Grille test: BMW 525d xDrive Touring

So: 525d xDrive Touring. The first piece of the label means that under the hood is a two-liter four-cylinder turbodiesel. Yes, you read that right, two-liter and four-cylinder. Gone are the days when brand #25 on a BMW meant, say, an inline-six engine. The times of "recession" have come, turbo engines have returned. And that's not bad. For such a machine, 160 kilowatts or 218 "horses" are enough. He is not an athlete, but always agile and sovereign, even at higher, shall we say, highway speeds. That under the hood is a four-cylinder, you won’t even know from the cab that it’s a turbo, even (only in some places you hear how the turbine whistles softly). And the eight-speed automatic transmission delivers a virtually uninterrupted supply of power and torque. xDrive? The famous, proven and excellent all-wheel drive BMW. You won't notice it in normal driving, and in the snow (let's say) it's only noticeable because it's actually completely unnoticeable. The car just goes - and yet economical, according to the results of several hundred kilometers of the test, a good nine liters have been used up.

Drive? A variant of the van body, with a long but rather shallow trunk. Otherwise (still) the back bench is divided by one third incorrectly - two thirds are on the left, not on the right. That the exact opposite is true is already known to most car manufacturers, BMW is one of the few that continues to be wrong.

What about accessories? Two grand for (very good) leather. Electricity and memory for the front seats - a thousand kind and essentially unnecessary. Sports seats in the front: 600 euros, very welcome. Projection sensors (HeadUp projector): a little less than one and a half thousand. Big. Best Audio System: Thousands. For some it's necessary, for others it's superfluous. Advantage package (air conditioning, auto-dimming rear-view mirror, xenon headlights, PDC parking sensors, heated seats, ski bag): two and a half thousand, everything you need. Business package (Bluetooth, navigation, LCD meters): three and a half thousand. Expensive (due to navigation) but yes, necessary. Heat Comfort package (heated seats, steering wheel and rear seats): six hundred. Given that heated front seats are already included with the Advantage package, this is not necessary. Aiming package (auto-dimming rear-view mirrors, xenons, automatic switching between high and low beam, direction indicators): excellent. And the Surround View package: rear view cameras and side cameras that give a complete overview of what is happening next to the car: 350 euros. Also highly desirable. And what little else was on the list.

Make no mistake: some of these packages are more expensive in the price list, but since hardware items are also duplicated between packages, they are actually cheaper in the long run. So you don't pay twice for xenon headlights.

Final price? 73 thousand. A lot of money? Highly. Drago? Not really.

Text: Dusan Lukic, photo: Sasha Kapetanovic, Dusan Lukic

BMW 525d xDrive station wagon

Basic data

Technical information

engine:	4-cylinder - 4-stroke - in-line - turbodiesel - displacement 1.995 cm3 - maximum power 160 kW (218 hp) at 4.400 rpm - maximum torque 450 Nm at 1.500-2.500 rpm.
Energy transfer:	the engine drives all four wheels - 8-speed automatic transmission - tires 245/45 R 18W (Continental ContiWinterContact).
Capacity:	228 km/h top speed - 0-100 km/h acceleration in 7,3 s - fuel consumption (ECE) 6,6/5,0/5,6 l/100 km, CO2 emissions 147 g/km.
Mass:	empty vehicle 1.820 kg - permissible gross weight 2.460 kg.
External dimensions:	length 4.907 mm – width 1.860 mm – height 1.462 mm – wheelbase 2.968 mm – trunk 560–1.670 70 l – fuel tank XNUMX l.