If there is one place in the world where a sporty sedan feels at home it has to be the Italian countryside, and that’s exactly where the new 2017 BMW 5 Series has headed after its world debut in January.
The business sedan from Munich was recently photographed in Italy, giving us yet another look at its sleek, premium and sporty design. The limousine celebrated its official market launch on the Apennine peninsula last Saturday and will soon be rolling across the streets of Southern Europe in many thousands of copies. Because most of the Italian BMW sales are made in the cool and placid mountainous north, Italy is one of the markets with a particularly high xDrive share.
Against this background, it is no surprise that the official photos of BMW Italy show the BMW G30 5 Series as a 530d xDrive with all-wheel drive. The powerful six-cylinder diesel and the four-wheel drive, which can be combined for the first time with the all-wheel steering, perfectly harmonize on curvy ground and make the seventh 5-wheeler one of the most handy xDrive BMW ever.
READ ALSO: 2017 BMW 530d xDrive Review
The straight-six cylinder of the 2017 BMW 530d comes from the current modular engine family and bears the internal abbreviation B57. 265 hp and a maximum torque of 620 Newton meter are sufficient in combination with the standard eight-speed automatic to accelerate the only 1,640 kilogram heavy sedan in 5.7 seconds from 0 to 100 km/h. The 55 kilograms heavier 530d xDrive can use its traction advantage to complete the same exercise in just 5.4 seconds – a figure that was reserved only a few years ago for real sports cars.
This year, both the 540d with twin turbocharger and over 300 hp, and the new BMW M550d xDrive with 400 bhp quadturbo diesel will bring even more performance to the diesel lineup – and accelerate in less than five seconds on country road speed.
Although the multi-turbocharged engines will also have a slightly higher consumption than the 530d with a minimum of 4.5 liters, many customers pay the additional price associated with the better driving.
