Auto News 5

As Lufthansa flight 4532 skimmed the hills of Lisbon on its landing approach, we reflected on the five-year journey that had brought us to Portugal to drive the newest BMW, the 5-series GT. It was back in the March 2004 issue that our European bureau chief, Georg Kacher, provided the scoop: BMW was planning an unusual new type of vehicle, one that was known within the company as the “space-functional concept” or RFK (for, in German, Raum-funktionales Konzept). Two models, one based on 3-series components and the other drawing from the 5-series, would differ substantially from BMW’s existing wagons and SUVs and provide seating arrangements akin to - don’t say it - a minivan’s. By our June 2008 issue, we were able to report that this not-quite-a-sedan, not-quite-an-SUV, not-quite-a-wagon concept, which had become known as the V-series, had evolved into a four- or five-seat hatchback sedan called the V5. (BMW’s second-generation, seven-passenger X5 apparently met the company’s needs for a people mover.) We were wrong about the name but right about everything else, and we observed that, like the X6, the new vehicle would attempt to “tap into a niche that you didn’t even know existed.” Fast forward to September 2009: As we arrived in Lisbon, the 5-series Gran Turismo still seemed to us as unlikely a vehicle to wear a BMW badge as it did back when our man Kacher first reported its conception.inline_mediumwraptextright31059330/reviews/driven/0912_2010_bmw_535i_gran_turismo0912_10_z+2010_bMW_535i_gran_turismo+front_three_quarter_view.jpgTrue

I'm having a bit of difficulty finding the right context for the E-class coupe. Its name says I should be looking at the BMW 6-series, while its price tag and its C-class underpinnings say I should seek out comparisons with the Audi A5.inline_mediumwraptextright30985329/reviews/editors_notebook/0910_2010_mercedes_benz_e3500910_03_z+2010_mercedes-Benz_e350+side_view.jpgTrue