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BMW 5 Series Sport Wagons
bonnie_rick
Member Posts: 115
to the front page of www.edmunds.com is our First
Drive of the 1999 BMW 540i Sport Wagon.
Watch for it, and then let us know what you think!
Community Manager
Drive of the 1999 BMW 540i Sport Wagon.
Watch for it, and then let us know what you think!
Community Manager
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
KarenS/SW host
dogman: do you really think all wheel drive is the substitute for chains? my experience says no but i wonder why you think otherwise(if you do)
your situation has me intrigued, but i wouldn't choose the truck as my new vehicle. instead i would ask if you have considered getting a used panel van ($$$ can be very reasonable) to support your wife's fledgling antiques business. with that particular need satisfied, you would be free to choose a vehicle with utility yet still very fun to drive. to further my rationalization, you would then not have to worry about large oopsies in your new fancy vehicle when hustling the furniture around. 'course my suspicion is that you enjoy your trucks and really just want a new one
jtrent i agree with you, driving a truck (had a 92 4runner) was cool for about 6 months and soon thereafter became a laborious process.
I am probably to cheap to buy a new BMW wagon, but I can highly recommend the breed. The 6-cylinder, 190Hp in my 535iT is not blazing off the line, but is respectably brisk. Where the wagon really shines is day-in day-out driving pleasure. It is always poised, handles crisply ( I avoided a large box on I285 in Atlanta with little warning and not much drama thanks to that BMW control from my trusty wagon at 80MPH in heavy traffic!) and hauls all the Cub Scout gear, etc.
I will probably drive this one till it drops, or my 10yr old son steals it for his first car. Than I will be REALLY glad BMW has brought the wagon back so I can find another used one to wear out!
Just wondering how much you paid for it and what did it cost you to get a "checkup" ... I've heard horror stories about how expensive it is to service Bimmers. I'd like to get a 525iT myself.
JP
The new 528i and 540i are the Sport Wagon!
If you look for sporty driving and room you must
take a testdrive in the new BMW.
Everybody in the market for one, please feel free
to get in contact with me at jesser@passportbmw.com.
dm
I must say, I'm more then a little excited, that is....drum roll.....tomorrow we're taking delivery of a new 99 Sport Wagon 528i, complete with; Sport Premium Package, Moonroof, Heated seats, Rear seat package, Xenon Headlights, extendable rear floor, and automatic. The car is Orient Blue, with grey leather. Yowza!
This will be my wifes car. I presently drive a 98 MB CLK 320. Before the CLK, I drove an 86 635csi for years and loved it. I still ride a BMW K75 bike, and love that too.
This wagon is a real sleeper as far as I'm concerned. For every 20 sedans, BMW sells 1 wagon. The wagon is every bit as sporty as the sedan--but a bit more stealth. I personally think it looks every bit as good as the sedan too.
To make matters sweeter, I think we're getting an excellent deal from BMW. On top of a pretty solid negotiated price, we also received a coupon from BMW for $1500.00. The deal was too good to pass up, and we'll now be driving our dream car!
Happy motoring!
SR
You don't get that kind of joy in most sedans, let alone wagons. Enjoy it, because other aspects of the 5-series sport wagon can make you nuts. It is a "yes-but" car.
Yes, it has the desirable solid, German feel, but the test car had a range of creaks, squeaks and rattles reminiscent of bad Detroit wagons of yore.
Yes, the stereo sounds good, but the controls are unmarked. You know what they do only because of lighted hints on a display panel adjoining the buttons. It's a hard setup to read at a glance, and staring longer takes your gaze from the road.
Yes, there's a clever optional ($380) panel in the cargo area that pulls back to accept bulky items, then slides forward to carry them inside the car with less struggle. It is conservatively rated to hold 160 pounds when cantilevered back past the bumper. But it cuts the height of the cargo area about 1 1/2 inches.
Yes, the red instrument panel lights bathe the nighttime interior in sexy crimson. But they do not give the best vision to all eyes at all times. Yes, the heating/air conditioning system has hands-off automatic settings and filters the air. But it doesn't always adjust the air as you would, and even when manually overridden, it won't blend airflow among the three levels: floor, dashboard, windshield.
Yes, the optional ($500) xenon headlights are spectacular at night. But they often annoy oncoming drivers.
Yes, the engine seems powerful at low and moderate speeds and qualifies among the car's best features. But it seems to get breathless as it approaches the red-line danger zone on the tachometer.
Yes, the automatic transmission is good in aggressive driving, but it inserts a troubling, no-power pause between shifts at low speeds. The gap is obvious enough to irritate the kind of sensitive drivers likely to favor such a car in the first place.
Yes, there are cornering and stability control systems to help keep the car from skidding when you enter a turn too fast. But how far do you trust systems that override the driver's input and tap the brakes automatically at precarious moments and that depend on intricate and reliable coordination of data from sensors to save you from the ditch instead of putting you there?
Yes, there is traction control to help compensate for a lack of all-wheel drive, and it easily got the test car going at slick stop signs. But it failed to get the wagon up a modestly sloped, weather-slick driveway, even with a run. Because it uses the brakes to control traction, all it did was slow the car on the slippery driveway, wiping out the advantage of momentum, eventually halting forward motion and allowing the car to start slipping backward.
It's not just BMW. The same problem infects Mercedes-Benz M-class SUVs on icy highways. And it potentially will plague BMW's X5 because its four-wheel-drive system uses similar Big Brother electronics.
Thank goodness "lesser" brands still use old-fashioned limited-slip differentials and mechanical transfer cases with gears and clutches to get traction to the wheels that can use it.
The 540 sport wagon can be lovely to drive and is a wonderful poke in the eye to the notion that only dullards buy wagons. But to love the car as much as its terrific looks and its $41,000-and-way-up price will make you want to, you either have to be a confirmed BMW-phile or have a grand ability to dismiss annoyances as part of the car's personality.
KarenS/Wagons host
528s were too pricey for me, but I'd like to see some track times to judge performance and handling stats. So I can compare to my A4 Avant for "quickest wagon in the USA". :-)
Maybe some turbo Volvo fits in here too. And I saw that somebody actually races an Accord wagon!
wagons.
Needless to say, the two Swedes - Saab and Volvo -
take the rear behind the superlative German wagons
from Audi, Daimler and BMW. Volvo's Frigidaire
styling is easily the worst.
Check out Topic #90 (Saab 9-5 wagon)posts 20-22 for some answers regarding this question. There are some other posts floating out there too (I can't remember where though).
I recall reading in another message board elsewhere where this question was presented to one of the automakers. The cargo area is not the prefered area since it is in the cars "crumple zone." However, according to either Volvo (I think)or Audi, they have statistics from somewhere that says <10% of accidents are rear-end collisions. Furthermore, the alternative -- unrestrained kids in sitting in the cargo area -- is probably much worse in an accident.
Regarding the traction:
BMW's in general have an excellent all-speed traction control system. This should be more than adequate for where you live. If you believe the Car & Driver report a couple months ago about the benefits of AWD, then the only real advantage of the Audi AWD would be in the snow, going up a hill. (They actually did'nt compare AWD vs traction control, it was AWD vs snow tires. So some extrapolation of data is required)
I too just purchased a 528iT (with 5-sp stick shift!) after looking at the market alot. At the high end you have the BMW and Merc wagons and I think that they are worlds apart. The Merc is solid and huge (hold 7 people with 3rd seat), has great rear seat leg room and lots of cargo space. Drives more like a station wagon in that it feels hefty but accelerates well and has a nice ride. The BMW is much smaller, has less cargo/rear seat room and no third seat. The benefit of all of this is that it drives lighter and feels like a sedan instead of a wagon. So my recs are:
need a wagon to haul a lot of kids/cargo--Merced
need a wagon to occ haul people/stuff but LOVE to drive -BMW
BTW I thought the audi was great except for the engine. if they had a more powerful engine I would have bought it. Finally if you are open to it, take a look at the Passat Wagon which has to be the value king in this segement and has a lot of the same German feel as the other wagons at half the price. Would have bought one if the dealer could have found a 5sp but after waiting for 6 weeks, I gave up.
Jim