A decade ago, BMW’s Ultimate Driving Machine ethos was an undeniable fact. But drive a 10-year-old BMW sedan back to back with a modern one like this new BMW 5-series, and it’s pretty clear that the brand is taking a sabbatical from building the best-driving cars on the planet. In the interim, while BMW has toned down dynamic ability in favor of ramping up comfort, other manufacturers have stepped up their challenges for the crown as the best-driving sedan. These include Cadillac with the CTS, Mercedes-AMG with the E43, and Alfa Romeo with the Giulia, to name just three.

It’s true that one mustn’t confuse dynamics with capability. Take, for example, the 2017 BMW 530i xDrive that is the subject of this test. In a straight line, this Bimmer, with its 248-hp turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four, will absolutely dust a 2005 BMW 530i fitted with a 225-hp inline-six engine. The dominance continues in corners, too, where the new 5er holds on with 0.91 g of grip to the 2005’s 0.82. On paper this car is better than the ones that came before, but emotional appeal often is excluded from Excel spreadsheets and comparative charts.

View Photos ALEX CONLEY

A Cruiser

Driven like a transportation appliance, the 530i is very agreeable. The interior is superbly isolated with just 66 decibels of noise entering the cabin at 70 mph, which happens to be one decibel below BMW’s flagship M760i. The ride during a highway cruise is downright enchanting. Hustle the car somewhat, though, and that serenity turns into loud impact noises with a little bit of wheel flutter at the corners, making this sports sedan feel anything but sporty.

The extra weight and added traction of all-wheel drive seem almost to cancel each other out in straight-line acceleration when compared with a rear-drive 530i we recently tested, with both cars reaching 60 mph in 6.1 seconds. The xDrive ekes out a 0.1-second lead in the quarter-mile, doing the deed in 14.6 seconds at 97 mph. This little four punches up a class with character and a willingness to spin to redline in all but the top few of the automatic’s eight forward gears. A stout engine is the saving grace of the inline-six-powered 540i, too, helping it just escape a dead-last finish in a recent comparison test.

There are Eco Pro, Comfort, and Sport driving modes as well as an Adaptive mode (when equipped with optional Dynamic Damper Control) that picks how the car behaves based on how it’s being driven. We can’t help thinking these modes are the bane of the car’s chassis performance. If there were just one setting, as found in a 10-year-old BMW, chassis tuners could put all their efforts into perfecting that tune.

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Adding Up

Fitting all-wheel drive to the 530i inflates the base price by $2300, to $54,495. Our test car’s price crested $70,000 with the addition of six packages and 14 stand-alone options. The $800 Cold Weather package (heated front and rear seats, heated steering wheel) and $1050 Lighting package (adaptive LED headlights with automatic high-beams) are must-haves. So, too, are the $300 Apple CarPlay option and the $2300 Premium package (including proximity entry, satellite radio, and Wi-Fi connectivity), but we could do without the gesture control ($190), soft-close doors ($600), ceramic controls ($650), and powered rear sunshade ($575). The $1150 rear-axle steering tended to make turn-in feel slightly wonky, but it was nowhere near as unnatural as BMW’s old Active Steering. The M Sport brakes (larger than standard rotors) for $650 seem like a worthwhile addition, though we don’t expect many drivers of four-cylinder 5-series cars to see a lot of situations where they need these brakes’ additional fade resistance. An even $1000 for the aforementioned adaptive dampers also seems like a hidden value, but we’d love to drive a 5-series without them to see if the base damper tune still has some of that magic BMW balance. Ditto the base 18-inch wheels, as our car had the $600 19s fitted with stiff-sidewalled run-flat tires.

The Driving Assistance Plus package ($1400) is the only way to get pedestrian detection, cross-traffic alert, and forward-collision warning. But to order those, you also have to option the Driving Assistance package ($1800), which brings lane-departure warning, blind-spot monitoring, and a head-up display. This pairing also nets a surround-view camera system.

BMW’s ventilated and massaging Multi-Contour seats are part of the $1600 Luxury Seating package. Our test car’s interior was lined in Ivory White nappa leather for another grand, while the dash received a faux-leather covering for $500. The rather elegant poplar wood trim, which looks as if gray clouds are floating in the night sky of the black dashboard, costs nothing. Jatoba Brown metallic paint ($700), an upgraded Harman/Kardon sound system ($875), and a powered tailgate ($500) round out the rest of the options.

View Photos ALEX CONLEY

The addition of all-wheel drive drops the 530i’s EPA fuel-economy estimates by 1 mpg for the city and highway, to 23 and 33; the combined figure remains at 27 mpg. In our 75-mph highway fuel-economy test, the 530i xDrive sipped premium gas at a rate of 34 mpg. Not only is this a strong engine, it’s a frugal one, too. The rest of the time we averaged 24 mpg, surely influenced by our collective heavy foot.

Ultimately, this car feels like a betrayal to loyal BMW enthusiasts. Maybe BMW’s demographic is aging and now prefers this sort of 5-series, but we’re still young enough at heart not to want isolated commuting at the expense of driving fun. This car has us thinking that this is how Cleveland Browns fans felt when then owner Art Modell moved the team to Baltimore. Please, BMW, find your way back to Cleveland. Just don’t take too long—after all, there are more cars legitimately aiming for your Ultimate Driving Machine title than ever before.

Specifications VEHICLE TYPE: front-engine, all-wheel-drive, 5-passenger, 4-door sedan

PRICE AS TESTED: $72,235 (base price: $54,495)

ENGINE TYPE: turbocharged and intercooled DOHC 16-valve inline-4, aluminum block and head, direct fuel injection

Displacement: 122 cu in, 1998 cc

Power: 248 hp @ 6500 rpm

Torque: 258 lb-ft @ 1450 rpm

TRANSMISSION: 8-speed automatic with manual shifting mode

DIMENSIONS:

Wheelbase: 117.1 in

Length: 194.6 in

Width: 73.5 in Height: 58.2 in

Passenger volume: 99 cu ft

Trunk volume: 19 cu ft

Curb weight: 4013 lb

C/D TEST RESULTS:

Zero to 60 mph: 6.1 sec

Zero to 100 mph: 15.6 sec

Zero to 120 mph: 24.1 sec

Rolling start, 5-60 mph: 6.9 sec

Top gear, 30-50 mph: 3.6 sec

Top gear, 50-70 mph: 4.5 sec

Standing ¼-mile: 14.6 sec @ 97 mph

Top speed (governor limited): 128 mph

Braking, 70-0 mph: 180 ft

Roadholding, 300-ft-dia skidpad: 0.91 g

C/D FUEL ECONOMY:

Observed: 24 mpg

75-mph highway driving: 34 mpg

Highway range: 610 miles

EPA FUEL ECONOMY:

Combined/city/highway: 27/23/33 mpg

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