series, and the fifth-generation BMW 5 Series was launched for the first time in a long-wheelbase version exclusively for the Chinese market. The sixth-generation BMW 5 Series was launched in 2011 with the addition of the BMW 5 Series GT in addition to the regular sedan and station wagon.
 
The seventh-generation BMW 5 Series produced by Brilliance provides two displacement engines of 2.0T and 3.0T, the 2.0T is divided into two versions of high power and low power, the low power is 525Li, and the main model is the high-power model, that is, 530Li. BMW now unifies the engines all on one platform, with a single cylinder with a displacement of 500 cc, and the three-cylinder is 1.5L, codenamed B38, four-cylinder codenamed B48, and six-cylinder codenamed B58. The 2.0T high-power version uses a straight-four turbocharged engine codenamed B48B20D with a maximum horsepower of 252 hp. Compared with the previous generation 530Li, the 3.0-liter N52B30 straight-six self-priming engine is 6 hp less, but the torque reaches 350 Nm, which is an increase from the previous generation's 310 Nm, and the torque platform is particularly wide, reaching 3350 rpm, and the peak torque can be output from 1450-4800 rpm.
 
The 540Li is equipped with a 3.0L straight-six turbo engine codenamed B58, that is, the engine used on the 740Li and M240i, with a maximum horsepower of 340 hp and a maximum torque of 450 Nm, from 1380-5200 rpm to output peak torque, the torque platform has reached 3820 rpm, the 000 acceleration of four-wheel drive models (foreign) can reach 4.8 seconds, and the rear-wheel drive model can reach 5.1 seconds, the performance is very good, only 1 second slower than the M760i of V12, and this B58 straight-six engine also won the title of Ward's top ten engines in 2017. If the B48 is the benchmark for four-cylinder turbos, then this B58 is the model of six-cylinder turbos.
 
The seventh-generation BMW 5 Series uses ZF's eight-speed automatic manual transmission, which has a very good reputation in the industry, and has a high level of matching with the engine of the new 5 Series, the gear switch is very fast, and the smoothness of the gear shift is very good under the premise of perceiving the shift action, whether it is a 2.0T or 3.0T engine, the throttle is very linear. The difference between the three driving modes of Comfort, Sport and Eco Pro is very clear, and when you hold the throttle and switch between Eco Pro, Comfort and Sport modes, the responsiveness of the power is clearly increased in turn.
 
This generation of 5 series body uses a large number of aluminum materials, improve the rigidity of the body at the same time, reduce the weight of the car, this generation of 5 series body in white is 50 kg lighter than the previous generation, and the chassis is also as much as possible to use aluminum material, including the suspension of the front double wishbones, rear five links, brake calipers, the vehicle weight reduction of 130 kg, so even if the domestic sales of the G38 long axis version of the wheelbase of 3108mm, the length of the vehicle is more than 5 meters, driving is still light. The rigidity and weight of the aluminum body are satisfactory, but the maintenance cost and maintenance difficulty are also much higher, the A-pillar is also too thick, the blind spot is quite large, there are potential safety hazards, and BMW does not seem to be thinking about the door of the 530Li, the sound of opening and closing the door is relatively thin, and the texture is lacking, but there is an electric suction door on the 540Li, so as long as you are willing to spend money, the texture is still there. The drag coefficient of this new body is also surprisingly low, the drag coefficient of the foreign G30 standard axle version is as low as 0.22, and the drag coefficient of the long axle version is also as low as 0.25, and the wind noise is also very subtle when driving at high speeds of 130-140Km/h.
 
The chassis of the seventh-generation 5 Series is very precise, the chassis of the whole vehicle is as flat as possible, very industrial aesthetics, the suspension system and brake system use a lot of aluminum material, the unsprung mass is reduced, the feedback is very fast, very high-end, the aluminum brake calipers on the Nürburgring performance is amazing, and does not show that the braking force is weakened due to thermal attenuation. Although BMW has taken a balance between comfort and sportiness, and no longer has full handling like the E90, the limit of the entire chassis is very high, at least the 2.0T engine of the 530Li is not enough to push this chassis to the limit, and the 540Li can. 530Li is divided into M sports package and luxury package, except for the shape of the front bumper and some details differences, the tire specifications are different, the M package uses Mandarin duck tires, front 245 rear 275 19-inch Pirelli Cinturato P7 tires, luxury package uses front and rear 245 18-inch Bridgestone Turan or Hankook Ventus S1 evo2 tires, although the seventh-generation BMW sound insulation is very good, but the noise suppression of these tires is really not excellent.
 
The wheelbase of the standard axle version of the new 5 series has been 2975mm, close to three meters, so there is no need to worry about the rear seat space at all, and the knee room can easily reach two fists, while the wheelbase of the domestic long-axis version has reached 3108mm, which is better than the foreign standard axle version in terms of riding space, and the rear seat is equipped with Alcantara's headrest. The seat is stiff as always, the overall sense of support is better, the comfort will only be reflected in the long ride, the backrest can be adjusted relatively large, but mainly forward, backward even if it is put to the end, the sitting position is not very "lying". Because it is a rear-wheel drive model, the rear floor has a high bulge, and the center armrest of the rear row is stiff, so the center of the rear row can only provide a short ride. As for the trunk, because the suspension of the rear five-link takes up a large volume, even if there is no spare tire, the trunk of this generation of 5 Series can be said to be the smallest trunk in its class. Fortunately, the rear seats support reclining, although the left and right sides are narrow, but the space will still become a lot larger after folding.
 
The BMW 5 Series interior and configuration are luxurious, the soft materials are wrapped in a large range, and the whole design language is not as conservative as before, but compared with the Mercedes-Benz E, BMW still lacks a bit of texture. The operating experience of the iDrive human-computer interaction system has always been good, and the sixth-generation iDrive is also very easy to use.
 
In the "Consumer Reports" test, the 3.0T engine ran a fuel consumption of 23 mpg (press: about 10.23 liters/100 km), while the 2.0T engine can run 9-10 liters of 100 kilometers of fuel consumption, plus this generation of 5 Series has a 68-liter fuel tank, the cruising range can reach more than 600 kilometers, saving a little bit of drive, 700 kilometers is also possible, but like many models in this class, high fuel requirements (No. 95) are their common characteristics.
 
The quality of the previous generation BMW 5 Series was unreliable and it was a car with a high incidence of breakdowns in all directions. According to the failure rate statistics of "Consumer Reports", the failure rate of major components such as the engine, gearbox, and circuit system of the 5 Series vehicles that are more than five years old is frequent, and problems in suspension and braking also occur from time to time. The seventh-generation 5 Series is completely reborn, too little to do with the previous generation, the reliability of the previous generation cannot be used as a reference for this generation of 5 Series, and there is no authoritative body that can endorse the reliability, and the expected reliability given by consumer reports is 4 out of 5.
 
The previous-generation BMW 5 Series participated in all IIHS basic items (frontal low-angle overlap collision, frontal medium-overlap collision, side impact, roof impact, headrest and seat) evaluation, and the frontal small-angle collision score was "acceptable", and the other scores were "excellent". The seventh-generation BMW participated in the IIHS test and received a TSP rating and a five-star rating in the E-NCAP test.
BMW 530Li丨540Li evaluation report