BMW heads away from gasoline
With oil now well over $100 a barrel, we are all going to
have to dig deeper to keep our cars in fuel each week. All
this falls right into the hands of auto manufacturers
offering something other than straight petrol engined motor
cars.
BMW has been offering diesel variants in many countries for
quite some time, and the flow-on is now coming to Thailand,
with a diesel 3 Series just being released. Interestingly,
in the US which has been very slow to embrace diesel
technology, BMW is talking about releasing all-electric
versions of its cars by 2010 (and GM already has their
all-electric Volt).
BMW
520d
However, back to BMW diesels, and the overseas columnists
have been raving about the new 5 Series 520d. Words such as
performance, economy, ride comfort, ‘proper’ tyres and value
are being applied to this car, though some negatives such as
outside noise, iDrive and suspension thumping are mentioned.
As an aside, I wonder how long it will take BMW to realize
that nobody likes their iDrive, to my mind one of the most
cumbersome ways of changing any of the controls inside the
car. Having driven an X3 the other day, it was wonderful to
be able to lower the volume by turning a simple knob to the
left, rather than iDriving my way into the radio menu and
then selecting lower volume and stabbing some knob or lever
to do it.
GoAuto had this to say about the new small diesel 5 Series.
“BMW has good reason to expect a revival of 5 Series diesel
sales with the introduction of the new 520d - a
four-cylinder variant that comes in a remarkable $35,000
under the only other variant, the six-cylinder 530d.
“As well as being much cheaper, it is of course also much
more economical and, although it lacks the 530d’s impressive
off-line acceleration, overall performance of the 520d is
hardly lacking as it reaches 100 km/h from rest in a useful
8.6 seconds.
“That might be 1.5 seconds slower than its bigger sibling,
but it is a full second faster than the recently released X3
2.0d, which is powered by the same engine.
“The new all-aluminium 2.0 liter common rail turbo-diesel
engine is also shared with the little 120d (which we are
spared from - it is pug ugly) and soon the compact 320d
sedan, developing 125 kW of power at 4000 rpm and 340 Nm of
torque from 1750 to 4000 rpm, and is nicely mated with BMW’s
smooth-shifting Steptronic six-speed automatic transmission.
“There is little diesel clatter to be heard inside the 5
Series at idle or low revs, so it should be quiet to drive
around town, but it certainly sounds like a diesel from the
outside.
“Our launch drive on rural and mountain proved the 520d to
be capable and refined, offering good overtaking ability and
quiet cruising, ticking over at just 2100 rpm at 110 km/h on
the freeway.
“We found the engine to be a little coarse in the upper rev
range (where you don’t want to be anyway), but it was
otherwise very smooth and delivered strong performance for
quite a big and heavy car, while returning good economy.
“The official combined fuel figure of 6.1 L/100 km is
outstanding and, while our test figure was closer to 8.0
L/100 km, this included some fairly spirited driving and
some heavy climbing.
“A nice surprise was the level of ride comfort in the big
sedan, the result of having ‘normal’ tyres because run-flats
are not available for the 16-inch wheels fitted to the 520d.
It is therefore able to absorb bumps better than its more
expensive siblings while still offering plenty of grip. (Are
you listening, BMW, we don’t like the harsh run-flats
either!)
“Not even a little floatiness and a higher-than-expected
level of noise transfer to the interior from bumps could
spoil the overall driving experience with the 520d.
“The stability control does a superb job of keeping the car
on track without being too intrusive and, although the
steering could do with more on-center feel, it is very
well-weighted at speed while still being light for parking.
“It is also an extremely comfortable car, with good seats
and excellent ergonomics, although the iDrive system –
improved as it is with the addition of ‘favorites’ buttons –
still infuriates with its unnecessary complexity. (Are you
listening BMW?)
“Priced $5000 below the similarly-equipped 523i – and with
better performance (half a second faster to 100 km/h),
two-thirds the fuel use and 10 per cent lower emissions than
the petrol-engined model – the 520d makes a strong case for
buying a premium diesel-engined sedan.”
While I honestly believe that the future automobile world
will be electric, in the short term, the Euro-diesels make
good economic and environmental sense.
Putting money on the
wrong horse
Motorcycle
carnage again?
The Land Transport Department, in a
public relations extravaganza show, has arranged a “Car
Check-up for Road Safety” encouraging drivers to get their
cars checked for safety before the annual Songkran
bloodbath. GM and Mitsubishi have leaped aboard the
bandwagon, offering free check-ups at their service centers,
who will no doubt find something wrong and sell some spares
and labor to fit.
Since around 85 percent of all the road fatalities over
Songkran involves motorcycles and alcohol, these free
check-ups will do precious little. They manage to ban
alcohol during elections, how about over Songkran? That
would make more sense from a humanitarian standpoint.
Autotrivia Quiz
Last week I asked: what was the only British GP to be
abandoned because of the weather? It was a 1951 Silverstone
race which was abandoned after six laps because of a
torrential downpour.
So to this week. What was the first motor car to be designed
and built as a complete engineering entity, rather than
cobbled together with odd bits and pieces. Clue, it was
built by two brothers in 1895, though production models were
not made until 1900.
For the Automania FREE beer this week, be the first correct
answer to email [email protected]
Good luck!
What did we learn from
the Malaysian GP?
Well, the first thing we learned was that it was
darned hot. David Coulthard (Red Bull) was seen walking
around with an ice bag on his head before the start. Or
perhaps he had celebrated too much after qualifying?
Kimi Raikkonen (Ferrari) deserved his win, having been fast
all weekend, and his ability to put in storming laps
immediately before and after a pit stop is what gets him
leap-frogging other drivers. This is exactly the way Michael
Schumacher drove to his world championships. Kimi has
learned well.
His team mate, the little Brazilian Felipe Massa has again
shown he is quick, but seems to lack the total package. He
fell off all by himself and it was simply driver error. At
that level in a top team like Ferrari, there are no excuses.
Massa must improve, or find himself without a renewal clause
on his contract.
After the Australian GP, McLaren promised so much, and quite
frankly underachieved in Malaysia. Hamilton showed spirit
and tiger on the first lap, and then went backwards from
there. He was unable to pass Mark Webber (Red Bull), despite
having a faster car. McLaren again demonstrated peculiar
strategy, keeping him out on soft tyres for two stints, when
he was quicker on the harder choice, and then cocked up his
first pit stop with difficulty removing the right front
wheel, having had a similar problem during practice.
Kovalainen drove well to third place, but without any real
fire. McLaren need a better strategist if they are to beat
Ferrari this year.
Williams were right out of it this time, as opposed to the
wonderful start to the year in Australia. Both drivers did
not do well in Qualifying and Kamikaze Nakajima knew he
would get a 10 grid spot penalty following his aggressive
behavior in Melbourne. It was interesting to read the
Williams post-race PR sheet where Naka said, “From the back
of the grid, we decided upon quite an aggressive strategy.”
I hardly think he needs encouragement! However, Rosberg
managed to clash with Glock (Toyota) on the first lap and
consequently became a back marker. A first lap lesson still
not learned.
BMW get stronger and stronger, and Kubica had the nose for a
podium position all the way. When Massa fell off, Kubica
inherited second place and stayed there easily. Heidfeld did
not display the form he had in Australia. Perhaps he too was
wilting in the heat.
Toyota has rolled up its hara-kiri mats, as they are not
needed now that Trulli has done so well. Fourth, and beating
Hamilton, will give the Japanese bosses something to smile
about. Glock is a problem, however.
Honda are still mid-field, but better than they appeared in
the early year testing days. Jenson Button saying, “It was
good to finish the full race distance today and we will get
a lot of very useful information from this weekend. I’m
pretty satisfied with 10th place as that is where the
performance of the car is right now.” That is the driver who
had designs on being world champion. He should not be happy
with 10th.
Officialdom raised its head (again) with both McLaren
drivers demoted for going slowly on their slow down laps and
penalized five places. None of the drivers involved appear
to have complained, so it seems the stewards are brandishing
the big sticks again. Having been a competitor for many
years, I do not have a high opinion of race stewards who, in
my opinion, tend to come from a pool of frustrated wannabe
drivers.
Bangkok International
Motor Show
As you are reading this, I will be in Bangkok for
my annual visit to BITEC for the Bangkok International Motor
Show. There will be some very interesting vehicles released
at the show, including a cheap one-tonne pick-up from Indian
carmaker Tata called the Xenon, some new RHD Mercedes models
(the SL 350 and SLK 200K) in their ‘Road to the Future’
display stand celebrating their 10 years in Thailand, plus a
plug-in Volvo C30, which was shown last year in gasoline
form. The C30 is also available in E85 biofuel.
The show opens to the public on March 28 and closes on April
6, and chairman of the organizers, Dr. Prachin Eamlumnow
expects around 1.7 million people to visit the show in that
time. New exhibitors this year include Tata, Hyundai, Proton
and Spyker. Dr. Prachin also said there will be concept
vehicles from Toyota, Honda, Nissan, GM, Hyundai and Proton.
Bangkok
International Motor Show
