{"id":226650,"date":"2010-01-25T11:56:00","date_gmt":"2010-01-25T16:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.autoblog.com\/2010\/01\/25\/2011-bmw-5-series-first-drive\/"},"modified":"2010-01-25T11:56:00","modified_gmt":"2010-01-25T16:56:00","slug":"first-drive-2011-bmw-5-series-is-a-smooth-operator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/226650","title":{"rendered":"First Drive: 2011 BMW 5 Series is a smooth operator"},"content":{"rendered":"

Filed under: Sedan<\/a>, BMW<\/a>, First Drive<\/a>, Luxury<\/a><\/p>\n

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2011 BMW 5 Series – Click above for high-res image gallery<\/small><\/strong><\/em><\/div>\n

\nThe outgoing BMW 5 Series<\/a> may have ushered in a dramatic leap forward in terms of dynamics, technology, safety and creature comforts, but it’s the previous generation – the E39 – that Bimmerphiles still speak of in hushed tones. The departing E60 may have been a more capable package, but it was also the source of much controversy and hand wringing. Blame Chris Bangle. Blame byzantine iDrive menu structures. Blame spirit-muffling layers of electronics. Hell, blame improved competition or hidebound brand loyalists who refuse to accept the new. No matter whose camp you point the finger at, the 2004-2010 5 Series was a polarizing creature, both aesthetically and from behind the wheel. Despite (or perhaps because of) all this, BMW enjoyed record-setting global sales of the Fiver, suggesting that that the traditionalists had it all wrong.<\/p>\n

Still, one look at the new-for-2011 F10 model might reasonably lead you to believe that a bit of mulligan has occurred at the hand of Adrian van Hooydonk and his design team – a toning down of the E60’s most divisive elements. To be sure, the E60’s Dame Edna spectacles have been consigned to a dusty drawer and the raised “Bangle Butt” has kept its date with Celebrity Fit Club. In the not-so-dearly departed’s place is a handsome new sedan that appears simultaneously more in line with the 5 Series’ lineage yet firmly set on the future. But to label the sixth-generation Fiver as an aesthetic or strategic regression would be incorrect, van Hooydonk tells us. As he points out, BMW design has a tendency to periodically muscle in with big, bold, design statements – to knock down walls – and in the follow-up model, its stylists can move about a bit more in the clean air made possible by its predecessor. Fair enough – we prepared to check our Weltschmerz<\/em> at the door and give this new Fiver a shot. Has it all been worked out for the better? BMW invited us to hop a couple of planes to Portugal in order to find out.<\/p>\n

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Gallery: First Drive: 2011 BMW 535i<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\nPhotos by Chris Paukert<\/small><\/strong><\/em> \/ <\/small><\/strong><\/em>Copyright (C)2010 Weblogs, Inc.<\/small><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Continue reading First Drive: 2011 BMW 5 Series is a smooth operator<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

First Drive: 2011 BMW 5 Series is a smooth operator<\/a> originally appeared on Autoblog<\/a> on Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Filed under: Sedan, BMW, First Drive, Luxury 2011 BMW 5 Series – Click above for high-res image gallery The outgoing BMW 5 Series may have ushered in a dramatic leap forward in terms of dynamics, technology, safety and creature comforts, but it’s the previous generation – the E39 – that Bimmerphiles still speak of in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-226650","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226650","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226650"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226650\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}