2014 BMW 5 Series Sedan, Touring and Gran Turismo face lift models unveiled

Having sold over one million units of the current generation BMW 5 Series Sedan, BMW 5 Series Touring and BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo, you’d think the Bavarian would sit back and relax, but no. Mid life cycle face lifts are the norm, and the new 5 Series is no exception. Subtle changes to the design, new engine variants and new additions to the equipment increase the desirability quotient of this executive sedan. The new 5 Series also gets the Modern Line and Luxury Line packages, and of course the M Sport package.

Design

Design changes include additional surround lines around the kidney grille, as well as the lower air intakes at the front. At the rear, BMW continues to emphasize on the width of the rear by introducing an additional crease line on the apron.

The BMW 5 Series GT sports a modified front apron, a redesigned rear end with a three dimensional surface design around the license plate area and a chrome strip in the rear apron.

Aerodynamics of the new 5 Series Sedan has been optimized for a drag coefficient of 0.25

New Features

The entire 5 Series lineup gets the Modern Line and Luxury Line packages in addition to the M Sport package. While Xenon head lights are standard, for the first time Adaptive LED Headlights can be specified as options alongside LED fog lamps.

The boot space of the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo is now up by 60 litres to 500 litres.

Inside the Sedan and the Touring variants, the Control Display of iDrive is bordered by chrome. Storage capacity of the compartments and cup holders in the central console have increased.

Powertrain

The new BMW 5 Series powertrain options for the sedan and touring include four petrol and six diesel units ( including the BMW M550d xDrive Sedan and BMW M550d xDrive Touring). The BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo has two petrol power plants and three diesels.

The new 5 Series Sedan and Touring will be available in a be a new entry level variant, the 518d. Powered by a four-cylinder diesel with BMW TwinPower Turbo technology, this mill makes around 105 kW/143 hp.

All the 5 Series models meet EU6 norms that come into force in September 2014. The diesel models come with nitrogen oxide-reducing BMW BluePerformance technology as standard.

BMW EfficientDynamics technology now also includes a coasting mode, which disengages the powertrain to reduce fuel consumption. Proactive Driving Assistant can adjust the car’s speed ahead of a change in speed limit, and the ECO PRO Route function are new additions. Meanwhile, extensive optimisation of the cars’ aerodynamics – the drag coefficient (Cd factor) of the BMW 520d Sedan, for example, has been reduced to 0.25 – is one of the key factors in the latest advances made by the engineers in the area of efficiency.

All wheel drive is available with the 520d Sedan and Touring variants increasing number of xDrive variants of the Sedan to
eight and that of the Touring to seven.

Of course, there is as always a high performance petrol, the new V8 unit with BMW TwinPower Turbo technology developing 330 kW/450 hp.