BMW 530 Li LWB Review: Bulky and Impractical
I test-drove this long wheelbase petrol sedan, both in the city and on the expressway, and evaluated it against my requirements, and I wouldn’t buy it. If I was looking for a sedan, I’d buy the Verna instead. The BMW is worse. Or, if you disagree with that — and reasonable people can disagree — it’s no better.
The BMW is too bulky. Driving on side roads is stressful. When I was turning onto the main road, it blocked both lanes of the main road! I have to make these turns slowly and cautiously. When I was in another road, the entire left half of the road was available for me, with no two-wheelers intruding, but there was still barely enough room between the lampost beside the road and the stopped car in the other lane. When I drove into the basement of my apartment, I had to do so at 5 kph.
Even on the highway to Hoskote, I wasn’t able to overtake, because the BMW, being so bulky, doesn’t fit in gaps in traffic. When I entered the rightmost lane at a tollbooth, the wing mirror hit a barrier. This bulky car really needs an empty expressway, which are rare in India. It’s too long at 5m and too wide at 1.9m, while the Verna is comfortable and fast to drive with its dimensions of 4.6m and 1.8m — this is the upper bound for a car in India.
The BMW’s performance is poor even when floored, despite it being an M Sport. Next time I see an M badge, I know it stands for Marketing. Or is it Mediocre? The Verna felt no slower. In fact, it’s a better car at a fraction of the price.
If you’d like to explore various aspects of the car in detail, read on:
+ No animal leather
± Has a deep boot as is typical for sedans.
± Electric tailgate
+ The start / stop button is made of glass.
± 8-speed DCT
+ All four doors have a small pocket for keys next to the window controls
- The hazard lights have a touch control, which are hazardous to operate while driving.
Comfort
+ Awesome legroom
+ Good headroom for a sedan
- It starts with a jerk from auto hold even when I press the accelerator very gently.
- At high speed, it’s bouncy and not as stable as the Audi A6. It doesn’t go where it should so I have to keep wrestling with the car to corral it back into its lane. This makes it unsafe.
- At high speed, at one point, we almost thrown up from the seats.
Digital features
- No wired CarPlay, which I prefer since it’s more reliable and charges the phone.
+ 2 USB-C ports
+ No USB-A in the car!
± 12V port in center console
- The music sounds processed and unnatural.
Cooling
+ The door holds either a 1-liter Bisleri or a Thermos.
+ 2 center universal bottle holders. In other words, they have spring-loaded tabs to grip small bottles so that they don’t rattle.
- Panoramic moonroof. A sunroof would have been better, since it instantly cools a car that has been baking for hours in the summer afternoon sun.
± The moonroof opens towards the driver rather than the rear and similarly, I have to press the button forward rather than backward to open it.
- I like to have the AC on my lower body, and adjust the temperature as needed, letting the car adjust the fan speed based on the temperature. Most cars support this: set it to auto, then change the fan direction, and it just works. Not the BMW. I have to constantly keep adjusting the fan speed and temperature manually. Even with the temperature at 19 and the fan speed at 3 (of 7), it didn’t cool the car enough. It turned out there’s a second fan speed control! This one goes from Very Low → Low → Medium and so on rather than a numerical scale. This was set to Very Low, and so it wasn’t working well. I don’t know why a fan has to have two speed controls. I went through much of the test drive with the AC either slightly cooler or slightly warmer than I’d have liked, not enjoying the test drive fully.
- The AC vent opening is a touch control, which is tech for the sake of tech, like a touch control on a commode to flush. A physical control would have worked just as well
- The salesman told me that I can have cool air towards my lower body, my upper body or at the windshield. I turned it on towards the windshield. But, after a minute or two, when I held my hand in front of the vent near the windshield, no cool air was coming out. The salesman didn’t know why it wasn’t working, and couldn’t fix it.
+ Seat ventilation with three levels
- No cooled glovebox
- No remote AC start
- No rear windshield sun blinds
Front passenger seat
- I can’t stretch my legs fully. What’s the point of an overly long, unwieldy car, then?
+ Great headroom for a sedan
+ The window is big enough for a sedan
Rear seat
- I can’t stretch my legs fully even with the front seat moved all the way forward and raised. What’s the point of an overly long, unwieldy car, then?
+ The headroom is good for a sedan.
- The view out the window isn’t great, since the upper end of the window is at eye level and so intrudes into the view.
+ The window is very wide, since it’s an LWB.
+ When traveling at 120 kph, I could feel some bumps in the rear seat, but all said and done, the NVH is so low that it felt like traveling at 60.
+ High-quality interior
+ The center armrest is wide and luxurious
+ USB-C port on the back of the driver and front passenger seat.
+ Rear window sunshades
+ Each passenger can adjust the vents up / down / left / right, open, partially open, or close the vent, adjust the temperature and fan speed, and toggle auto.