Team-BHP - 520D or 530i or 530D

Quote:

Originally Posted by reignofchaos (Post 1459775)

Well I was toying with the idea of getting a Luxo Badge. TD'ed the 530i and 530D highline. I'm probably in a minority but I liked the 530i way more than the 530D. Somehow the 530D didn't feel very refined when pushed. There was a huge amount of torque in the power band but it runs out all too quickly.

The 530i on the other hand is beautifully linear in power delivery. I tried sports mode and it was super easy to keep the car close to redline. The engine revs like a rabid dog and surprisingly the inline 3 cylinder felt more refined at redline than the 530D at 2500 rpm. The 530D felt a bit front heavy as well compared to the 530i and had a tad bit of understeer with DSC on.

I was impressed on how both the cars moved overall and the superb stability but they felt a bit too big and the steering was not as quick to respond as I'm used to in my existing car. I just couldn't pull off the kind of manouvers I'm used to on a regular basis. The car does feel heavy and big to drive. Yes they were super fast, super responsive and I was doing some obscene speeds even before I realized, I somehow couldn't connect emotionally to the car. Both the cars were a tad boring. Also the door mirrors were really small and rear visibility was poor. Surprisingly the ride was quite pliant and not as bad as people seem to be complaining about. Maybe they softened it up for India. One thing to mention - the gearbox was superb for an automatic. I never felt a lack of response at any speed. Simply brilliant!

The salesperson suggested I try the 325i out before deciding. I'm hoping to do a test drive of that and the A4 3.2 FSI soon. I'm not sure when Audi is going to give me a chance to check the latter out. I have no interest in even td'ing the FWD 1.8 turbo which is available at a moment's notice for td.

My advice to u...( if u hav'nt already bought the car i.e...) would be.."WAIT" . The 5 is seriously close to a generation leap and unless u absolutely LOVE the e60 OR completely DETEST the upcoming f10 5 series, u have got every reason to wait. Here is what is in the pipeline. To a certain extent, like you, i too have a soft spot for petrol engines...love em ! & so in a few months time, BMW are coming out with the brand new 535i, basically with the same 3 litre engine seen in the 530i but tuned to 306..(YES 306!!!!) BHP. No specific news on the 535D as yet but considering mercedes have launched the 350cdi, i would say Bmw would launch the 535D sometime after the launch of the petrol 535i...so what you would have is a wide choice for starts....
The Flagship 535i .....in-line 6 with 306hp power under the hood. (0-100km times unknown as of now but considering its quicker than the 530i, id expect it to be somewhere in between the 6 to 6.5sec bracket)
(2) The current 530i would be launched with a new tag, "528i" with the same 258hp engine doing work
(3) Following that would be the the 523i with the same specs as that of the current 525i
(4) the 530D would also be launched with the same engine...245 hp n a mountain range full of torque
(5) Base model would be the 520D with again the same engine as that of the current model. (185 or 187hp i assume)

* EXCEPT THE 520D, which is a 4cyl mill, all others would be 6cyl mills.

The 2011 (f10) 5 series is LONGER, WIDER & SHORTER than the current 5 series, but looks are a lot more mild compared to the aggressive looks of the e60. Opinions differ on the f10's looks but all in all its a definate stonker of a car and you have every reason to wait for it :) ( I AM TOO !! ) you wouldnt be disappointed.