Remember a few years ago when we were trying to figure out the crossover? We just couldn’t get the idea of a sort-of car on a car chassis but tall almost like an SUV. Now crossovers are everywhere, and their sales appeal has saved not a few car companies.
Our newest challenge in vehicular innovation is the “coupelike” sedan that sits somewhere between a four-door and a crossover. We’ve just now effortlessly egressed from the tall 2010 BMW 5 Series GT in Portugal after driving many, many miles, and our mind is swimming with what this all means. Making its public debut at the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show this month, the 5 Gran Turismo is not quite as shocking a product moment as the Porsche Panamera, but it is an entirely new test for the Bimmer faithful.
Does it drive like an Ultimate Driving Machine? We cannot wholeheartedly say yes. Does it drive like a 2006 Pontiac Montana? Absolutely not.
The 2010 BMW 5 GT has a lot going for it, but it’s most likely going to take a massively innovative marketing effort to convince BMW aficionados in key markets (read: North America) that it is worthy of the Bavarian roundel, and to persuade people new to BMW that it is worth the premium swan dive into larger monthly payments in these uncertain times.
Here’s Your Brief
What BMW bosses handed their designers to tackle back in late 2005 was the company’s first vehicle meant to cater blatantly to upper-middle-class family life. But it couldn’t be too blatantly a family carrier or the minivan thing would soon scare away the all-important image-conscious orthodontists and corporate managers. And thus started the usual design challenge, as all the cooks in the kitchen tell one another that it needs to be a little bit this and a little bit that, ad infinitum. The risk of turning such a notion into something that means nothing in particular to anyone must have loomed large.
First, the 5 GT is not a 5 Series at all, really. The wheelbase and both track widths are identical to those of the new 7 Series, with which it shares the really good F01 modular chassis that has been created for use with the next 5 and 6 Series as well as the new 7 Series.
Since the GT is 4.3 inches taller than the current-generation 535i sport wagon (and 3.5 inches squatter than the X6), the ease of entry and exit is right on with the design brief — the height is perfect for the everyday. Regarding interior space, the 5 GT is pure genius and we could easily see ourselves driving it cross-country nonstop if the fuel tank held 200 gallons of unleaded and there were a port-a-john aboard. It’s particularly spacious in the rear, offering the legroom of a 7 Series and the headroom of anX5.
Looking Good?
Here’s where we hesitate. Looking at every single current BMW model up until today, we can say without hesitation that they are all justifiably sexy and/or handsome.
If anyone looks straight on at the rear end of the BMW 5 GT and uses the adjective “sexy” or “handsome,” then we must have changed planets. We can deal pretty easily with the 5 GT from a few angles, but the full-on rear view is just not pleasing to the eye.
BMW Group design head Adrian von Hooydonk, along with design leader of the BMW brand Anders Warming, will have several weeks’ worth of heated explaining ahead of them. (We can hear former BMW design director Chris Bangle calling out from his grappa farm even now, “Welcome to my world, boys!”) Both of these design talents were present in Portugal for our early drive and it was clear that they were aware that this robust discussion was soon to begin.
Working Good
We love the big fastback tailgate deal on any car you care to mention. It’s even better when this design incorporates a two-stage tailgate that can open as a regular trunk loader or as a full cargo hatch. Here in the 5 GT, we only wish this big hatch solution had been coupled with something as sexy as the styling of the Audi A5 Sportback. The automated rear lid is mostly made of stamped aluminum (as are all door panels and the engine hood), so there is no great effort in managing the opening and closing of this showpiece.
The 5 GT offers 15.5 cubic feet of cargo capacity behind the rear seats. For more room, move one or both rear seat units forward up to 4 inches and you can add 5.3 more cubic feet. Drop the seatbacks forward and collapse the bulkhead to the floor and cargo grows to 60 cubic feet total.
While the rear seats of the 5 Series sport wagon are a form of purgatory and its slab-sided rear doors put the window sills at about your cheekbone, BMW has made the 5 GT’s rear environment a first-class experience. This all goes for the standard five-passenger rear bench seat as well as the optional coupe-style two-passenger rear accommodation.
