This car is a Jekyl & Hyde - stick it in Comfort+ or better still Eco-Pro and it will cosset you to your detination at utter serenity. Set the speed limiter, you need to.

Flick the gear stick over to Sport, bury the throttle, and Mr Hyde comes out - it can really hussle, although to be fair, its no sports car per se. Its a Grand Tourer. You're pulse will barely raise at all as you slice past that slowing moving lorry. You don't get this performance in the 520d - its no slouch, but the 530d is a car above - so quiet, so refined, so fast. The 520d is the sensible choice, the 530d is the better choice!

It can do 50mpg door to door on a run - which is amazing for 258BHP and a 1.8 tonne car. But you do feel you have wasted your money as you have to drive it over-easy to get that. You don't have to hussle hard to drop away from the 50mpg. Mind you, another 10,000 miles and I expect it will improve.

The Pro-sound system is awesome - really worth the £700 if you like your music. No fancy modes or emblazened "Bose" or other name, just really good sound - a tad base heavy, but you can trim
that back with the equalizer quite easily without spoiling the overall delivery.

The variable dampers are a must have - dealers will try and tell you otherwise, but the ride, especially in teh back, is way better with VDC. And you can have Sport and SE set up in the same car.

The radar cruise control is better than standard cruise at speed, but maybe not worth it for that alone, but where I really use it is in stop-go motorway hold ups. Feet out the car starts and stops all by itself - really takes the hassle out of jams. All you have to do is steer, and in motorway conditions, that's not much.

The down side is the dealers - most salesman are arrogant and I have had some small problems which I have had to argue over way more than I should have with any car, never mind one costing 45k. When things settle down, I hope not to have to visit them and can enjoy the car more.

One other major negative - the Pro-Navigation is appalling in this day and age, for what it costs at least - at 2K it is a big big rip off. Connected Drive is so clunky you just won't use it. The Real Time Traffic is not accurate - in time or incident location. And the navigation is really unintelligent - main roads taking you miles out of your way, or through known traffic black spots (I have tried all options, none provide a good balance). Tom-Tom with IQ routes are WAY better and my old one cost just £150. For 2K BMW should licence the Tom-Tom version, and should be ashamed of taking that much money for what they supply. It's a disgrace. The speech recognition is good though.

Overall a fantastic car, let down by dealers and the sat-nav.