Up Close with the BMW 5-series Gran Turismo

BMW recently gave us, and a few other journalists, a chance to poke around the upcoming 5-series Gran Turismo during a visit to its Spartanburg, South Carolina, plant. In person the Gran Turismo looks far less silly than the official photographs suggest, and it even looks good from the front. The best part of our walk-around was seeing all the configurations of the rear seats and trunk. The second row comes in either a three-seat bench that manually slides fore and aft or a powered, two-seat configuration. With the back seats all the way forward, leg room is equal to the 5-series at a snug 2.87 inches. Maximum leg room is 6.65 inches, which is right in between that of the 750i (4.08 in) and the 750Li (9.37 in). Sitting in the back was plenty comfortable for me (I’m of average height) but one of the taller people in the crowd said the headroom was tight. BMW is trying really hard to avoid any hatchback stigma with the GT, and so the cargo area can work as a regular trunk. There’s even a hard partition behind the rear seats. With the wall latched down and the horizontal cargo cover in place,

the minimum cargo space is 15.5 cubic feet. You can also pop the release for the dividing wall so it presses right up against the rear seats, and with the second row all the way forward cargo space increases to 20.8 cubes. With everything folded down (the cargo cover stores under the trunk floor) the Gran Turismo has 60.0 cubic feet of space behind the rear seats. Like many other automotive journalists, I have a soft spot in my heart for the wagon. Sadly, most of the car-buying public doesn’t share our enthusiasm for car-like performance and fuel economy with SUV versatility. BMW is gambling that shoppers see the Gran Turismo as a new type of vehicle. Personally, I hope it works if for no other reason than to reward BMW for taking a chance, which could inspire more automakers to try out something new for a change. Read more about the 5-series GT: 2010 BMW 5-series Gran Turismo – Official Photos and Info Related posts: BMW 5-series Gran Turismo Concept – Auto Shows 2010 BMW 5-series Gran Turismo BMW 5-series Gran Turismo Concept – Car News

Excerpt from:
Up Close with the BMW 5-series Gran Turismo