BMW reveals new 5-series Touring

Fifth Gear  Monday 15 March 2010

BMW has confirmed that it will make an estate version of its new 5 Series executive saloon and, in the quest to provide more carrying capacity, promises it will be 60 litres bigger than the outgoing model.

The 5 Series saloon is on its way to dealerships in March, and customers who want a bit more boot for their Beemer will be able to get their hands on the Touring from September. To start off with it will offer two diesel and two petrol engines – a 520d and a 530d, and a 523i and a 535i – although it would be no surprise to see a monster-engined M5 join the line up later on.

A slight price increase over the old version means that the entry-level 520d comes in at £30,380, while the 535i will set you back £39,650. Strangely for BMW, there is no quantum leap in terms of fuel efficiency, and the 520d only improves over the old model by 1mpg to 54.3mpg for the manual gearbox option. This takes emissions down to 137g/km from 140g/km for the old version.

With carrying capacity increasingly important to drivers in this sector, BMW has squeezed an extra 60 litres into the boot to take the space to 560 litres with the seats up and 1,670 with them folded. This is admirable, but still a long way shy of the BMW’s Mercedes E-Class rival, which manages 695 and 1,950 litres.