Motors North

BMW 5 Gran Turismo 530d SE

WHAT’S it for? A fair question, but there really is a place for BMW’s new luxury, rear-drive, coupé/saloon, SUV, crossover 5 Gran Turismo. It’s just that most of us can’t see it.

This car is the archetypal curate’s egg, with a twist: very good in parts, baffling in others.

The biggest problem is round the back. The 5GT is a handsome coupé-like beast with a feline profile, frameless doors, a huge glass roof and a tail end that appears to be too clever for its own good.

Like the similarly-sized Skoda Superb, it sports two cargo accesses – a full-sized hatch with a smaller boot built in. Just one question. Why?

Either aperture would have sufficed – my vote goes for the full hatch. Adding an awkwardly shaped and near vertical boot enhances nothing and complicates everything.

And then there’s the rear window visibility. For such a large vehicle, and just like its smaller X6 sister, vision through the rear glass is dreadful.

It’s all down to style. But style is what the 5GT is all about. And d’you know what? It works.

This two-tonne, near five metres long, four-seat luxury mount turns heads everywhere. It is big, different and makes a statement that’s unique in the sector.

As a performance car it’s sharp, steers precisely on narrow Highland roads, and rewards the driver with superb feedback. It’s easy to forget this is a very large car.

For now you can only buy it in the UK with rear-wheel-drive, which is fine for most situations.

But a 4x4 version is available in Germany and BMW is under pressure to bring a 5GT all-wheel-drive to the UK market. So far no decisions have been made.

The straight six three-litre turbodiesel engine is a classic of its type – 245bhp and a massive 398lb.ft of torque from 1750rpm.

BMW has honed the performance diesel to incredible levels and has turned out a power plant that is responsive, powerful, quiet and remarkably clean.

It generates just 173g/km of pollution compared to 244g/km for the 240bhp three-litre V6 Porsche Cayenne turbodiesel I drove recently.

That doesn’t sound much, does it? But it means the 5GT in band H costs £175 a year for road tax where the band L Porsche will soak up £405.

That’s what you call efficiency – BMW calls it EfficientDynamics.

Attention to detail is the key. Light weight, exceptionally clean burning, low friction drag and fuel efficient. It all adds up – the 5GT will average 43.5mpg.

As a luxury express it delights its passengers. I had no complaints, despite it being shod with 40-section low profile covers on overlarge 20-inch alloys.

Select the “Normal” comfort setting on the standard adaptive air suspension and its ride comfort is excellent, with beautifully suppressed noise levels.

In “Sport” and “Sport+” it’s a little livelier and noisier, but on longer journeys most will be happy to drive in Normal.

The interior is vast – almost as roomy as the 7 Series limousine. There’s a feeling of spaciousness you don’t get, for example, in Mercedes’s handsome CLS coupé/saloon, and the BMW also has a much higher seating position – aiding visibility for everyone aboard and making it look and feel like the SUV it apparently isn’t!

Rear headroom is excellent and legroom unimpeachable – you really do feel as if you are riding in the back of a 7 Series.

The rear pair of individual seat can be adjusted for rake and will slide backwards and forwards by 10cm.

The car is true to its name: Gran Turismo. This is a grand tourer in the best traditions of the breed – a car that will cross continents with ease, delivering outstanding comfort for its passengers and space for loads of luggage.

Open that daft boot and the area behind the rear seats swallows an impressive 440 litres, but flip up the mighty hatch and fold the rear seats flat and this stylish machine has room for 1,700 litres – and that does not include two sizeable storage areas under the boot floor.

If you regularly drive long distances, or simply like the look of a large car that is different from most of the rest of today’s new car fare, the 5GT will not disappoint.

BMW clearly expects it to be used as a GT to run up high mileages and is happy to sell it with a full three-year warranty and unlimited mileage. It’ll be fit for that, and more.

As a piece of engineering the 5GT is impressive. BMW has genuinely worked on its EfficientDynamics reputation to create a truly polished machine.

After a brisk winter run up the A9 to Thurso that recorded an average 39.9mpg, I sauntered south again through Strath Naver past Syre on the B871 and on to the B873 and along Loch Naver to Altnaharra.

It was on this long and varied trip that the new eight-speed adaptive automatic transmission excelled.

Changes are simply not detectable under normal conditions.

And even on full throttle sprints when downward changes are rapid, it slips through the ratios silently and without fuss.

Do you need eight ratios? Possibly not, but if they all work – and work well – I can’t argue with BMW’s efficiency.

But what was even more impressive was that between Bettyhill and Lairg, almost exactly 50 miles of single track road, I used just one gallon of diesel. That’s EfficientDynamics at work.

I realise the potential five people who are likely to buy a 5GT in the north of Scotland over the next 12 months are hardly going to be too worried about fuel economy – but this is an impressive package.

It’s surefooted for a rear-drive car, soaks up poor surfaces and has BMW’s bullet-proof handling and accident safety package as standard.

In its basic guise at around £42,000 the 530d SE is also reasonable value at this level.

You could spend another £3,000 or so and get the Executive trim level, but the SE is well-appointed and beautifully finished.

The problem comes when you begin selecting extras. You either have to know precisely what you want, or have a bottomless wallet.

The test car had more than £9,000 worth of extras that included the excellent BMW professional media package that has one of the best sat-nav wide-screen displays on the market and great in-car entertainment access.

Better still, it is linked to a much simplified and much more intuitive iDrive control. But it’s expensive at £2,435.

But that’s not quite as bad as the £2,485 BMW quoted for the test car’s optional 20-inch double spoke 316 style alloys. That stung, just like the £510 for the powered tailgate and £425 for "soft close" doors.

But the ash grain wood trim was good value at £440, and £315 is a fair price to pay for the reversing assist camera – given the GT5’s poor rearward visibility.

This is not the ultimate sporting vehicle, but once you’re settled in behind its meticulously designed and crafted dash and ensconced in superbly supportive leather seats it does turn into one of the finest large GTs in the world.

It may be the answer to the question nobody ever thought of asking, but there’s a case for the 5GT.

Perhaps it just needs to be what it is – different: odd, comfortable and with the interior space of a stretched limousine.

I started out not knowing what to make of it. I finished wishing I could afford one.

Rating: 8/10

FINAL THOUGHT: As luxury cars go, this is a real oddball. It fits uncomfortably into most people’s concept of a car – but it’s good at what it does. The 5GT is big, ultra-comfortable, handles superbly and had the quality feel of a vehicle that’s more 7 Series than 5 Series. As an alternative to a 7 Series saloon for the more sporting owner, it may make sense.

BMW 5 Gran Turismo 530d SE

Price: £41,710 (£50,735 as tested)
Capacity: 2993cc
Power: 245hp
0-62mph: 6.9 seconds
Maximum speed: 149mph
Economy: Combined 43.5mpg; Urban 34.9mpg
CO2 emissions: 173g/km
ESP: Standard
Insurance: Group 18

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BMW 5 Gran Turismo 530d SE