BMW 5 Series GT

This is not the usual new hard drive report. Contrary to normal practice, there will be much discussion about starting and rear seats, as it is the only way you can really judge whether BMW has invented a new type of car. And if so, whether it is a fact worth it.

But it is also common in meat'n'potatoes, a history of engine, transmission, management and leadership - who are all borderline brilliant, as it happens. Those things matter because even if the 5-Series GT is in itself a distinct minority in the front, it is practically at the wheel next year's 5-Series Sedan and Touring.

Right. The boot. If a manufacturer goes to all the trouble to invent a new type of vehicle, one would think it would deploy all available languages ​​to explain the thing. Yet, strangely, the people of BMW refuse to call a hatchback, although it is essentially what it is. Instead, call a GT, which is something that is not. A GT in my book pile is cut short wheelbase, yet lightweight for convenient traveling at high speed. Series 5 GT, on the other hand, is a hatchback with a body and head as complex Heath Robinson that weighs two tons. Not surprisingly, confusion reigns.

The reason BMW skirt around the H-word is that World BMW hatch is a blue collar. German business lounges would push people, apparently. To explain the idea of ​​5GT, BMW has made a cartoon video in which our hero gives some appropriate colleagues a lift to a business lunch in a car that has no baggage compartment "fully independent. His expression Face said it appeared the next promotion will be very unhappy in a lateral direction.

So even if the 5GT is not the door, there is no need to use it. Instead, you can open the bottom cover of the traditional integrated into the front door. There is also a complex and rigid hattuhyllyä bulkhead between the trunk and moving the rear seats. This will help to reduce the noise of new tires and exhaust, and you feel part of the back seat of a car instead of the boot. And to ensure an animated hero in his career collapse.

However, this coverage is the beginning desperately small. If you want much at all in the 5GT, open the hatch together. Here the problems actually occur, in order to design the cover in a cover idea, ended with a BMW sedan colossally heavy demand a great effort (or £ 500 optional pairs of struts slowly dissolving power) to open and close. Oh, and the structure of the trap - and additional sets of hinges and brackets within it - is so big that eats the boot space and back kyboshes vision potential. Radar park is the standard for good reason.

But there is more oddness to 5GT bootlid. The body was higher than a 5 Series sedan or estate. I can see the attraction of this idea. The seats are a few inches higher (more if those at the back) which allows visibility and gives a taste of the command driving position that SUV buyers like. It also improves leg room, while the roof is raised the same for a headroom. But unlike an SUV, is on the ground, engine, suspension and other pieces are not heavy at all. So these things are still the center of gravity of a car. Which means - Hallelujah - it handles like a car.

To make the best use of all that space, the rear seats recline comfortably with a bow. If you do not need all the legs, but also drags a bit, allowing you to push the forward bulkhead and in the trunk. Also fold like a traditional sedan, though not give a flat floor. SE specification is called normal, but the package of £ 2,900 means two Executive electrically adjustable rear seats and heating instead of a single manual split-bench through three.

So there's a lot of things inside the car. This gave the designers some things outdoors - especially the height. Despite the use of a variety of tricks to make seem larger 5GT (reverse-raked front grilles), lower (fastback tail) and wider (large chrome strip across the back) looks from every angle as lunches is not only driven, but have enjoyed too much.

The driver's seat, indicates a turn for the better. First, although the architecture is different from the Add Series 7 is the key to shared control. This means that the ring beautifully clear analogue graphed satisfactory and informative digital horizons, and the new generation iDrive system that is much more useful than old. Because you sit high, it is easy to place the car on a narrow road, but curse you cross bars thick.

The 550i is a twin-turbo V8 (not drive) and the 535i a new 3.0-liter 306bhp turbo six. You now have a turbo instead of the child of two 535i and Valvetronic added. Good in theory, but the power delivery is a bit sticky and does not seem as nice as expected of a BMW six. As for diesel, which is almost as quiet and cracks seven seconds to 0-62. Everyone has a new eight-speed automatic 5GTs standard. Reduction ratio of the friction means is spread wide and smarter, the environment (173g/km excellent) is a manual, they say. Changes are smooth and super-fast if you use the manual. It feels like a double clutch. What is good.

The test car had an optional Dynamic Drive active anti-roll, which allows the car is an agile significant direct (and I mean very flexible, much better than the 7-series), but still well established in the corners. In fact, if you change the sport setting stiffens the back of the bar in front of more than one tight turns to kill the understeer. Yet, never shakes off the feeling, the S-curves, is a two-ton machine. Otherwise, avoid the four-wheel active steering option: better maneuverability in parking lots in exchange for much worse to feel and precision on the B roads is a bad deal.

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