520d SE 4dr Saloon

A mile-munching barge

I've had this car for a year and put 57k miles on it, mainly motorway but also trips round the far north of Scotland, so its been well used.

My initial impression was wow, its a good looking car and you can drive it all day and get out happy. Its very well built and in the year I've had it reliability ha been impeccable. But a change of job means saying bye to it, and I've done some hard thinking about what I like and dislike.

Firstly handling is poor compared to other BMWs without VDC. Its softly sprung which makes it comfy but not as chuckable as my E91 320d was. This car is nothing special to drive, and that's a poor show for a BMW. Other posters eulogise abouthandling, I assume they have variable dampers - a lot of 520ds in my company fleet and we all have the same view about the poor ride.

Other than that, Electric parking brake switches are the work of Satan, there's more interior space in my wife's Hyundai i30, and I hate the way that from the drivers seat the front and back of the car are guesses rather than something I can see - less a fault of the car than a malaise affecting so many new cars.

So if you want one, get VDC on the spec or don't buy. The 2 litre diesel has as much real world power and pace as you need and is economical if you're paying the bill. On a 120 mile run taking t easy up the motorway (65mph) I got 61mpg out of it, which shows how amazing modern diesels can be.

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