Gadgetory

BMW is trying herein to erase everything you know and think about decent but they're kind of sluggish that they don't belong in stylish cars and if they aren't worth the money let's see if they hit all three of those as we drive the 2014 535 d X Drive and check attack now inside our five series diesel not a lot of changes to the cabin technology let's take a quick tour though of the latest I Drive in case you haven't seen it this is the new controller it's going to draw your eye right away notice it's very large it's got a nice set of home run buttons if you will which I always appreciate and this is a touchpad so you can write letters on it to spell things out like navigation destinations or you can also use it just to drag and drop around the map and move through things without having to use this horrible old interface that BMW used to force you into which is still the air but you can now ignore it now all that's driving a really wide screen in the dashes is the latest layout of I drive if you haven't seen it in a couple of years this will look new but it's not all that fresh it's a nicely done situation you've got a nice wide screen to give you a lot of breathing room which is nice for navigation in particular and mapping now here's BMWs app strategy in this car at some of the connected Drive menu and then you can go to BMW online for your first little dose built-in 3G radio in the car here are variety of information services including online search with Google then down here you've got this little bucket for applications and you've got a very small but interesting subset you can choose from I've put them all in here now you have a fuel price search you have pictures of where you're going these panorama images are obviously sent in by users for various destinations and locations and then you can also go to standard Google Streetview for where you are or where you're going send to mail is lowering you send destinations back and forth wiki local is interesting for looking for things of note in your local area I mean none of these are critical that you have to have in your car but they do all come back to the core of driving I find these more interesting than Facebook and Twitter to be honest and of course you've got the ubiquitous Yelp ratings in here also voice commands voice commands exit as you can see you can't use voice command with Yelp your only choice is to say exit by voice that's a little bit disappointing not all these apps connect to the voice system in the car just the BMW services it's kind of a hodgepodge in practice I find using voice command better on this car than writing in a navigation address because you got to go bucket by bucket when you write you can go one throw when you talk to 35 Second Street San Francisco California did you mean 235 second Street San Francisco yes I did use sexy beast now beyond the cabinet infotainment three things in here that our cabin driving tech are very telling and very interesting on a diesel first of all down here you've got the rocker switch for comfort and eco but also Sport and Sport Plus you don't normally associate those kind of settings with a diesel sedan look at the tachometer we don't redline til 5800 that's also not a level you typically associate with a diesel and then go to this menu here called sport displays under your vehicle set up and look at that power and torque meters all of these tell you that BMW is swinging toward a performance drivers diesel and not one that just lumbers along trying to sit fuel will get on the road minute see how well they do it first onto the hood here's evidence that BMW hates you and wants you to die they put two of these hooks under the hood every time I get in here I bang my head on one one day it's gonna go through my skull and pull my brain out that won't be pretty now the rest of what's in here easy three litre inline-six turbo diesel with common rail direct injection this is kind of your modern state-of-the-art diesel engine good numbers 255 horse but even better 413 foot-pounds of torque lose this over 2 ton car to 60 in 5 point 8 seconds not bad that's a big point while delivering 26:37 MPG now we have an 8-speed automatic all these models do but all-wheel drive is option we have an X Drive you can get it also rear-wheel drive and the turbo on this is a single turbo don't be misled by this twin power turbo its twin power not twin turbos but it's got variable geometry so it can act as a low-end turbo or then we curve itself to act as a high rpm turbo depending on the engine mode let's go for a ride the first thing you notice in this 535 D is the nature and volume of the D solenoid well controlled and as long as you've got the audio system on at all at almost any level you simply don't hear it mostly at idle is a little bit of clatter there but then once it starts to spool up just sounds like a gas engine which is nice and important for the marketplace after that you realize this is a nice combination of diesel grunt I mean lots of it but it also breeds nicely higher up in the RPM so you can actually run up and down through the gears which is not quite so satisfying in most Diesel's but in this one it actually is and it pulls like a bastard I mean really great power because it's a combination of grunt and it's got Headroom so good that I wish it had a manual I mean this car would actually be a great sport torker if you had a manual gearbox you could really have some fun with this car as it is not bad now I must say the suspension doesn't deliver on what the drivetrain can promise very confident good driving cars but this one unless you were to get the adaptive suspend we don't have it's not that interesting on that front that's a lot of pole right there running through the paddles looking at the sport gauges there on the dash putting this thing in sport or Sport+ these are all things that are a foreign language in diesel land but BMWs done a nice translation I mean it's too bad this car is relatively pricey as we'll see in a bit because it was more accessible this would change a lot of minds about diesels in everyday enjoyable driving ok pricing our 535 D X Drive with the all-wheel drive is basically a $60,000 proposition delivery but we still have a long way to go to get to seen that style so pour yourself a drink sit down and listen up we have an M Sport package with a bit of a body kit some 19-inch M wheels and a nice-looking M steering wheel 3100 bucks there are two driver assistance packages the first one for 1800 is how you get a rear camera I find that insulting along with a head-up display and parking sonar driver assistance plus for 1900 makes lane departure and blind spot tech active there's a stop-and-go adaptive cruise package which will do stop-and-go tech in traffic also brings in surround cameras 1200 bucks night vision with pedestrian detection is 2600 but it also requires the cold weather package I don't like that kind of tying the lighting package for 1900 gets you LED headlights and automatic high beams if you want adaptive suspension that's the dynamic handling package for 3500 Harmon Kardon surround sound 875 I'll pass on the Bank and Olufsen for 4500 and a slick BMW iPad holder for the back of the front seat those are 190 bucks I throw in one of those for sure now we're talking the low 74 thousands but overall does the 535 d add up it delivers a seven MPG average improvement over the 535i but costs about fifteen hundred bucks more when both are totaled up CNET style at current mid grade gas versus diesel prices in the u.s. that means it'll take close to three years to earn back the diesel premium that's right about the time you'll be ready to trade it in so strictly speaking the D is a challenging argument unless you're a contrarian or a torque jump