Higher Five

The latest BMW 5 Series saloon is brilliant in almost every regard and still gives the best drive in its class.

- Edric Pan

GERMAN automaker BMW may well have unearthed a new target audience for the brand – the geek market.

Because its latest 5 Series, the seventh generation of the marque’s longest-running model line, is so packed with electronic technology that you wonder if it needs its own substation to power it all.

It has all the now-familiar driver aids like Lane Departure Warning, Lane Keeping Assistant, collision warnings and Active Cruise Control. Essentially, it can drive you down the motorway on its own.

To these it adds Lane Change Assistant, where the car changes lanes for you when instructed to (by your holding the indicator down for two seconds in the desired direction).

Working in concert, these systems let the new 5 Series steer, brake and regulate its own speed in all traffic conditions from standstill up to 210km/h

For legal reasons, BMW refuses to tout this capability as autonomous driving (yet), and as a precaution, the car still requires the driver to keep his hands on the wheel.

In addition, the fuel-saving automated stop-start function is now more discerning, drawing inputs from the navigation system, cameras and radar so it knows not to shut the engine down at inconvenient moments, such as when you are momentarily stopped at a roundabout or junction waiting to merge into traffic.

The new 5 also offers the Remote Parking feature first seen on the 7 Series flagship, which allows you to manoeuvre the car remotely into a tight lot from the outside.

Another trick borrowed from the 7 limousine is Gesture Control, where you change the volume or radio channel,answer or reject calls, and operate the navigation by a twirl or wave of the hand, or a pinch or jab of the fingers.

Smartphone integration has been improved, too, with Apple CarPlay (fully wireless, for the first time in a car) and inductive phone charging.