Bucket Seat: 2017 BMW 5 Series - First Impressions

Yesterday BMW lifted the covers off it's 7th generation 5 Series, code name the G30, this latest installment of the medium to large size sedan will hit local market by next year February and will be a welcome change to the segment. Apart from the design change to the 5 series, the car now comes with a host of technological advancements, much of which has been passed down from the latest 7 series. 

Some of the technical highlights include:

• Steering and Lane Control Assistant up to 210km/h
• Lane Change Assistant and Lane Keeping Assistant with active side collision protection. 
• Evasion Aid. 
• Crossing traffic warning.
• Crossroads warning.
• Wrong-way warning.
• Active Air Stream Kidney grille, which regulates the flow of air into the engine bay. 
• Adaptive LED Headlights with BMW Selective Beam. 
• Lightweight chassis up to 100 kilograms lighter than predecessor. 
• And a whole new line up of BMW TwinPower Turbo Engines to choose from. 

With the new more powerful engine line up and lighter chassis, performance is sure to be vastly improved, give the driver more agility and power when need be. The car also comes with the optional self park, via the cars LCD key. Something that's nice to show off at parties with or parking in tight spots. 

Moving onto the interior, much of it has been borrowed from it's bigger brother the 7 Series, with minor changes to suit the smaller cabin size of the G30. The new 5 Series sedan features a new configuration of its heads-up display with the ability to increase the size by 70 percent. The car also has intelligent voice assistant with recognition of natural language. Like the 7 Series, the New 5 Series also has Gesture Control and a 10.25" touchscreen, with interactive and personalizable live contents. The iDrive Touch controller has improved for user functionality and Drive Experience Control with Adaptive Mode. The Active Cruise control now comes integrated with Speed Limit Assist, where it slows the car down if the speed limit on the road changes. Comfort seating features a selection of eight massage programs as well as memory seats with up to 5 settings. 

Overall the car does seem like a mini version of the flagship 7 Series model but with obvious changes to suit it's size. For me the 5 Series has always been a favourite, and this one seems to tick all the right boxes. With it coming with all these various technological advancements, it will obviously pick the price up a lot. How much by? We'll have to wait for Feb 2017, but for now it's certainly taken up the challenge put down by it's German competition.