The result is the grandest, slickest family hatchback ever, ready for stuffing at Home Depot or cruising at high velocity.įor maximum decadence there is the optional luxury rear seating package. There’s some under-the-floor storage along with cargo hooks and tie-downs. (With the rear seats up, however, the wagon beats the GT, 33.6 cubic feet to about 20.) Switches power the second-row seats up or down the seats also slide four inches forward or back. But if you hit another decklid button, the full, longer hatch swings up to reveal 63.6 cubic feet of storage when the rear seats are folded, improving on the 58 cubic feet in the roomy 5 Series station wagon. A hinged gate integrated into the hatch pivots open like a regular trunk lid, with a movable bulkhead inside that partitions a conventional trunk. That split-the-difference stance lets passengers shimmy into the car without either climbing up or plopping down.Īside from luxurious performance, the GT’s selling point is its rear seat and unique two-hatches-in-one design. The Bimmer’s seats rest about two inches above those in a conventional BMW sedan, but about four inches below the seats in the X3 crossover. The Porsche outhandles the BMW, not to mention most four-door vehicles on earth, but it costs $25,000 to $60,000 more. But it has a much more roomy back seat than the Porsche and a larger cargo hatch. That sensation springs from the BMW’s longer wheelbase, taller stance, nearly six-inch-higher roofline and at nearly 5,000 pounds, roughly 900 pounds of extra weight. Though its length and width are roughly equal to the Panamera’s, the BMW feels entirely different it’s an overachieving luxury sedan, while the Porsche is a four-door sports car. (BMW calls this regenerative braking, though the system doesn’t help to stop the vehicle.) The GT has a special clutched alternator that charges the battery only while the car is coasting or braking and is said to improve overall fuel economy by 2 percent. The GT one-ups the 750 models with a terrific new 8-speed fuel-saving automatic (versus 7 speeds for the 750s) that it shares with the 12-cylinder versions and the coming Rolls-Royce Ghost, Bentley Mulsanne and Audi A8. (Explaining the GT’s head-scratching designation as a 5 Series, BMW notes that the redesigned 5 Series sedan that arrives next year will use a shortened version of the 7 Series architecture.) The GT borrows most of the marquee features of the mack-daddy 750i: its platform and 120-inch wheelbase, its front double-wishbone suspension, its self-leveling rear air suspension, its optional active four-wheel steering, its 400-horsepower, twin-turbocharged 4.4-liter V-8, its revised iDrive vehicle-control system, its 10.2-inch high-resolution navigation screen and its driver-selected performance controls. All-wheel-drive versions will also come in the spring. To be called the 535i GT, that car is expected to start in the mid-$50,000 range and deliver markedly better fuel economy, making it the smarter choice for most aspiring owners. That price spread will widen this spring, when BMW delivers a more affordable version of the GT with a new 300-horsepower turbocharged in-line 6. If you can accept its appearance, the 550i GT is a relative deal: an autobahn flyer with the room, luxury, technology and superlative handling of BMW’s flagship sedan, at a price ($64,725 base) that undercuts the 750i by about $19,000. Yet once you and your coddled passengers are belted in, the snark melts away: Beneath the sow’s-ear styling is a silk-purse driving experience. Like the Porsche Panamera, another sporty car with a fastback roof, the 5 Series GT’s ungainly, something’s-off proportions are the price you pay if you are willing for added practicality. So that’s the new BMW?” He gave it a once-over, then tossed off a left-handed critique: “Wow, it actually makes the X6 look good,” he said, referring to the last BMW to puzzle and provoke traditionalists. Since I’m at a rare loss to describe (or defend) a BMW’s styling, take it from my Brooklyn neighbor Rich, a car nut who spotted my 5 Series GT test car while parking his lovely 335i sedan: “Hey, Lawrence. Not exactly a wagon, not entirely a hatchback and surely no crossover as that category has come to be defined BMW’s latest big-dollar broadside against convention might well wear a badge that says “Thingamabob.” Of course, being a BMW, the proper name would end up as ThingamaBob Pi 3.14 xDrive Sport, a label that might actually fit across this car’s puffy flanks. LOOKING over the BMW 5 Series Gran Turismo is like waiting in an alley outside the hottest club in town.
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