The New BMW 5 Series Saloon. A totally new shape to be launched

Powered by a six-cylinder power unit, the 530i with a 3.0 litre engine producing 231 horsepower, and featuring BMW's unique smooth-silken bi-VANOS spark ignition engines. Acceleration is exhilarant: from 0 to 100 km/h in 6.9 seconds and top speed is 250 km/h.

The new 5 Series combines the dynamics and sporty flair of the 3 Series with the supremacy and presence of the BMW 7 Series. Through its design alone, the new Saloon forms the powerful centrepoint within the BMW model range. The muscular front end with its unmistakable curved headlight clusters featuring dual headlights bear testimony to the car's sporting and dynamic character.

Larger and more spacious than its predecessor, the new 5 Series is lighter due to innovative lightweight construction. The design language of the 5 Series' interior is harmonious featuring clear lines and a sophisticated range of individualized colours and materials. The new Saloon offers more space above all at the rear and has a much larger luggage compartment than its predecessor.

Featuring the world's first Active Front Steering as well as active Dynamic Drive stabilisation as optional equipoment, the new 5 Series allows the driver to enjoy an unprecedented synthesis of agility, handling and driving comfort all in one.

Providing a wide range of run-flat tyres for the new 5 Series, BMW is also enhancing the leadership of the marque in the introduction of such safety tyres with failsafe running characteristics.

Introducing adaptive headlights, BMW is offering yet another networked system in the new 5 Series as an option, thus providing a significant improvement of active safety on the road. With this system, the two bi-xenon headlights are controlled in real time as a function of the steering wheel angle, yaw rate and road speed, perfectly illuminating the road ahead in a bend.

The new 5 Series comes for the first time with Active Cruise Control (ACC). This radar-based assistant is specially developed for driving on the motorway, making it much easier, in particular, to drive smoothly in convoys by automatically controlling the distance from the vehicle ahead.

With the cockpit based on BMW's iDrive philosophy, the new 5 Series is taking on a pioneering role in its class in driver-oriented ergonomics. Yet, the Controller and control Display is specially modified for the 5 Series - as an example, this control system is not featured for the first time together with a gearshift lever in the middle.

The new 5 Series is the fourth generation of the BMW mid-sized family sedan, which has won many awards and has been voted "Best Car of the Year" for six years in a row. Even though the current 5 Series, model year 2003, is in its seventh and last year of its lifecycle, sales in the Middle East are still going strong.

"Now, is the best time for customers who always wanted to buy a 5 Series, at the best value for money and the highest level of options," said Robert Bailey-McEwan, Managing Director of BMW Group Middle East.

The new 5 Series is coming to the Middle East markets in autumn 2003, other variants to follow are the 520i, the 525i the 545i with a V8 power unit displacing 4.4 litres and developing 333 horsepower.