OK, kids, you definitely don’t want to try this stunt at home. Imagine tooling down a desert highway with a tanker aircraft just a few feet over your head; one gust of wind, one wrong control input and it’s over, Johnny. Think “smoking crater in the desert floor” and you get the picture. Sure, I know this was done via CGI, but the very thought of attempting this stunt still makes me pucker. It does make for a cool video, though, so enjoy BMW’s efforts to tell you that the new 5 Series gets up to 32 miles per gallon below.
It’s worth mentioning that only the 528i is rated at 32 MPG on the highway, and that the car’s 3.0 liter inline-six only cranks out 240 horsepower. That’s not a lot for a sedan that tips the scales at over 3,800 pounds, which would have me leaning towards the 535i. It still gets 28 MPG on the highway, but packs a much more reasonable 300 horsepower and 300 pound feet of torque. Of course a turbo diesel would be the ideal compromise for a car like the 5 Series, so let’s hope that BMW begins thinking along those lines for future U.S. models.
