BMW fine-tune their big diesel for India and add the magic letter ‘M’ to its trim package. Is this oil-burning M Sport six slick enough?
The air was dense, darkness was setting in, and the new F10 BMW 5 Series was glistening in the streetlights which had just been powered on. This was the 525d, back in 2011, and it had a 204 PS straight six under the bonnet. I remember slotting it into ‘Sport’ mode and listening to half-a-dozen diesel pots sing a song I’d only heard from octane-sippers until then. A rush of torque later I wondered what it would be like to drive its more powerful sibling, the 530d.
Spin the clock forward and here we are in 2013, with the F10 undergoing a facelift and with the 525d now packing a 218-PS four-pot. Downsizing has stepped in firmly and turbos are feeling the pressure to perform. Commonsense is still not as common as we’d like, but, thankfully, common rail diesels are growing in popularity worldwide. Another change is that the 530d is now the entry-level 3.0-litre six-cylinder diesel saloon in the range, and the only one in India. Just a reminder, with 258 PS and 540 Nm on offer, it is definitely no slouch. Then again, we don’t get to enjoy the 313 PS/630 Nm 535d, or the absolutely mental, left-hand-drive-only 381 PS/740 Nm M550d xDrive, which the European dealers have in their showrooms. The latter of which pushed the then conventional limits of specific output of diesels and shattered the barriers all other manufacturers thought there were when it came to production diesel engines which have to last the life of the car: something which has also been trimmed over the years.
Water under the bridge, all of that. What we’re going to concentrate on is that part of the story which involves us breezing over the bridge and all the tarmac laid down before and after it, because the 530d M Sport that’s just been introduced has identified its target market rather well. The 20d and 25d four-cylinder models come in a luxury avatar for front- and rear-seat occupants, but the 30d holds nothing back and is aimed squarely at the driver. The standard M Sport package means you get the tasty bits and badges that you would just love to wake up to each morning.
The facelift F10 brings a slightly sharper design and the kidney grille. Its LED lights are pronounced, and, needless to say, very attractive indeed. The proportions are generous and the body is quite curvy, although the lines will have you believe otherwise. The design was tweaked only enough to further its aerodynamic efficiency and lower the coefficient of drag to 0.26. Overall, the car doesn’t look much different from its smaller-engined siblings, but the whole idea of a larger, more powerful engine is what raises the thrill level. So how is the car on the inside?
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