We review the updated 2021 BMW 5 Series 540i with all-wheel drive. The car is a near-perfect sedan with only a few issues that we discuss. We look at the good and bad and talk about the technical side and how it is different from the Audi A6, Genesis G80, Mercedes, and affordable cars like the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry.
The bmw 540i with all-wheel drive this starts at 63 000. the way that this is spec with the m sport package and executive pack you’re going to be paying 73 000 and what do you get for that well you get an m sport steering wheel some special wheels and tires you get a wireless charger a harman kardon audio system adds up display and a lot more the argument is
Going to be why is this so expensive and i’m not even going to justify the price in this it’s a luxury product it’s it’s going to be designed for somebody that is going to purchase this for business purposes it’s going to be a lease and you’re going to write it off with that said if you’re working 50 60 hours a week chances are you want to get into something and
You want it to work and that is where bmw is at its best and it’s beating so many competitors in so many different ways so that’s what i’m going to detail here you have bmw’s global architecture and design for the interior space so whether you’re getting an x5 and x3 or basically any bmw they all look the same and while that might hurt some of its character
And special factor everything works because they put all their money into making sure that everything is cohesive when you look at the physical controls if you’re somebody that does not want all the fancy pants like gimmicky stuff this is by far one of the least gimmicky cars you can get into your controls for hvac your rotary knobs for volume everything is
Physical there is nothing here that requires you to use the touchscreen for your daily use so if you’ve been used to a bmw from 15 years ago it’s all the same so you would think maybe the technology sucks and that’s not true this is some of the best technology implementation of any modern car you have a touchscreen not only do you have a touch screen you have
One of the best physical controls to get around the ui they’ve added wireless apple carplay android auto it is extremely fast to use there’s literally no lag here everything works almost perfectly and i i’m i’m not even saying that i’m not even trumping that up it does work so well the gauge cluster the technology has been refined over so many years that this
Is one of the primary reasons why you buy this because when you get in here like i said and you don’t want to deal with you’ve been working all day working all week the car just works it’s comfortable the seats are great the overall ergonomics of everything despite all the piano gloss crap you can customize the leather choice you can customize kind of the
Textures from this fake aluminum to wood you can kind of have this any way you want it assuming you have the money to do that and you’re going to enjoy driving this and you’re not going to think twice the negative part is like i said when you look at the interior and mostly the exterior this is one of the most soulless bmws ever going to get into and maybe
That’s what you want you want this is the car you’re going to park in a parking lot somewhere you’re never going to find it you’re just going to black out you’ll be like where’s my car oh there it is you’re basically going to set your alarm off to find this thing and i think that’s one of the trade-offs of modern bmw they become more and more kind of cardboard
But they’ve also they’re working way better than they ever have in the past let’s get into the shop and talk about some of the technical aspects of the architecture and drivetrain wellmark we’re underneath the 2021 540i x drive this is bmw’s mid-cycle refresh slash facelift as bmw calls it their life cycle update oh my god so we’ve already covered the five
Series this version of the clark architecture which is starts to get into that next level this is the higher end when you go into the seven and eight series so everything is all aluminum here everything subframe carrier suspension and even the back this is one of the most beautiful and i see this every time and i’m not kidding the sub frame all of that looks
Amazing extremely high you’re going to teary eye i am i am and it makes spending 70 000 on this feel a lot more digestible but anyway so the basics are this is bmw’s rear-wheel drive architecture this has the ability to go all wheeled have all-wheel drive added on like this but it’s always rear biased yes so it still has good balance it still has good weight
Balance but what else do we need to know here jack so because this is the 540 this has the b58 engine they’re inline six however you have two other engine options in the 530 you get a four popper and in the m550i you get the v8 that you would find say in the x5 v8 it’s not the full m car and of course you have the m5 which we did a video on as well the 550
With the v8 the twin turbo v8 is an amazing in between it still rides great it’s super comfortable it has everything that you want without giving you that price tag that is just gets nuts with the m5 car it’s not cheap at like almost 80 to 90 000 but it strikes the right balance in this car honestly as we talked about when we did the m5 competition no one
Is really taking these things to the track it just gets too much you’re throwing a lot of money away if you’re just daily driving this is a great this does everything you want really this is got a great motor one of the best six cylinders which we’ll talk about on the drive it feels good there’s nothing wrong with this and if you’re looking for an all-wheel
Drive or you know rear-wheel drive biased all-wheel drive system the dynamics are good it rides great and you’ve adjustable dampers if you do want to stiffen it up and it has with the m sport package you get the active rear sway bar which helps to increase rotation in the back and just make this a really good driving car not just comfortable but also engaging
A driver which a lot of luxury cars kind of flush down the toilet when they get to them and you get summer tires pilot 4s’s i think with that jack let’s take this out on the road and see how it drives all right the 540 x drive all wheel drive jack when you get behind the wheel of this and you’re isolated and you pound down that throttle pedal with your foot
You look at how fast this thing accelerates to 60 70 miles an hour you don’t feel it you don’t hear it it’s so refined it’s it’s faster than like the old bmw enthusiast products the old m cars and what does that mean this means mark that you’re not in the traditional bmw anymore this brand has basically shredded its heritage of being a driver’s car this is
A luxury product this is not a sports sedan it may be fast it may be luxurious it may handle well but you feel nothing when you drive this car that’s exactly what you want in a product like this these days yeah and i got to agree and it’s taken me some time it’s taken me a lot of time to it to acclimate to this to what it’s become and just because it’s not a
Sports car anymore a lot of the and it’s at its base level what makes this car so good is the drive train in every single bmw is great right down to their four cylinder the fact that they’re all rear-wheel drive biased with the exception of the cheap ones it has a great balance it’s super comfortable at least on you know when you get to the lower trim level
Not the m cars they ride good the suspension on here is super plush it doesn’t beat you up even with the run flats on it and i think that’s a huge pro to me when you’re looking at an executive level sedan like this and then this b58 at least in the uh six cylinder variant of this like we’re demonstrating is very very fast this has to be one of the best mass
Market inline six engines or six cylinder options you can get it has become more reliable there’s no issues with tuning it’s fast right when you get off the line i mean there’s a little tiny bit of turbo lag but it revs out quickly the transmission tuning and performance is amazing the all-wheel drive system still feels like it’s going to pull you out of the
When you just do like this it has a slight safe understeer to it but you always feel the rear bias to it the seats are good in here the visibility’s good really what’s wrong with this it’s a soulless luxury product and that’s my problem with it it’s very expensive it’s 71 74 000 you know it does everything so well but it just feels like something you lease
And throw away and then there’s the value problem with this i like bmws obviously i mean that’s the joke in this channel but i can’t tell you that this is twice as good as something like an avalon or camry or an accord even though it’s twice as expensive let’s get into that before we get into the final thoughts because you know i have this question a lot of
What makes this so good now is a lot of what made the accords and camry’s good in yesteryear everything worked at such a high level you had everything that you possibly could want at an affordable like 25 to 30 000 price range and now they’ve gone up quite a bit why not just pay like the 35 40 grand for a quarter camry when it does almost exactly the same thing
As this i i don’t disagree with you yes in every objective fashion this is better it’s quieter it’s faster it gets surprisingly similar fuel economy the six cylinder almost gets 30 miles of the gallon on the highway it is so good but so forgettable i i i don’t know man if you if you’re on that next level and you’re not making 40 grand a year and you’re making
A hundred thousand dollars a year or more would you honestly go and say okay i have disposable income i’m going to buy and a quarter camry even though it might be as good in some cases no it’s a luxury good there’s no value behind it and i i fully agree with you but from a objective standpoint when i’m trying to recommend something to someone you know if you’re
Buying a bmw typically people think of performance vehicles or sport sedan this is not that this is like buying a mercedes it’s not a sports car anymore but in every measurable metric it still has on paper that it acts like a sports car this is one of the best sedans on the planet if you can remove the fact that it’s absolutely soulless in almost every regard
Yeah and i guess mark you want to head into the final thoughts absolutely final thoughts on the 5 series talked about it on the inside talked about it during the drive this mechanically engineering spec sheet wise and drivability is one of the best sedans on the planet and you’re going to hear a repetitive pattern across all videos here to make something
That’s a sports car to make it something as a luxury car to make it super practical if it’s on a cargo room to make it like a minivan if there was one perfect car we’d all own it but every brand has their own little deficiencies or problems they bake in in the case of this five series it is definitely lacking character and passion and i i again sometimes
You you work so much on that engineering you you tick all these boxes and you forget the fact that sometimes it there’s an emotional reason to have certain cars when you’re spending this kind of money does that make make it bad no that’s just the psychological part of car ownership so if you don’t care about that you don’t care that it’s kind of like this
Chalkboard design you’re going to love this car in every single way it’s going to be your best executive lease car you’re probably going to have it there’s there’s essentially no reason why not to get it aside from the price now bmw’s trying to over correct this the newer cars are going to more extreme over styling and you know which is worse and i think again
This is up to the buyer to figure out what’s right for you i’d say test drive this car you’re really going to like it thanks for watching i’ll see you next time you
Transcribed from video
2021 BMW 5 Series | Write Off Machine By savagegeese
