Insurance
Just as BMW releases official photos and talking points of the all-new , we capture these spy shots of the sixth-generation 5-series, caught testing here in the U.S.
The timing couldn’t be better—now that we know exactly what the new Seven looks like, we know a lot more about where BMW will be taking the Five. And the similarities are numerous.
Indeed, wrapped front to rear in the skin of a current-generation
, trunklid and all, is an all-new
body that is several inches longer in wheelbase and at least an inch or two longer overall.
Based on what we see around the door handles, we can tell that the bodysides will feature the same waistline pinch and bright door handles that both help to break up the Seven’s massive flanks. Also like the Seven, the nose appears lower, with a wide, low twin-kidney grille. The rear doors look much longer, suggesting newfound rear-seat space (which the current car could certainly use).
And the much maligned “Bangle Butt” will go away in spite of what the cladding suggests. Wheels will range from 17 to 19 inches in diameter.
Interior shots also show many similarities to the Seven, including the same button-laden steering wheel, black-panel gauges, driver-oriented dash contouring, electronic parking brake, and likely the new-generation iDrive that debuts on the 2009 7-series. And, somewhat reassuring in the day and age of dual-clutch automated manuals, is that this particular test car has a conventional shift-it-yourself manual transmission.
Twin-Turbos Under the Hood As for the powertrains for U.S. models, we expect base models to come with BMW’s venerable inline-six, which will probably remain at 3.0-liters, but will most certainly get direct injection and a commensurate power increase. The new 5-series will most certainly be offered in 540i guise, powered by the same twin-turbocharged inline-six (322 horsepower/332 pound-feet of torque) in the new Seven, as well as a 550i model with the same 400-hp, 450-lb-ft 4.4-liter turbo V-8.
We also fully expect at least one all-wheel-drive variant, as well as a diesel-powered 535d motivated by BMW’s excellent turbodiesel six with at least 240 horsepower and nearly 400 lb-ft of torque. Oh yeah, and an
model would be a relatively safe bet, too.
BMW tends to stagger its core sedan product launches in two-year increments, and if the launch follows the same schedule as the Seven, we expect to see the first official pictures in about summer of 2010, followed by the first deliveries in early 2011 as an ’11 model for the U.S. But we could get a look at the new Five as soon as this fall’s auto show circuit, and there is always the possibility that the car goes on sale as a 2009 model, at least in Europe. The M5 will probably arrive a year or so later. Meanwhile, our spies will continue hunting for Fives on the move.
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/news/spied/08q3/2010_2011_bmw_528i_540i_550i_535d_5-series-spied
I removed the fuel tank and probed the filler neck. I was using a retractable claw, and when I pulled it out of the dark recess of the filler tube, I was confused as I stared at . . .
peanuts!
Further probing revealed individual chunks of peanuts and caramel. When the filler neck had been thoroughly purged, I had unloaded what was obviously a Baby Ruth candy bar!
When Mr. Johnson came to pick up his vehicle, he asked, "To what do I direct my anger at?" I showed him the fragments of candy bar. His first reaction was confusion. He then became thoughtful and with a sudden look of surprise, burst out laughing. Wiping the tears from his eyes he relayed to me this story:
"My granddaughter and I spent an afternoon together a week ago. We stopped at a gas station near the end of the day. Being a curious child, she asked me, ‘Uhmpa, what is gasline that makes car move?’ Not being a scientific man, I just said, "Oh, nuttin’, sugar."
After a good laugh, it was almost painful to separate Mr. Johnson from his $350. Almost.
Tacoma, Washington
Fuss Over a FISO I was working on the service desk at our local Ford dealership when a young blond-haired girl walked in and reported that she was here to drop off her boyfriend’s Ford Fiso truck for service. At the time, we were also servicing Mitsubishi Fuso trucks, so I asked her if that was the kind of truck she was talking about.
"No," she said, it was definitely a Ford Fiso truck. I said I’d worked for Ford for 17 years and had never heard of a Ford Fiso truck.
Now she was obviously getting irritated that I was insulting her intelligence, and she told me matter-of-factly that she personally had seen thousands of Ford Fiso trucks all over the place and invited me out to the parking lot so she could show me a Fiso truck. She marched me to the truck and exclaimed, "See, I told you so!" as she pointed to the emblem on the front fender that read "F-150."
Guilderland, New York
A Question of Causation I had a regular female customer who frequented our service station for routine service and gas. Nothing was unusual until one day when she arrived and insisted that her car was running erratically at times.
Our findings were inconclusive. So we charged her a minimal diagnostic fee and suggested that she return at the first sign of any reoccurrence.
She was back in two weeks. We repeated the process but were still unable to confirm any problem with the car. We presented a similar overture to her, as previously, emphasizing that she return at the first sign of a reoccurrence.
Sure enough, she was back within the week. In the meantime, we had discussed the probable need to identify some form of causation for the alleged problem. This time, we asked if we could drive her over to the nearest shopping center while we evaluated the car. She readily concurred, and we proceeded once again to discover no evidence of any problem whatsoever.
She called us four hours later from the shopping center. As we drove her back to the station, we carefully pointed out that the car was now operating just fine. We explained to her that we had found "a loose screw behind the steering wheel." Her response was, "Oh, really?"
She never made the connection, and never registered a further complaint about this topic, although her loyalty to our station was retained.
Alan C. Pfau
Advance, North Carolina
Article source: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/04q1/2004_10best_mechanics_tales-10best_cars