Rarely does oil build muscle. Even rarer is its ability to be comfortable, safe, and, most of all, fun. The new BMW 530d is here and it packs an even better signature straight-six. Read on.
Story: Jim Gorde
Photography: Sanjay Raikar
Deep fried stuff tastes the best. It’s the worst, mind you. You’ll die sooner, but you’ll die happier. Er, perhaps. Oil isn’t good for the body, no, and, as a form of propulsion, its next of kin, diesel, doesn’t really have a reputation for being particularly fun either. However, those who say that, I believe, hold back. And they hold back something important. Torque gets you going. It’s what gets you moving when push comes to shove. And shove it does.
BMW have been making diesel fast for over a decade now. We know they have a 400-PS 3.0-litre quad-turbo M550d, but that’s another level. What they also have — and, more importantly, in India — is the all-new G30 5 Series with a TwinPower Turbo straight-six diesel engine that’s smooth as a buttered bun and just as easy to digest. The last one, the F10, packed the same motor, but it was getting old. The new specification sees a seven-horse jump in power, but a full 60 Nm of torque more. Yep, we get the 620 this time around; V8 amounts of torque, that is.
Yet, you’ll never know. Unlike a V6 or an in-line four, there’s no real audible clatter. The engine is near inaudible in the cabin and, outside, I wouldn’t even use the world ‘normal’. Blasphemy. It’s refined. Normally, I would talk about the all-new grille and LED headlamps and how the new 5 looks so much more like its elder sibling, the 7, and how their facial features and not just their kidneys now make them look like two of a family, but I’d be deviating from the essence of the point. The 5 Series is a luxury executive car. The 520d would get those descriptive paragraphs first. This is the 530d, and it’s meant to be driven.
The day was wet with intermittent downpour. There was sunshine one minute, and uneven beats on laminated glass the next. Even so, the keyword to associate with the 530d is ‘effortless’. That about sums up the way it goes about its business — mile-munching or gathering speed. In Eco Pro mode, the display showed over 27 minutes of cumulative start/stop duration, adding 12 kilometres to total range. Whatever the mode, performance is brisk. Even in the wet, the 530d M Sport stormed off to 100 km/h in 6.6 seconds. It’s rear-wheel drive, so wheel-spin was part of the process as I lifted my left foot off the brake and smashed the partially-restrained other into the right pedal.
