The Spies were busy last month driving the lot of 5 Series from Death Valley to Monterey, with a breathtaking drive through Yosemite Park. In appearance were the 528, 535, 550 and M5. While the weather was 90 degrees and sunny, BMW also included the AWD versions for testing as well. Overall it was a fantastic rally, and the winners went home with nice BMW watches and a 5 Series of their choice for a month. We did not win, but had we won, I think both Agent001 and myself would have chosen to take home the 535.
The new BMW 535 was by far the biggest surprise to us; the sheer amount of power the new twin turbo engine puts out is maddening. Low RPM, high RPM, it doesn’t matter, this car never bogged, and never ran out of steam. With zero lag and seamless shifting we were able to rip off 0-60 times as low as 5.3 seconds with the new automatic transmission. Insane for a car that weighs in at 3700 pounds, plus about 450lbs worth of driver and passenger weight. We go into more detail in the video, but there was one item we left out of the video, although you’ll hear it going off in the background – the new Active Cruise Control.
The Active Cruise Control option ($2400) is quite possibly one of the most advanced systems to hit the market. Gone are the days of having to constantly ride the gas and brake pedals in stop and go traffic, but unfortunately, gone are the days that you can trust your radar detector too. The Active Cruise Control system is based on the “ka” radar band, and if your detector isn’t a Valentine1, you’re going to run into continuous false alerts. On our trip, we tested both the Passport 8500 and the Valentine1; however the Passport was continuously beeping for the “ka” band, while the V1 remained quiet. We’d much prefer a laser based system like Infiniti’s, but even then, the V1 and the Passport had trouble filtering out the laser. It’s safe enough to disable laser detection, as your toast anyway if it goes off, but the “ka” band is too widely used by real radar guns to disable it. A small gripe, but an important note.
With that, we will let the video finish up our review, and there is a gallery full of photos below. We’d like the thank BMW for putting on such a great event and for inviting the Spies down to cover it.
If you have trouble viewing the video, please use this link.