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BMW 5-series Gran Turismo: first photos of production car

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BMW 5-series Gran Turismo at 2009 Frankfurt motor show

By Tim Pollard

First Official Pictures

22 May 2009 13:53

At last, we can present the strangest new BMW for some time (and there have been a few): the new 5-series Gran Turismo, or GT for short. Motoring journos sometimes overuse the word ‘radical’, but the new BMW 5-series GT is one of the few new arrivals that is genuinely segment busting.

In fact, when uploading this story we had to tag the article page on our website. Is this an executive car? An estate? Or an MPV? You can make an argument for all three. Let’s say the GT is a high-riding 5-series with the space of an estate, the versatility of a people carrier and the luxurious pampering of an exec.

BMW calls it ‘a car which combines an understated coupe-like silhouette to the luxurious interior of a BMW 7-series, while at the same time giving the functionality of a BMW 5-series Touring or X5.’

Hotch-potch mess or a genuine new niche? We’re sure you’ll be quick to comment and let us know.

BMW 5-series GT: more details

This 19th model line in BMW’s range has a whopping boot. Push the rear seats back and you’ve still got 440 litres, and that can stretch to 1700 litres in full cargo mode. Buyers can spec it in Executive trim (four-seat luxo kit) or five-seat layout.

And check out that split boot in the photos. Like Skoda’s Superb, you can operate it as a hatchback tailgate or a saloon boot. Best of both worlds, really, and it lets occupants be undisturbed from howling gales if you’re chauffeuring metereophobes around Munich.

This is our first sight of the new 5-series range (the saloons follow in 2010) and three engines will be available at launch: a 530d, a 535i and a 550i, all matched to ZF’s new eight-speed auto that’s claimed to be 6% more efficient than its predecessor. Naturally, the diesel will be the best seller in the UK.

Click ‘Next’ to read the full tech spec on each BMW 5-series GT model

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majorScoop says

RE: BMW 5-series Gran Turismo at 2009 Frankfurt motor show

to justify this kind of ugliness, you have to be a pious hybrid vehicle.

but wait, what is this noise?

aaah, it is Prius going out of fashion... epic fail 5er GT!

15 September 2009 14:58

rednop says

RE: BMW 5-series Gran Turismo: first photos of production car

I just need to understand how the GT, 5-Series wagon, X3-5-6

all sit on the same dealership lot together.

It would seem BMW, (and how I love them) have over saturated

the market with several versions of one theme.

11 September 2009 14:02

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JSC says

RE: BMW 5-series Gran Turismo: first photos of production car

Ummm.

Is this most inappropriate use of the term Gran Turismo?

Or is it just right?

This car still puzzles me , yet I can't look away.

17 June 2009 14:16

Mick says

RE: BMW 5-series Gran Turismo: first photos of production car

No. Quite simply, no.

This is interesting in concept only - the dual action boot/hatch trickery that is. Just as well the space inside is so massive. It'd need to be if that's where you are hiding the booty, (Boot-y?...No? Oh, forget it!) from Skoda. This Grand Theft Auto theme continues with each unfolding image.

I fail to see how robbing the signature banks of Nissan, (Primera rear three-quarters view), GM, (Insignia lower flank scallop without the vertical rise aft of the front arch), Jaguar, (XF profile brightwork - okay, maybe the two are just passing the parcel back-and-forth on that one!), Honda, (FRV tailgate chrome 'slash') is doing BMW's beleaguered designers any real service. Plundering their own back catalogue for the tired looking hip-crease and 'scowling spoilt-kid-with-braces' face only adds to the confusion in my eyes.

I'm afraid that interesting in this instance is simply a euphamism for rubbish if it is aesthetics we are discussing here. "Interesting design" or interesting engineering? I've no doubt that the teutons of Munich have wrought their meticulous magic and produced another august 'driver's car' for those that tackle each journey at between nine an ten-tenths. But is this not a 'GT'?

Can I not have style and long distance comfort, please? Mercedes CLS with some thoughtful and engaging coachwork chaps? Citroen C6 rear window and looping art deco rear lamp clusters anyone? ('Yes', so it's a Citroen and, 'No', I don't own or have ever owned one). but I would like to see this identikit BMW waft some of Car's staffers across the continent, GT style, in a giant test comparison against the big Gallic sofa and the Stretch Armstrong E Class. Continue the criminal metaphor and add kidnap to the list of motoring misdemeanors - Who arrives most refreshed? Who vomits least upon removing the blindfold?

08 June 2009 15:10

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Brand0 says

RE: BMW 5-series Gran Turismo: first photos of production car

Resis - I disagree thus. A Rodeus is hideous. Audi all look very similar. Porsches look very similar. Aston is beautiful. BMW is interesting. Theses small changes to what you wrote make a big difference in that they state fact. BMW is interesting (fact) because (argument). I still believe I've got my facts right (not these, which are really yours, but my points made below). Certainly, the Rodeous has no fans of it's look, even if it offers great value for money - well, it must offer SOMETHING right? The fact that there is not even close to being an agreement on BMW design is what makes it interesting, in the same way that Audis, predictable cloning is absolutely not interesting. Well executed, perhaps, but interesting, not a jot. BMW design only challenges those with a chronic alliance to text book. Of couse, there are more people like this than otherwise, so one could argue that it was always a high-risk strategy.

02 June 2009 14:03

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