A 53-year-old consultant from Massachusetts reported an excellent experience with roadside assistance after bending two wheels on New Year's Eve in the middle of a snow storm. "Response time was less than one hour, and they even apologized for being late," the amazed owner told us. "Great car, great service, great people. What else can one say!"
BMW dealers generally receive high marks for sales and service satisfaction, and 51.4 percent of those surveyed reported their dealer's sales practices as "excellent." On the topic of service satisfaction, 46.8 percent replied "excellent" and 35.2 percent marked "good." "Our experiences were either really good or really bad," wrote MT Road Test Coordinator Brad Long. Our man also scrawled that the world would be a better place if people had to earn the right to drive such a jewel of a car. "A lot of people who have BMWs think they're better than others and drive like jerks." (Welcome to SoCal.)
It's no secret we flat-out loved our 540i. In fact, we pleaded with BMW's execs to let us keep it for a two-year test. During that time, and our total of 16,207 miles of experiences, our only out-of-pocket service costs totaled $125.49. Oil consumption was negligible (only one quart had to be added), and average fuel economy hovered just above 18 mpg, despite this writer's daily blitzkrieg commute along L.A.'s legendary Mulholland Drive and through several twisty canyons, netting an in-town average of not much over 11 mpg. (I also could never resist an opportunity to show a Mustang or Corvette driver just what this "yuppie sedan" could do. The "stoplight loser" tally at last count: three Mustangs, two Porsche 911s, assorted Mercedes, and a friend's 1967 Corvette 427--that race track grudge match captured for posterity on "Motor Trend Television"!)
It's clear that, with the 5 Series, BMW has another winner on its hands. But we still haven't gotten over the loss of our beloved 540i six-speedf and are chomping at the bit to fully test the upcoming 400 horsepower M5. Just imagine this superb platform with 118 more horsepower, a 7000-rpm redline, fatter rubber, and tauter suspension tuning.
Yeah...you can improve on perfection. As a 43-year-old finance director from Delaware wrote, "Your Import Car of the Year article was right on the money." Perhaps even more succinctly put, a 41-year-old beer wholesaler from New York stated, "This car satisfies, no matter what your mood. And the best thing is the car makes you feel that it's enjoying taking you there!"
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