The introduction of the E60 5-Series in 2004 was not well received. Seemingly overnight, designer Chris Bangle was excoriated by BMW fans world wide for the destruction of BMW’s line-up. Little did people know that Chris was also responsible for the design of BMW’s through the 90’s including the 3-Series and previous generation E39 5-Series. Even though Chris’s designs were ridiculed, they were unmistakeable. Love it or hate it, nobody ever mistakes the E60 5-Series or E65 7-Series for anything else on the road.
Today I’m here to talk about the E60 5-Series. Gone were the E39’s smooth flowing body lines. The E60 5-Series now had sharp lines and headlights that resembled eyelashes. It was called feminine, hideous, and an embarrassment to Germany. Flash forward a decade later and read all of the praise the E60’s received. When journalists looked beyond the surface they discovered one of the best handling sport sedans ever produced. The 535i was powered by an all-new twin-turbo inline six cylinder engine that makes gobs of power. The engine, dubbed the N54, was so good in fact that it won five straight Engine Of the Year awards and a variation of the N54 soon made it’s way in to every model in BMW’s lineup including the latest BMW M3 and M4.
So about my 535i. I purchased my 2008 535i in mid March 2015 with 74k miles and have since got a good feel for it’s quirks, enough to make an actual video review. It has the sport package and nearly every other package available except heads-up display. Now that I’ve put 3,000 miles on the car I feel it’s time to talk about it. This is my BMW 535i review.
While I may have purchased the car in factory stock form, it is now slightly modified and if you’re interested you can find the complete list of parts on my WheelWell account here.
