Yet another 5er. Did they hit the mark?

Stumbling upon the new BMW 5er (G30) Hong Kong debut some two weeks ago, I should say sure they did, apart from a few oddities, though pleasant or not there were no surprises. Contradictions are the norm.

Overall it’s a convincing package that one would expect from the Bavarians — a well-balanced, front-engine, rear drive platform in line with the sports saloon tradition, propelled by an impressive array of petrol and diesel engines through either a six-speed manual or the tried and proven eight-speed ZF auto ‘box; the cabin is decked out by quality materials, and houses enough trickery so as to not bore the applicants. We still have to see how it behaves on the road, but again you could do a lot worse than putting your money on the latest mid-sized saloon from the firm who claim to build The Ultimate Driving Machine, and of course if you still crave more performance there’s the M5 which will complete the line-up in due course.

While even all of this combined might not immediately earn the top spot for its potential European buyers, the badge alone could certainly secure some respectable sales figures in Hong Kong — the metropolis’s upper-middle class clientele who could afford European luxury on wheels tend to know little apart from the German Big 3s.

Having sat in the front and the back and browsed through the brochure, I was more than suitably impressed (that said, I still have high hopes and a Scudetto-shaped soft spot for the Nuova Giulia), particularly by the styling language that seemed to have evolved successfully from the jarring flame-surfaced Bangle-era lines to a mature shape that, if not pleasing, then at least neither generic nor offensive.

Unfortunately, being an amateur I lack the precision and the vocabulary to pinpoint where exactly, if at all, this is the case, and how it actually went down with the pros. I went on to look it up on one of my most respected and frequented automotive blogs, Driven to Write, and conveniently enough there’s a recent post exactly on the styling of the G30, and how it compares with its predecessor, the F10 — I do recommend a read if automotive styling is your thing.

https://driventowrite.com/2017/03/06/2017-bmw-5-series-design-review/

Reading through this in-depth analysis, I was not short of my “ah-ha” moments, like how exactly the relationship of the front fascia and the radii mitigated the bulbous front, how the more pronounced vents and swage lines gave more definition to the stance hence a suggestion of sportiness, and how the crease parallel with the Hofmeister kink on the C-pillar remains a peculiarity that seems to be borderline fanciful. To paraphrase the author Richard Herriott, “sharper” is perhaps the key word in the studio, and overall they’ve suitably pulled the lines together tighter to the effect.

Still, I would as much dare to point out that the complex convergence of panels at the front bulkhead is rather curious. The front wing extends higher than the side bottom window line and almost forming the bottom edge of the bonnet, meeting the A-pillar which in itself is split into two smaller components — an outer curved element that completes the transition from front to side, and an inner strip that runs almost parallel with the side of the windscreen.

Presumably there must be cost, aerodynamic, and safety considerations for such a layout, but if there are they’re completely lost on me. Is this strictly necessary? Perhaps Mr Herriott and others could shed some light on this?