BMW 5 Series Review 2024

Traditionally, the large executive saloon car class has been a very hard-fought one, bitterly contested by the ‘Big Three’ premium German manufacturers in the shape of Audi, BMW and Mercedes. However, the latest 5 Series is so good that we can now see clear daylight between it and its competitors. If you’re after a large executive car with lots of space, plentiful luxury equipment, sensational build quality and a fun-but-comfortable driving experience, then the BMW 5 Series will suit you don to the ground.

At the moment, we’ve only had the chance to try the range topping BMW 5 Series, the 550e M Sport Pro, with its powerful plug-in hybrid powertrain and sophisticated adaptive suspension. It’s fantastic, sure enough, but it’s also very hard to justify when it costs you £77,000, and that’s before you’ve added any of the myriad optional extras available.

We suspect the sweet spot will lie further down the range, with either the 520i mild hybrid or the 530e PHEV, but we can’t be absolutely sure until we’ve experienced these versions for ourselves. We’ll update this review as soon as we have.

While the unwavering rise of the family SUV means that there are fewer executive saloons like the BMW 5 Series than there used to be, there are still a few that are clinging on to their existence. The Audi A6 is just such a car, as is the Mercedes-Benz E-Class. If you’re not a fan of German cars, then Jaguar will still sell you an XF, while Lexus might tempt you with the ES.

You’d expect any BMW product - especially one as big and expensive as the 5 Series - to provide an interior environment with the appropriate level of luxury. The latest Five does exactly that, and in spades. Every single one of the materials and surfaces you encounter are a delight for both the eyes and the fingertips, and there’s a really tasteful and pleasant mix of textures and finishes. The various switches and knobs work with a satisfyingly clicky precision, too, and the general standard of assembly is top-drawer. You certainly won’t feel like a second-class citizen in the 5 Series.

All versions of the 5 Series get the same infotainment system, which brings together a 14.9-inch central screen and a 12.3-inch instrument display, both housed together in a curved single-piece unit. The arrangement looks very swish, with a glossy finish and sharp, modern graphics.

As we said a bit earlier, with BMW being seemingly desperate to rid its cabins of switches and buttons, most functions are now operated through the central screen. The system also supports the important entertainment and information functionality that customers will demand, including DAB, a harman kardon surround sound audio system, Bluetooth, wifi, navigation, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto, wireless phone charging, numerous USB points (two front, two rear) and remote software upgrades.

Like most such systems, the central screen has touchscreen capability, but it can also be operated - thank heavens - by turning and pressing a rotary controller on the centre console. This is far less distracting to use on the move. There’s also a handful of shortcut buttons placed next to the dial, plus additional shortcut icons running across the bottom of the screen, and these all provide quicker and easier access to the car’s most-used functions. Useability could be considerably worse, then, but the system still takes quite a bit of getting used to, purely by virtue of how complicated it is.

As a large executive saloon, the BMW 5 Series is a big car: to be precise, it’s 5060mm long, 1600mm wide, and 1515mm tall, with a wheelbase (the distance between the front and rear wheels) of 2995mm. 

You’d expect any car of this size and type to be able to transport numerous adult passengers in comfort, and the 5 Series most certainly obliges. Even with the front seats set up for occupants of six feet tall or more, the rear seats still have legroom that’s generous enough for a passenger of the same size to stretch out comfortably, while headroom is also more than adequate for lofty adults.

Just make sure you don’t try to carry too many people at once. The rear bench is very comfortable indeed for two people, but try to squeeze a third in, and nobody will be particularly comfortable because the cabin is too narrow for three sets of shoulders. You can live with it on short hops, but you wouldn’t want to travel five-up for any significant length of time. The middle seat is also harder and narrower than those either side, and the transmission tunnel in the rear floor limits how much foot space there is.

While many plug-in hybrid cars lose boot capacity compared with their pure-petrol counterparts, the 5 Series provides you with a large 520-litre loadspace regardless of which version you pick. The i5, meanwhile, gets a little less with 490 litres.

Of course, the saloon-car bootlid means that access to the space isn’t as good as with a hatchback, and it also means that the space itself is rather shallow. Still, if that’s a problem for you, you can always go for the BMW 5 Series Touring estate car version instead of the saloon. At least you get versatile 40-20-40 split-folding rear seats as standard, but again, the aperture between the boot and passenger compartment is shallow and oddly shaped in the saloon.

Like we said a moment ago, we’ve only had the chance to drive the range-topping 550e so far, so we can’t yet tell you what the other engines feel like just yet, but nevertheless, we’ll do our best to give you the lowdown on them.

The range begins with the 520i, which uses a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder turbo petrol engine fitted with a 48-volt mild hybrid system. This combination delivers 208PS to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox, and this version of the 5 Series is capable of seeing off the 0-62mph dash in 7.5 seconds.

Next comes the 530e plug-in hybrid, which takes the 520i’s petrol engine and adds a beefier electric motor to deliver 299PS to the rear wheels. The 0-62mph sprint comes and goes in 6.8 seconds, and the car can run in electric-only mode at speeds of up to 87mph.

At the top of the range lies the version we have tried, the 550e plug-in hybrid. Like the 530e, this can run at up to 87mph in electric-only mode, but after that, it’s all-change. This version combines a 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbocharged petrol engine with additional electric propulsion to deliver a whopping 489PS to all four wheels.

Given the numbers involved, it’ll come as no surprise that the 550e is devastatingly fast. The official 0-62mph figure is a very impressive 4.3 seconds, but whether you’re getting away from the mark of picking up the pace on the move, any meaningful interaction with the accelerator pedal results in a sensationally strong surge of forward motion.

The 550e is fast, then, but perhaps what’s more remarkable about it is the smoothness of the powertrain. The petrol engine sounds fabulous when you give it a beautiful of revs, but when you don’t, it stays wonderfully quiet and subdued, while the electric assistance cuts in and out so smoothly that, most of the time, you have absolutely no idea which of the various power sources the car is running on. Excellent suppression of wind- and road noise make your progress even more serene and relaxed, and at a steady motorway cruise, the car is whisper-quiet.

We expect wind- and road nose to be just as well suppressed in the other versions, but right now, we obviously can’t vouch for the refinement of the other powertrains.

As far as we’ve experienced, the only thing that spoils the calm in the 5 Series is of BMW’s own making. The ‘IconicSounds’ function is a series of synthetic wooshing and wailing noises that are designed to make your driving experience more theatrical and dramatic. For every person that finds it dramatic, there’ll be another that finds it hugely annoying. Thankfully, it can be turned off fairly easily.

The 5 Series was crash-tested by Euro NCAP upon its release in 2023, meaning it was tested under some of the most stringent standards to date. It’s tremendous news, then, that it was awarded the full five-star rating, with an 89% score for adult occupant protection, 85% for child occupant protection, 86% for the protection of vulnerable road users and a 78% safety assist score.

The 5 Series comes with standard safety equipment including automatic emergency braking, lane departure warning and correction, seven airbags, adaptive LED headlights with high beam assist, dynamic stability control, cornering brake assist, a brake drying function, trailer stability control, rear cross traffic alert and braking, adaptive cruise control, manual speed limit assist.

More kit can be had with the Driving Assistant Professional, which comes as part of the Tech Pack Plus. This gives proper stop-and-go functionality for the adaptive cruise control, along with enhanced steering and lane control. The pack also includes the ability to park your car using your smartphone.

The latest eighth-generation BMW 5 Series is built using all-new technology, and was only introduced in 2023, so there hasn’t been enough time to ascertain whether any regular reliability issues have come to light.

However, BMW’s performance in the most recent HonestJohn.co.uk Satisfaction Index - which considers reliability alongside several other areas of general customer satisfaction - should provide buyers with some peace of mind. The German brand placed in 12th position out of 29 carmakers considered, putting it ahead of the industry average and in front of bitter rivals such as Audi and Mercedes-Benz. Like all of BMW’s cars, the 5 Series comes with a three-year, unlimited-mileage warranty.

Go for the 520i, and your car will sit in insurance group 35 regardless of which trim you choose. Opt for the 530e, and the M Sport sits in group 39 while the M Sport Pro is subject to a group 40 premium. The 550e, meanwhile, is a group 44 car. Considering that insurance groupings work on a scale of 1-50, and the higher the number, the more expensive it’ll be to insure, then all 5 Series buyers can expect fairly high premiums.

There’s good news and bad news on this score. Because the 520i has plug-in hybrid tech, and both the 530e and 550e are plug-in hybrids, all versions qualify for the alternative-fuel discount on your annual VED tax bill. The bad news is that this discount amounts to merely a tenner, so you’re still left with £170 to pay.

The even-worse news is that because all versions cost over £40,000, all of them get clobbered by the exchequer’s luxury car surcharge. This means that you’ll be hit with an additional £390 charge (taking the total to £560) for a five-year period between years two and six of the car’s life, after which point your annual payments will revert to the basic rate.

There’s better news if you’re a company car driver. You’ll want to avoid the 520i like the plague as you’ll pay Benefit-in-kind tax of at least 31% of its value, making monthly tax bills ruinously expensive. Go for one of the PHEVs, however, and your monthly bills will be calculated using just 8% of your car’s value, making them much, much more palatable.

On top of all the infotainment and safety equipment we’ve already talked about, the 5 Series comes as standard with a decent amount of luxury gear. M Sport is the entry-level trim, and this comes with 19-inch alloy, dual-zone climate control, the Interaction Bar, heated front sports seats, imitation leather and suede upholstery, a leather steering wheel, digital key, power folding door mirrors and a parking assistant that includes front- and rear sensors and a reversing camera.

M Sport Pro trim adds 20-inch alloys and various exterior styling elements, including illumination of your trademark kidney grilles. However, considering the M Sport Pro costs you an extra three grand on top of the regular M Sport, that’s not an awful lot for your money.

As ever with a BMW, you can go bananas with all manner of options and option packs, and that’ll send the price of your car soaring as quick as a flash.