1997 BMW 5 Series

Superb, stunning...an engineering masterpiece. Those comments and others like them were repeated more than once by the Motor Trend Import Car of the Year judging staff whenever the '97 BMW 5 Series was discussed. In one fell swoop, Bayerische Motoren Werke has created a machine that not only is more stylish, more luxurious, and more fun to drive than its predecessor, but one that also effectively raises the bar in this highly competitive class.

Choose the model and performance level that suits your taste, and the 5 Series can be anything from a pure Teutonic luxury cruiser to an autobahn-eating muscle sedan capable of 0-60 mph in 5.6 seconds.

In selecting our Import Car of the Year, we considered every all-new or extensively revised vehicle that's on sale by January 1, 1997, and is classified as an import by the EPA. The judging criteria involve evaluating the overall package of each eligible player, including technical and dynamic aspects, ergonomics, passenger accommodations, build quality, and value, as well as the vehicle's significance in its respective market segment and the overall automotive scene. From this year's exceptional field of candidates one entrant rose to the top of our tally sheets: the new BMW 5 Series.

This fourth generation of BMW's midlevel luxury-performance sedan builds on the strengths of its predecessors, refining and elevating the genre while retaining the basic essence of those illustrious forebears. In awarding it our Golden Calipers, we recognize this latest-iteration 5 Series as the new overall category leader and proudly name it the Motor Trend 1997 Import Car of the Year.

Engineered For Excellence Comprehensively improving what was already one of the world's best sport-luxury machines proved no mean feat. The 5 Series team, headed by project leader Carl-Peter Forster, devised a bold new take on the theme: Larger inside, sleeker outside, with upgraded ergonomics, better fuel economy, and enhanced vehicle dynamics, this new 5 Series-in six-cylinder 528i or V-8 540i guise-offers a choice of engines, transmissions, and suspensions that allows buyers to select a combination that best suits their personalities and monthly budgets.

The fundamental structural element of this new BMW is its precision-crafted unibody. Combining advanced computer design with a copious amount of high-strength steel, its incredibly stout skeleton boasts 81.8 percent more torsional rigidity and 40.4 percent greater bending resistance than the previous model. Revised front and rear crush structures, which greatly improve offset crash survivability, surround a reinforced central cell, while upgraded side-impact door beams provide nearly 84 percent more resistance to intrusion. These are supplemented by BMW's unique interlocking anchor system, which prevents the doors from popping open in case of a severe side impact.

Complementing this exceptional strength is a new level of serenity. Resonant frequencies for the unibody as well as the powertrain and suspension systems have been elevated and effectively decoupled, banishing even more pesky noise and vibration demons and ensuring a smoother, quieter ride regardless of road surfaces. Wrapping this underlayment in aero-optimized sheetmetal, BMW engineers reduced the drag coefficient by about five percent to a tidy 0.30 on the 528i and 0.31 on the 540i.

The Power Is In Your HandsFew cars in this class offer the drivetrain variations of the new 5 Series. Both the 2.8-liter inline-six-with a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic with adaptive controls-and the 4.4-liter V-8-with either a "smart" five-speed auto or six-speed manual-share the basic architecture of their 2.5- and 4.0-liter predecessors. Although each of these DOHC four-valve-per-cylinder gems is a ready revver, BMW elected to forego more top-end power in favor of extra low- and midrange torque, a move that also netted slight gains in EPA fuel-economy numbers.