The first two things we’re going to tell you about the refreshed BMW 5-Series range that was revealed on Saturday is that, a) you will have to pay very close attention to the car to tell the styling differences over the outgoing model, and b) no, the Gran Turismo did not get any prettier.
What the very light exterior redesign brought to the 5-Series range is a new front bumper with matte silver accents, additional contour lines for the surround of the kidney grille, an extra crease in the apron, a silver strip on the boot / tailgate edge at the rear for the saloon and Touring, new headlamp fixtures with straight top and bottom surfaces, and tweaked tail lamp graphics.
For the interior, BMW made some minor (and barely visible) refinements to the control display of the standard-fitted iDrive (newer 4.2 version), while increasing capacity for the storage compartments and cup holders in the center console in the sedan and Touring. The Gran Turismo gains 60 more liters of boot space for a total of 500 liters (by 2.1 cu-ft to 17.7 cu-ft) thanks to a revised rear sections.
Also new in the 2014 5-Series are the Luxury Line and Modern Line trims, plus the availability of Adaptive LED headlights, new exterior and interior colors, and alloy wheel designs.
BMW says it has tweaked all engines in the range to meet the EU6 exhaust gas standards that come into force next September in Europe, and has added the following features as standard: a coasting mode that disengages the powertrain to improve fuel economy, Proactive Driving Assistant to adjust the car’s speed ahead of a change in speed limit, and the ECO PRO Route function that can be selected via the optional Navigation system Professional.
A new addition to the sedan and Touring lineup is the European market 518d as the entry-level diesel variant. It sports a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder diesel good for 141hp (105kW / 143PS) that returns an impressive combined fuel consumption of 4.5 liters per 100km (equal to 52.3mpg US or 62.8mpg US) with corresponding CO2 emissions of 119 g/km.
Also new is the addition of the xDrive all-wheel drive system for the 520d sedan and Touring models.
For North America, BMW is expanding the range with the new 535d sedan featuring a straight-six turbocharged diesel with 255 horsepower at 4,000 rpm and 413 lb-ft of torque from 1,500 – 3,000 rpm. Full U.S. pricing for the 2014 5-Series Sedan and Gran Turismo models follows below.
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