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BMW 5 Series Sport Wagons

292 messages,  Last post on Apr 28, 2007 at 11:40 AM

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What is this discussion about? BMW 5 Series, Wagon

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#31 of 292 jwk by jwk May 08, 1999 (2:16 pm)
sreisbord: after driving the 528i for a month are you still in love with it. What was the great deal, did the dealer come off sticker.
#32 of 292 fiftyone by fiftyone May 14, 1999 (2:28 am)
Having driven a '91 MB wagon for 6 satisfying years, then to a K2500 (4WD) 3/4 ton Chevy Suburban for the past 3 years ($250.00 total out of pocket maintenance) and an E320 All Wheel Drive MB sedan for the past 12 months (first service 11 months and 11,800 miles, cost $32.00), I'm considering a 540i or maybe a loaded 528i BMW wagon sometime in the next 30 days. I want a place for my yellow labs and a safe and quick way to transport them along with my wife, a five year old and occasionally a 13 year old who would rather fly and then meet us there. The BMW wagon would probably replace the suburban. I'm concerned about up keep/maintenance expense for the BMW. while the driving experience should equal or exceed the '79 Datsun/Nissan 300ZX of years gone by, I'm now reconsidering going back to a tried and true MB wagon after reading comments about cost of maintaining a BMW. All feedback to the cost of maintaining a BMW 5 series would be appreciated. The road between Scottsdale, Santa Barbara and San Francisco is 830 mils each way. A BMW or MB wagon??? not yet 51!
#33 of 292 MB wagon vrs the BMW wagon by Peterun May 20, 1999 (8:38 pm)
I can really identify with you, Fifty one. I wanted the BMW too, but found the interior much too tight for my needs. . .also have a Yellow Lab, Tyler. His crate could not fit. Couldn't make it into the Audi A6 Avant either. The Benz . . fits like a glove, interior space is HUGE, plus the benefit of the standard totally foldable and hidden rear seat, complete with cupholders. Have owned my '99 for 6 months now . . .not a single complaint. Plus, excellent gas mileage. . . My take. . . .Pete
#34 of 292 Review of the 5 wagons by Peterun May 21, 1999 (12:42 pm)
This is James R. Healey's USA TODAY column, which appeared May 21st: You don't get that kind of joy in most sedans, let alone wagons. Enjoy it, because other aspects of the 5-series sport wagon can make you nuts. It is a "yes-but" car. Yes, it has the desirable solid, German feel, but the test car had a range of creaks, squeaks and rattles reminiscent of bad Detroit wagons of yore. Yes, the stereo sounds good, but the controls are unmarked. You know what they do only because of lighted hints on a display panel adjoining the buttons. It's a hard setup to read at a glance, and staring longer takes your gaze from the road. Yes, there's a clever optional ($380) panel in the cargo area that pulls back to accept bulky items, then slides forward to carry them inside the car with less struggle. It is conservatively rated to hold 160 pounds when cantilevered back past the bumper. But it cuts the height of the cargo area about 1 1/2 inches. Yes, the red instrument panel lights bathe the nighttime interior in sexy crimson. But they do not give the best vision to all eyes at all times. Yes, the heating/air conditioning system has hands-off automatic settings and filters the air. But it doesn't always adjust the air as you would, and even when manually overridden, it won't blend airflow among the three levels: floor, dashboard, windshield. Yes, the optional ($500) xenon headlights are spectacular at night. But they often annoy oncoming drivers. Yes, the engine seems powerful at low and moderate speeds and qualifies among the car's best features. But it seems to get breathless as it approaches the red-line danger zone on the tachometer. Yes, the automatic transmission is good in aggressive driving, but it inserts a troubling, no-power pause between shifts at low speeds. The gap is obvious enough to irritate the kind of sensitive drivers likely to favor such a car in the first place. Yes, there are cornering and stability control systems to help keep the car from skidding when you enter a turn too fast. But how far do you trust systems that override the driver's input and tap the brakes automatically at precarious moments and that depend on intricate and reliable coordination of data from sensors to save you from the ditch instead of putting you there? Yes, there is traction control to help compensate for a lack of all-wheel drive, and it easily got the test car going at slick stop signs. But it failed to get the wagon up a modestly sloped, weather-slick driveway, even with a run. Because it uses the brakes to control traction, all it did was slow the car on the slippery driveway, wiping out the advantage of momentum, eventually halting forward motion and allowing the car to start slipping backward. It's not just BMW. The same problem infects Mercedes-Benz M-class SUVs on icy highways. And it potentially will plague BMW's X5 because its four-wheel-drive system uses similar Big Brother electronics. Thank goodness "lesser" brands still use old-fashioned limited-slip differentials and mechanical transfer cases with gears and clutches to get traction to the wheels that can use it. The 540 sport wagon can be lovely to drive and is a wonderful poke in the eye to the notion that only dullards buy wagons. But to love the car as much as its terrific looks and its $41,000-and-way-up price will make you want to, you either have to be a confirmed BMW-phile or have a grand ability to dismiss annoyances as part of the car's personality.
#35 of 292 fiftyone by fiftyone May 22, 1999 (3:14 am)
Peterun. Thank you for the feedback. Can you mention if you were able to get MB to move on the price much? Also did you opt for 2 or 4 WD? Regards, not yet FIFTY-ONE
#36 of 292 KarenS by KarenS HOST Jun 01, 1999 (4:09 pm)
Don't miss Edmund's Road Test: 1999 BMW 528i Sport Wagon. Come back here to offer your comments! KarenS/Wagons host
#37 of 292 timmcguire1 by timmcguire1 Jun 01, 1999 (7:41 pm)
When my '88 M3 was stolen from a shop, (another story), I bought a used '92 525iT to use while rennovating an old house - temporarily. I liked it so much I just replaced it with a used '95 530 iT,(with the V8). Never thought I'd be driving station wagons but things change and so do we, I guess.
#38 of 292 528 vs. A4 Avant by MorganConrad Jun 02, 1999 (12:55 am)
re: Edmund's review 528s were too pricey for me, but I'd like to see some track times to judge performance and handling stats. So I can compare to my A4 Avant for "quickest wagon in the USA". Maybe some turbo Volvo fits in here too. And I saw that somebody actually races an Accord wagon!
#39 of 292 classgas by classgas Jun 04, 1999 (8:30 pm)
I have a 94' BMW 530I Touring, which I bought new in July 1993. It has 65,000 miles on it, and it still looks and runs great.
#40 of 292 Thorn by thorn Jun 15, 1999 (1:24 pm)
Check the new Car & Driver for a full test of Euro wagons. Needless to say, the two Swedes - Saab and Volvo - take the rear behind the superlative German wagons from Audi, Daimler and BMW. Volvo's Frigidaire styling is easily the worst.

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