The most wrong thing I have done...

Granted a 520d sounds abit limp, but with 177bhp they arent sluggish. I just wonder if the added weight of the 5 is going to reveal weaknesses in the engine just like the previous problems of turbos etc on the 3 series..

Do they do the twin turbo 2 litre D in the 5 ? Or is the next diesel the

Tim.

The 520d is rubbish.

That engine is far too rough for a car like the 5. It barely suits the

Mind you, I don't like most 5s at all - unless you have a stupidly expensive one they feel cheap and nasty.

I disagree completely.

I think you are mistaking the 520d for something completely different. It isn't rough. It's one of the smoother four cylinder engines available.

We're going to have to discount your taste though, given the 75's interior.

Nope, they're not. Although one might fall short of calling it quick, it benchmarks at the sub-9 seconds to 62 and around 140 mph.

Maybe; the problem with the turbocharger is as I understand related to the driver not giving the turbocharger time to idle when stopping. 3-Series driver muppetry... ;-)

Not that I'm aware of anywhere and not in the UK; all other 5-series have at least six cylinders and I suppose if BMW sold a 522d, it would ruin most of the market for the 525d. Might be excuse to introduce a 540d though... ;-p

It's rough as a badger's arse.

In both the 3 and the 5.

Powerful, it may be, smooth it certainly isn't.

It's not a suitable lump for a 5, which only got it to grab a slice of the fleet market from the A6.

It certainly is *not*.

And has managed this very well. It's no six cylinder, but it is nowhere near as rough as you're trying to have us believe.

All in my experience...

Shame that 4.0 V8 diesel never made it to the UK. Sounded awesome - well, from looking at the power and torque figures. I guess the 3 litre was going to be more popular, and bolt in to more models, so worked out cheaper overall.

An E38 740d would be bloody great, though, but I don't do diesels these days.

Yes - I don't know why. Either space constraints or they couldn't make enough.

Absolutely. Not that the 730d is exactly bad.

Hmm. The 535d I drove felt slightly silly. The 520d felt so much better than any 3-series to drive. The 525d felt a bit... odd in the range. 530d is a decent compromise.

Or the 530i, which strangely enough I have a soft spot for. Not a pikey engine, not silly with fuel, just... something of a sweet spot of the range...

It's rougher than a VAG PD, let's put it that way.

In the 3 I could feel and visibly see my hands vibrating on the wheel when at idle.

Smooths out at higher revs., but needs to be a lot smoother when tricking around on part throttle at lower revs.

It's just so, so wrong in a 5, which should never have less than a 6 pot.

So..... is the engine in the x20d cars rough, or is it smooth?

There's only one way to find out.......f....f....f.....FIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT!

Or to put it another way, it got it because the market wanted it. The sheer number of them on the road rather confirms that.

"DervMan" gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Probably ancillaries in the way of the RHD steering gear - that's the usual excuse.

It isn't, going on the various 130 / 140 / 170 PS 19 / 2.0 TDIs I've experienced in the last couple of years.

We're writing about a 5-series.

Not in my experience.

Although I agree in theory, plenty others don't as the 518i and 520d are the best sellers of the range.

Yes; as a concept it sounds underpowered (2.0 litre turbodiesel, 5-series) but on the road, they don't feel like the sort of compromise you'd expect - especially if you owned or borrowed an early-90s 518i.

Sure, I'll wager the majority of 520d company car drivers would rather have a more powerful version _but_ this is probably true of the majority of company car drivers. ;-)

Yes, I was writing about the 5-series of two generations ago; sorry I should have said.

The 518i that's no longer sold, in this country, at least?

The V8 was such an awesome machine. It was literally, foot down - gone. In any gear, didn't make much difference, whilst at the same time being totally comfortable, and also having the driver 3c warmer than the passenger. Cranking one to max and one to min was cool, cos when you stuck your arm out you could totally feel the difference on the other side. Although it did mean the fans were on like, maximum attack fighting against each other :-)

The best thing was the way it accelerated once in 3 figure mph speeds. On our private copy of the A64 you wouldn't beleive what speeds you could get to, especially considering it was meant to be limited to 155. Either, the "pass it in 5th" trick does work or it was de-limited at some point in it's life.

Head lights were really good as well, even when you were doing 'quite high' speeds they showed you what was going on far enough up the road so you'd have a chance to see what it was you were about to smack into. Infact the only thing that wasn't awesome was the brakes. No idea how worn they were, but they seemed to suffer fade quite easily. I guess, hauling an M5 down from 160mph on a private test track, along with its 4 passengers, is never going to be an easy task. Probably approaching 2,000kg in total...

I'd love to do it all again, but in the new V10 M5, or M6... I'd rather own the M6 than the M5, but if it was just for fun ride purposes, either would do :-)

(If anyone is thinking about making shit jokes using M5/M6 as motorway names, just don't. You know who you are.)

Never been in a 520D, but have experience of a current model 320D which I always find hugely impressive. In addition, Autocar seem to have lots of good things to say about the 520D.

I would, but I'm a good bit away form anything new just now.

My boss has a 520d SE and I've tested a 320d SE.

Neither were anywhere near as impressive as they should be, given the price.

The engine does smooth out and rev quite nicely, but at idle and low speeds you get far too much vibration being transmitted through the steering wheel and gear stick.

SE spec, whilst not base spec, still feels quite pikey when you compare it with an Audi 2.0TDI SE, for example, which gets a load of toys, but strangely, does without cruise or lumbar adjustable seats.