Sometimes it feels like BMW just has just one sedan design that it sells in Small, Medium, Large and X-Large sizes to fill its model range. I suppose this model similarity is a result of having a strong corporate design language that governs the appearance of its cars and makes it possible to pick out BMW models from the sea of other makes. Still, it makes it a bit boring to drive past the dealership’s car lot.
Speaking of the dealership, right now, my 2011 E90 M3 is at the BMW service center with its check engine light illuminated. That’s why I have a 2016 535i (F10 chassis) as my loaner car. It’s easy to imagine that when BMW received the order for this vehicle, the factory technician programmed the assembly line for Shape: Archetypal BMW Sedan, Size: Large, and Comfort-vs-M: 25% Comfort/75% M and a few hours later a plain white 535i with the M Sport package appeared at the end of the line. While this may not be how BMW actually makes its vehicles, it does seem to sum up the way the 535i looks and drives.
Let’s start with the first build parameter: Archetypal BMW Sedan. The 535i is an executive saloon (as they say “over the pond”) with a sleek and aggressive appearance. I’d almost call it shark-like, as it has that predatory vibe that causes all BMW drivers to cut through traffic like a great white through a pod of seals. (Well, hopefully with less bloodshed!) Like its siblings, the 5er is front-engined and rear-wheel drive, giving it classic sports car dynamics.
The Size: Large is clear enough as stated. The 1-series and 3-series are BMW’s Small and Medium offerings, respectively. The 7-series satisfies those who want an Extra Large. And Large does indeed feel like an appropriate description of the 535i. The concrete columns in my parking garage feel that much closer and more menacing. The car fills its lane on the highway ever-so-much-more-so than does my M3. And I don’t push the 535i quite as hard in the canyons because I have less room to make corrections if something goes awry. As compared to the 3-series, the 5’s increased curb weight is noticeable. It pays to anticipate said weight and give it time to settle when making quick transitions from side to side. Sitting in the supremely comfy driver’s seat, I have more elbow room around me, and the right side of the car feels beyond reach. The back seats also look large enough to take my grandparents comfortably on a tour of California without complaint. Along the way, they might be impressed with the 535i’s highway fuel economy, it’s rated at 31 mpg.
Comfort vs. M: Now, this is an interesting one to me. I’ll take it in pieces.
I drove the 535i over 50 miles of highway and mountain twisties without realizing that the car had the M Sport suspension. The highway ride is just so plush, luxurious, and hushed, and the way it covers broken back roads is so smooth and composed, that I assumed the 535i lacked the sports suspension! Once I was pushing the 5er through the twisties, I found the car to have excellent body control and dampening, without any harshness or jolting impacts common to lesser sports suspensions. Of all the BMWs I’ve driven, the 5’s M Sport suspension best achieves the harmonious melding of luxury and performance.
Let me describe the back road experience in a little more detail. Las Flores Canyon Rd has a few really rippled stretches which can throw a car off-kilter (see my Corvette Stingray review). In the 535i, you’d never know other cars find these segments challenging. Through the faster sweepers, you’ll notice a minimal amount of body roll in the 5-series, but find it does not diminish your confidence in the car’s grip and composure in the least. Through Piuma Rd’s long hairpins, I was able to settle the car into a cornering set on turn-in and then hold that composure throughout the length of the turn, without encountering under or oversteer. Agreeably, when you are in cornering posture, the throttle pedal is a useful tool for tuning your course.
Stunt Rd is my suspension testing route because it’s more open (read faster) and has a few nasty humps in the pavement that can really heave a car onto its tiptoes. The Mustang GT and base 328i were particularly affected by Stunt Rd, and they bounded and bounced over the larger bumps. I found no demerits to the 535i on Stunt; the car was unperturbed by large undulations and even swallowed drops in the pavement without breaking traction at the (loaded) rear tires. The only place where the M Sport suspension required a bit of patience and planning was on Fernwood Pacific Drive, the tightest twisties in the Santa Monica Mountains, and a road best enjoyed in a Miata. Here I needed to give the BMW a moment to settle when juking side to side. The fact that it kept up with the road at all was quite impressive.
On to the power: This BMW packs the ubiquitous 3.0l turbo inline-six that I believe is an optional engine for every (non-M) model BMW sells. I have driven an older version of this motor in an E93 335i cabriolet, and at the time I was not impressed by the unit. Mainly, it seemed to have a bit of sloppy lag on throttle tip-in that was not in holding with its otherwise linear power delivery. In the 535i, there is substantial low and mid-range torque that makes this 5-series a fast vehicle at US legal speeds. (Flat-footing it from 75 mph is less jaw-dropping.) The engine does lose steam about 1k before its redline, but that’s forgivable since you’ll hardly ever be driving in that range anyway. What is greatly improved is the turbo lag; in truth, I had to go looking for the turbo lag before I found it!
You see, today’s 3.0l turbo smoothly spools to its peak boost over the course of a second, and does it in a way that is entirely consistent with how BMW adds luxury in its cars. What do I mean? Well, in a BMW, when you turn on the radio or switch on a light, there is no jarring binary jump from off to on, but rather a smooth non-startling building of volume or light. The same is true for the engine. Slam down the throttle, and there is a smooth (but quick) building of power that makes you look and feel like a better, smoother driver than you really are. And in this way, BMW has made turbo lag a non-issue.
I’ve mostly had F30 328i loaner cars from my dealership, and those cars have largely disappointed me. I expect the 3-series to be sportscar like—nimble and communicative—but the F30 feels more like an entry-luxury car without the sport. With the F10 535i, I arrived with a different set of expectations and found those expectations exceeded. I thought I’d find a big, occasionally sloppy, luxury boat without a clue of what to do on the dancefloor. But, I was surprised to find that the F10 can really cut a rug when let loose in the canyons. It shrugs off my favorite mountain roads without dynamic demerit and still has that German luxury feel I expect. Its doors are bank vault heavy, its leather is plush and buttery, and its seats are like thrones. It is composed and hunkered down on the motorway, and it feels like it’s built to drive across the country at 130 mph, because it is. But what I like the best about the 535i is that all of its systems are harmoniously tuned for hushed performance. Steering: precise, tight, and quietly communicative. Engine: torquey, well endowed, and never spiky or grating. Automatic 8-speed transmission: prompt, unobtrusive, and obedient. Suspension: capable, unflappable, and never jarring. Creature comforts: luxuriously appointed, yet driver focused.
The only disappointment I have in the 535i is that it drives so luxuriously that I expect it to have all of the modern technological conveniences of the 7-series. I am missing the color HUD, active lane following, and radar-controlled cruise control that really makes you feel like you are above it all. I suppose that many of these items are options that could be fitted to a 5-series but just happen to be missing from mine.
For what it aims to be and what it is, I come away quite impressed with the BMW 535i. It is a large luxury sedan that is capable of speedily covering ground, no matter how twisty that ground might be. I gravitate towards race cars for the street, so this car does not pull at my personal heartstrings, but I now have great respect for the 5-series and how it goes about its business.
Update: I liked the 535i so much in my first outing that I found a second excuse to take it up into the mountains. This time the sun was shining, and the air was warm, and I was able to really work with the 535i’s grip and balance.
Overall I found the 535i to be very balanced yet also safe and predictable when driven hard on the street. Entering corners too hot, the 535i tends towards mild understeer that it communicates through steering feel and tire howl. Once the car has taken its set, the mid-corner grip is excellent, and the vehicle feels very well composed. While the turbo 6 doesn’t have the sharpest part-throttle response, it’s still easy to adjust the corning attitude with small patient pedal inputs. On corner exit, it is possible to provoke oversteer, especially when leaving tight corners in second gear and flooring the accelerator. The 535i does not have a limited-slip differential, so one rear wheel spins while the other grips and a sloppy slide results.
In the dry, Stunt Rd revealed some shortcomings with the M Sport suspension that I did not find before. When really stretching the 535i’s performance envelope, the suspension compliance that gives this Bimmer its luxurious ride becomes a minor liability. Blasting over a series of large undulations, I found the shocks overwhelmed, and it took two compression-and-rebound cycles before the 5 was recomposed. My M3’s more stiffly valved shocks haven’t ever been flustered by this segment of Stunt.
I focused more attentively on the engine’s dynamics. The engine does run out of steam at the highest rpm, above 6k, but this is not so far before the redline. I will forgive it anyway because the bottom and mid-range power is so good. Interestingly, the engine note is also sweetest in the low and mid-range and becomes coarser above 5k rpm. (My wife has sharper hearing than I and doesn’t enjoy the high pitched turbo whine that emanates from the 535i with every throttle application.) I still want to know why this I6 sounds so good, yet the new M4’s I6 sounds so strange. How did the M4’s engine start thinking it was a V8?
These minor quibbles aside, I am highly impressed with how harmoniously the 535i is tuned across all of its systems. This 535i has luxuriously softened the M-division’s tuning into a potent, capable and comfortable package that is very hard to dislike.
Mike's Steering Column 