Repair-It

It’s been a weird turnabout in branding. Performance brand BMW now builds cars more attuned to luxury while luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz creates dynamic beasts that more than steal the fun-to-drive crown from BMW.

Over the course of our year with a BMW 530i midsize sedan, we found that it perfectly fulfilled its luxury promise.

Living up to its heritage as an Ultimate Driving Machine? Not as much.

In acquiring a 2.0-liter family sedan, most buyers won’t expect the 530i to be a weekend racer. But shoppers might be a bit dismayed upon discovering their Bimmer is a bit, well, sedate. Sure, its 0–60 sprint in 6.2 seconds is fair for its class, but in crawling beach city traffic, the transmission kickdowns take too long, and you never feel like you’re in the powerband’s sweet spot. Sport mode is essential.

“The steering is bizarre,” road test editor Chris Walton said. “I found myself sawing at the wheel all the way around the skidpad. I am not a fan of variable ratio, based solely on vehicle speed. It is still unpredictable and nonlinear.”

Let’s talk dollars: We like to outfit our test cars with all the bells and whistles. As a result, our $52,195 base-price 530i rocketed to $72,135—which prompted some catcalls about a turbo-four luxury car costing 70 grand. We do this so we can tell consumers what options are killer and which are filler, so you can spend your dollars smarter.

At loan’s end, which options are keepers? Of course, anything having to do with adaptive cruise control ($1,700) and parking assist ($1,800). And the 20-way perforated seats ($1,600) are opulent, so if you’re buying a midrange BMW, why settle?

Which features would we do without? Active steering ($1,150), the lighting package ($1,050), Nappa leather ($1,000—Dakota leather is fine), the ceramic controls ($650), soft-close doors ($600), the SensaTec dash ($500), and gesture control. That shaves $5,140 off the sticker but still brings it in the driveway at a cool 67 grand.

With the rise of SUVs, such as BMW’s X3 and X5, driving a 5 Series sedan now feels “slightly exotic,” MacKenzie noted. “Once the aspirational vehicle of the striving middle class, you hardly see a new 5 Series sedan in SoCal these days.”