BMW 520d 2007 News

It's not every day you drive along a dark, winding road at night, actually willing a kangaroo to hop out in front of you. But where else could we fully test BMW's freaky, futuristic Night Vision system?We had to discount taking it onto a battlefield against similarly equipped tanks, because we don't have the Top Gear TV show's budget.Hunting a group of C-grade actors pretending to be commandos through a jungle, Predator-style, was discounted for similar reasons.The system, a $4000 option on the 5, 6 and 7 Series, uses a thermal-imaging camera to beam hot and steamy footage of the road ahead, some 300m ahead, in fact, to the display screen in the middle of the dash.It works stunningly well, but can also be supremely distracting if you keep it on while driving around town.The really fascinating stuff is all the useless information Night Vision provides you with.Like how much heat comes out of the diff on a four-wheel drive, the fact that some people are, literally, hotter than others, and some have really hot legs, and that you can see the exhaust system glowing on every car in front of you.In fact, every vehicle looks like it's had one of those hoony blue downlights installed.You can also determine, among the parked cars, which ones have been driven most recently.It really does make you feel like the Predator, if the Predator got a job in a bank, started wearing a suit and bought a posh car.The information you're presented with verges on overload, and watching the screen did make two passengers feel physically ill.The fact that, being a bit of a geek, I couldn't take my eyes off the screen was also bordering on dangerous. But the Night Vision system really comes into its own when you get out of town and there's suddenly a lot less heat to see on the screen, allowing you to look at the road, like you're supposed to.This means your eyes are drawn to the Night Vision screen only when something,  a cyclist, a kangaroo, a particularly keen hitch-hiker poping up in the distance.The advantage in this setting is obvious, as the thermal-imaging camera picks up these hot items before the naked eye can.As BMW helpfully points out, about 45 per cent of fatal road accidents occur at night, even though more than two-thirds of all driving is done during the day.And it's a fair bet that our headlight-loving fauna is involved in a disturbing number of those night-time incidents.With that in mind, $4000 doesn't seem like a lotto spend. Even if it saves you only once, it'sa great investment.What is a slight concern is that, until the technology becomes as common as satnav, you're going to have a lot of rich toy boys driving around showing off their Night Vision to their mates, barely having their eyes on the road.The system we tested was installed in a 550i that was so heavily laden with gadgetry it made the space shuttle look like the Wright Brothers' little plane.When we weren't oohing and aahing over the infra-red images, we did notice that it was a fine executive express with plenty of grunt, sweet steering and a smooth ride.If I could just find that $163,900 I lost down the back of the couch (plus $4000 for Night Vision), I'd think about buying one. 

Three new models are being fast-tracked for Australia as BMW meets the demand for extra engine choices.Two will have diesel power and the third will use the classy twin-turbo six that has been a huge hit in the 3 Series sedan and coupe.The diesel is a new 2.0-litre turbo and will be installed in the X3 and 5 Series sedan. The 335i lineup will be extended to include a Touring wagon.The diesels will be on the road before the end of the year and the Touring will reach Australia next year.“We've always wanted to have more diesels. We're had our toe in the water with diesels. And one in five in our end of the market is a BMW. There is potential there,” BMW Australia's Nadine Giusti says.“The 335i Touring is not being brought to set the world on fire, but the engine is very popular and a lot of people are asking for it,” Giusti says.The new X3 and 5 Series turbodiesels will be price leaders, but should still go well with an engine that produces 125kW and 340Nm.The X3 will be priced from $62,500 with a manual gearbox, undercutting the $65,900 of the current 2.5Si and well below the 3.0-litre turbodiesel at $75,900. BMW says it will run to 100km/h in 9.6sec and return fuel economy of 7.0 litres for 100km.“It's a good price point. It should go well,” Giusti says.How many will BMW Australia sell?“It's a lot, but we're not putting a number on it,” she says.Sales of the existing diesel ran about half of all X3 deliveries and the new model is predicted to scoop about one third and boost sales beyond the current level of 1200 cars a year.The new 520d will sell in Australia as an automatic only, with the same equipment of the 523i, for about $115,000. Performance will be 0-100km/h in 8.6sec and fuel economy 6.1 litres/100km.BMW arranged a brief introduction drive for the three newcomers in Germany, and all look pretty good.The 335i Touring has the same punchy performance, excellent flexibility, the latest twin-turbo motor and the back end has enough flexibility to make a case for a performance wagon.The 2.0-litre turbodiesels are not the punchiest of their type, but both the X3 and 5 Series get along fairly well and the price will be attractive.BMW has not finished with model extensions there may be a 535 performance diesel.“We're looking at it. We're looking at it in all the body styles and it hasn't been taken off the field. But we don't want to keep bringing out cars just for the sake of it,” Giusti says. 

The pace at which new technologies are finding their way into cars you can buy off the showroom floor never ceases to amaze.It wasn't that long ago that hi-tech safety devices like a lane-change warning system or night vision, which can pick up objects normally hidden by darkness, were only seen on futuristic cars at international motor shows before they eventually found their way into the most expensive, top-of-the-range luxury models.But computer-savvy consumers, especially those in the prestige market, are hungry for gadgets.As part of a revamp across its sedan range, BMW has fitted both these devices to its mid-range Five Series models for the first time; the lane-change warning system as a $1200 option, while the night vision adds $4000 to the price.The clever lane-change warning system uses a camera fitted near the interior mirror on the windscreen, which looks at the road 50m ahead to keep an eye on painted lane markings.It then works out the position of the car relative to the markings. Should the car start to wander between lanes, say if the driver is starting to fall asleep or through inattention, it sends a wake-up warning by vibrating the steering wheel.If the driver is merely changing lanes and has the indicator on, the warning system is deactivated.BMW says the device begins to work at speeds over 70km/h.The night vision device is probably more important for Australians because 45 per cent of road fatalities happen at night, even though more than two-thirds of all driving is done during the day.BMW's system uses infra-red thermal imaging to pick out the body heat of pedestrians, bike riders and animals on a dark road before they become visible to the human eye in the car's headlights.The system can spot an object up to 300m in front of the car and is not affected by the headlights of an approaching car. An object detected is shown as a black-and-white image on a screen in the middle of the instrument panel.BMW looked at displaying the image on the windscreen as a heads-up display, but tests showed the combination of real-life and virtual images irritated drivers.