2011 BMW 535i - Four Seasons Update - April 2011
By Joe Lorio
Photography by Phil Floraday
Months in service: 11
Miles to date: 28,669
After nearly a year in our hands, one issue that continues to surface in the logbook is that some editors are having trouble making an emotional connection with the 5-series. Granted, our expectations are high. In the words of assistant web editor Donny Nordlicht: "This is a BMW 5-series, not a run-of-the-mill $25,000 midsize sedan." The car is a longtime enthusiast favorite. But many of the staffers here are not having the emotional response to the new 535i that we might have expected.
Senior online editor Phil Floraday has been chief among them. "Overall, the 2011 5-series is a very good car, but I have a hard time getting past its lack of personality and the unpredictable electronic throttle," he says. Still, he wonders if "the 535i's accomplishments seem less remarkable because the 5-series has been so good for so long that the baseline is incredibly high."
Deputy editor Joe DeMatio posits that the new 5-series may be living in the shadow of its late-90s predecessor. "[That car] was such a quantum leap over the previous model and its competitors at the time that it still sticks in our minds as being incredibly brilliant."
Despite this issue, the 535i has gotten more props for being a highway star. Nordlicht bonded with it over a 600-mile round trip to Toronto, pronouncing the big BMW "a fabulous highway cruiser". Floraday's assessment went further. "If you spend lots of time on the highway," he wrote, "the 535i is about as good as it gets, thanks to the incredible fuel economy and instant power delivery. Plus, the huge infotainment screen has more than enough resolution to display a legible map as well as information about whatever is playing through the stereo."
Although the 535i has undoubtedly convinced us with it highway demeanor, it has one more month to make a deeper connection.
Credit: Automobile Magazine (www.automobilemag.com)
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