Right now, the automotive world is buzzing with news of the new BMW 5 Series. New for this year, the 5 Series is now in its G30-generation and is showing massive signs of improvement. While the old F10-generation 5 Series is a great car and one that sold in simply enormous quantities, it lacked a lot of the “Ultimate Driving Machine” experience fans love. So BMW set out to remedy that with this new G30-gen car. To discuss this, we sat down with the Head of Product Management for the BMW 5 Series, Dr. Wolfgang Hacker.
We opened with the biggest question, the one everyone wants to hear the answer to — How has the steering changed in the new car? “We tried to give the car a great road feedback” said Hacker. This was probably the biggest issue with the previous F10-generation car, as its steering was too artificial feeling. One of the areas where BMW improved this was in the variable steering system.
Much maligned on previous BMWs, the new variable steering system has a much simpler style of varying the steering ratio. Instead of it changing based on many different parameters, which can lead to wildly different results, the steering speed simply increases the more the steering wheel turns. More steering input directly equals faster steering. This is far more predictable and progressive.
However, BMW didn’t want to lose the all-around nature of the F10 5 Series. The Bavarians still very much feel that the 5 Series must be two cars in one. It needs to be comfortable and quiet to drive long distances in, for business people and for families, but it also needs to be fun and dynamic on back roads. “It’s really a car for every occasion” said Hacker.
But, BMW does offer a couple of models that will get the blood pumping, if the that’s the sort of thing you value a bit more than comfort. For instance, the BMW 540i M Sport and BMW M550i are two cars that are equally as fun to drive as they are comfortable to cruise in. With the M550i, though, some fans are afraid that BMW isn’t leaving enough room for the proper M5, as the former car can hit 60 mph in just 4.0 seconds flat, faster than the previous-gen M5. However, Hacker feels that the M5 will be even more aggressive still. “The M5 will be even another step up from [the M550i]”.
We also tried to get some concrete evidence of the 5 Series GT becoming the 6 Series GT, so we could quiet some doubters, but Hacker wouldn’t bite. “That’s a bit too early to discuss”.
The article INTERVIEW: BMW 5 Series Head of Product Management Dr. Wolfgang Hacker appeared first on BMW BLOG
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