2017 BMW 540I SALOON DRIVING POV/REVIEW // A GENUINE BARGAIN?!

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When you think value for money a 6-cylinder 340 horsepower BMW probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind is it well oddly enough the art of depreciation has potentially created one of the best deals I’ve seen in a while let’s have a look around this 2017 BMW

540i my name’s Tom and you’re watching Paragon cars let’s Go wooo That’s right there’s money to be saved in buying a big old BMW barge oh God that sounds ridiculous when I say it out loud but just hear me out for a sec this car as it sits is listed for just under £24,000 and if you look for a similar aged and mileage BMW

M140i you’re looking for around £20,000 so for an extra 4 grand you get the same engine and gearbox a whole lot more Tech like seriously this thing even has a Bowers and Wilkin sound system and X drive all-wheel drive a system that you can’t get on the m140i in the UK

Well unless you fit it yourself of course I’ll get on to the rest of the cool stuff it has in a minute but first more about the running gear being a 40i you have the Glorious b58 in line 6 it has 340 horsepower and 450 newm of

Torque why is it glorious though you ask well not only is it shockingly reliable especially for a BMW it can quite happily be tuned to over 400 horsepower with a few bolt-on mods and an email in its stock form though it’s still a buttery smooth torque filled inline 6

Engine I suppose we should see how well it can do the 30 to 70 Sprint let’s find Out so we managed 4.35 seconds that’s faster than a Mercedes A35 AMG and only 0.15 of a second off of an Audi S3 impressive figures when you consider this thing weighs around 1.7 tons as well compared to the m140i of course it’s slower by about half a second but

That’s to be expected when carrying an extra queso around with you I wonder how many people got that one now then the all important interior what doesn’t extra four grand get you well for starters you obviously get heops more room in the front and in the rear of the

Car you also get adaptive cruise the display key not that it’s all that useful and the eard drum shattering Bowers and Wilkin sound system seriously this system be good unfortunately where this Five series Falls a bit short though is in its boot and that’s for one

Reason and one alone you can’t fold the rear seats down yeah knowing BMW it’s an optional extra o at least the space that is there is still pretty large but if you want a new TV you might have to think of Home Delivery anyway let’s get barging shall

We oo so firstly I’m a bit of an audio file and uh that’s a quite a dangerous word if you say it wrong but yes I am one and this bow Wilkin sound system is chef’s kiss it is awesome definitely worth the money over the harman Carden system and definitely worth the money

Over the standard system Harmon Carden system is good and it’s fine but if you really want the best out of your sound system this is the one to go for and if you want the best out of the suspension as well you’re going to want to go for

The dynamic ride in this thing because again it is just so much better than the standard suspension I mean it’s like driving over a cloud in Comfort mode you hit speed bumps and they’re almost imperceivable and uh that’s aided actually by the fact you’ve got acoustic glass and an acoustic roof liner you

Might not think the roof would Aid sound coming into the cabin but it stops sound from reverberating and that’s the most important thing when you have empty space in a car but yeah to drive this thing is just lovely I mean it’s just a big barge isn’t it really so

There’s very little to complain about and yeah the thing is it’s got a lot of optional extras but it’s now depreciated right so you can buy it for Mid 20,000 which is a bit of a steal when I think about it because I bought my BMW m140i with admittedly 20,000 less miles

On it for a similar price as this is listed on the Paragon cars we website now uh by the way if you want to check out the car I’ll put a link down in the description um if it’s not there then the car is sold sorry you missed it but anyway parking this

Thing is it’s okay so I’d say the Audi A6 is a little bit easier to park as it’s just a bit more of a boxy shape but as BMWs go this is actually quite good uh this has the full sort of reverse camera system with lines telling you where you’re

Going to go so if you change your steering angle you know where the car is going to end up and it is really good actually this iDrive system is fantastic parking sens is really accurate and one thing I Really Love Actually are these little Graphics showing you just how

Close you are to objects because a they work and B at night especially it has actually saved me on the old occasion where there’s been like a black Ballard that you can’t necessarily see and then it still comes up with like one of these rectangles and you go H there’s

Something there so it always stops you from crashing into stuff which is nice oh I forgot then opening your door when you’re in a space yeah you can see we’re quite close to the white line so sometimes you can’t get to the first Notch which is a bit of a shame but it’s

Kind of worth it because you know it’s a bit more insulated a bit more comfortable than the BMW 3 Series we’ll see how much less sporty it is later but for now let’s have a taste of this x drive system and uh see how this thing does out of a

Junction right just give it half throttle and it’s wet today who my Lord b58 zf8 speeed gearbox and X Drive is a combination made in heaven it is a lovely thing and it just you know the engine’s not trying hard the gearbox Blends the gears together and the X drive system just

Works it feels rear wheeel drive but is always there to sort of just get you going if you need it uh right let’s reset our trip computer now according to BMW this thing on the combined cycle will do 40 mil per gallon but the problem is although the b58 is a very efficient

Engine it’s not so good when you start adding quite a bit of weight now we’re not talking BMW X5 kind of weight or X7 even but we are talking Five series which you know we’re talking about 1.7 tons which is quite a hefty machine so hopefully we can get mid-30s

At least uh if we do see 40 MPG though I’ll be very impressed and for me at least that’s kind of one of its shortcomings cuz the BMW 530d we reviewed if you want to go and see that I’ll put a link up in the top right hand

Corner was very quick also had X drive also very responsive also very comfortable and it did 70 m per gallon which is pretty much unheard of in that segment of cars so if you’re doing a lot of Motorway miles this might not be the car for you but if you’re driving around

Town or you just want something that’s the petrol equivalent of the 530 or 40 or 50d this is a really nice car to have the way it drives as well I would say is probably about the same as the 530 just because the b58 has so much low down

Torque like if I just I I can’t I’m already at 30 if I slow down a bit and then just tickle the thr yeah just kind of Glides up to speed which is nice right as usual before we get on the motorway let’s take this thing round

Around about and have a little bit of fun okay then let’s go sports mode we’ll just go into sports plus that’s what we want this will firm up the suspension because again we have those adapted dampers let’s turn the traction control off get the gearbox into sports as well and and I’m not

Going to go for manual yet I’m just going to leave it in sports and see what it does uh but yeah it drops a couple of Gears also tells you what gear you’re in and makes the gear shifts a little bit more aggressive we also have Dynamic

Steering so it’s just a little bit heavier but yeah this thing being X Drive is very quick and it does just kind of put the power down really get a nice amount of noise from that b-58 engine although I have to say a lot of it is a kind pumped in um but

Yeah it’s just got so much grunt this thing I’ll say it again even though I say it all the time the b-58 really is one of the best engines out there at the minute nothing in this kind of mid-range segment comes close uh when it comes to

Mercedes or Audi this engine is just amazing right into Eco see what this thing is like on the motorway get the track traction back on as well uh but yeah supposed to do 40 MPG but the thing is if you’re buying a car like this you don’t necessarily care too

Much about your MPG as long as it’s not abysmal you kind of care more about how far you can go without having to fill up this is where the b58 really comes into its own so you can see we’re in Eco now coming onto the motorway and you literally just tickle the

Throttle and you Glide up to your Des desired speed it is just a wonderful engine this car is also equipped with adaptive cruise control which is a really rare option actually haven’t found many cars that seem to have it but um the BMW system I would say it’s it’s

Pretty much like the Audi system you just press your button whack your cruise control on there we go it’s on now set it to 70 mph in your heads up display and that’s about it you can also turn lane assist on as well and then it comes

Up with a little steering wheel in the heads up display I don’t know if you can actually see that maybe I slat down a bit but then it’ll steer for me as well so if I just hold my fingers here you’ll see we’re kind of on a little bit of a Bend

Now but yeah it just keeps you in lane and then shouts at you because it thinks you’re not holding the steering wheel uh but yeah overall a pretty nice system I think obviously you can change your following distance as well um most of the time in the UK you’re going to leave

It on the minimum setting that’s just because if you don’t and you’re in the passing Lane people will undertake you because they think you’re leaving too much space which is ironic considering you’re leaving a safe amount of space but yeah anyway this thing on the motorway absolutely awesome absolutely

Sublime very little road noise very little wind noise and the seats very comfortable seating position as well is really nice BMW always seems to get that right it’s just a great car to munch miles in so comfortable and with that air suspension it’s it’s just even better I

Mean it’s just so soft I mean it it’s 90% as good as a Mercedes S-Class I’d say the only thing that the S-Class does slightly better is ironing out the little harsher bumps but this is very good at the bigger kind of undulations it just keeps the body nice and flat and

You just don’t really feel anything very very comfortable car oh dear we’ve got a lot of water Cy yes if you hadn’t noticed it’s raining today as it is pretty much every day in the UK by the way if you can see a little crack in the wind screen and a

Couple of marks on the wheels in the intro it’s just because this car hasn’t been prepped for sale yet so don’t worry all that stuff’s getting sorted um but yeah I think it’s about time we get on the most way and see what kind of MPG figure we can actually Manage so yeah as you can see we sat in traffic for most of that which is a bit of pants um and yeah we managed 34.5 MPG which fundamentally for a big petrol powered relatively high power car is not bad however the 530d which is not far off this in terms of

Speed does literally double the mpg so yeah if you do a lot of Motorway miles I will just say go for that engine um but if you mainly do Town miles and then the occasional road trip like I do then something like this is the pck that I’d go for I

Think anyway one good thing about petrol is that it has an actual exhaust note as standard so let’s go and see how this thing sounds and how this thing drives on a B- road now let go all right then back in Sports Plus got the traction and

Sports as well I’m going to go for a manual gearbox this time just because the zf8 speeed transmission is a lovely thing we’re going to see how this 5 handles we’re going to see how it differs from the estate actually if you want to go and see that review I’ll put

A link up in the top right hand corner but for now I think we should potentially give it some okay so steering not its strong suat but engine Mighty look at that I mean yeah the 30 to 70 time space for itself right it’s a quick

Car and just think it’s the b58 the tuning potential of this thing is mindboggling yeah absolutely crazy car people that take these up to stage three power you’re looking at basically keeping up with a BMW M5 competition which is just nuts really when you think about it and save quite a bit of

Money and thing is it’s still reliable right let’s do a little sound check for this tunnel so yeah it does sound good but there are a lot of filters and things going on in the exhaust that silence the sound because at the end of the day this

Is supposed to be a big comfy barge it’s not even really a proper M sport car so you’re going to have to mod the exhaust to get a bit of sound out of it but when you do it does sound nice handling wise though it’s just a very neutral

Chassis typical BMW really it’s just really Pleasant you feel exactly what the car is doing underneath your bum and even though this is a bit heavier than the BMW 3 Series it’s just it masks its weight very well and I think because we’ve got the Adaptive air suspension on

This it firms up the dampers enough that it controls its body really well actually doesn’t roll too much in the corners yeah obviously give it a little bit of gas and you can uh get the back end to kind of start scrolling around a bit oh my Lord third gear is good in This but the good thing about this as well so if I go into sixth gear so 1500 RPM that’s where we get the full 450 Newton m plant my foot you can see it just builds but it’s effortless at the same time doesn’t sound like the engine’s

Trying and I mean really it’s not cheating potential uh will tell you all you need to know about the um potential of this Engine but yeah more about the suspension actually so is it worth going for the Adaptive dampers I would absolutely Ely say yes purely because if you either go for M sport suspension or just the sport suspension they’re not you know they don’t really do either thing quite well

Enough the comfort is kind of okay and then they don’t really do the sporty thing that well either so you kind of left it this like weird in between bit between good suspension and bad suspension whereas this yeah absolutely worth every penny I must say obviously maintenance fees are going to be a

Little bit higher but I think it’s still worth it it’s just like the bars and wilin system it’s like expensive but it’s a secondhand car now so most of the depreciations come out of it so you don’t really have to worry too much brakes M sport brakes again feel

Not amazing but it gets the job done at the end of the day give it a little tickle we are running on all season tires by the way so um I can’t go too crazy otherwise I’ll end up shredding them but uh yeah no it’s just I just love BMWs

Cuz they’re so predictable and I know we do a lot of reviews on them but there’s a reason for that you know at the end of the day we’re a dealership and we sell these cars and the reason we’re selling these is because they’re good cars fundamentally BMW are making absolutely

Awesome stuff at the minute they’re absolutely cooking and uh yeah they’re just really really on fire making some really good cars yeah their six-cylinder engines are just awesome I can’t think of really any other brand out there that makes better engines at the minute and the days of BMWs being

Unreliable are pretty much over really at least mechanically electronically they do have a bit of a ways to go still but what a lovely thing this is and the thing is p air suspension gives you the best of both worlds you’ve got perfect Comfort like as I said before

90% as good as Mercedes S-Class but you’ve also got a sporty Edge to a point where it’s not quite like obviously M5 stiff but it’s stiff enough that it controls its mass we’re going to really put it to the test now though because we’re going to take this thing down a B-

Road and see how it handles that right let’s see how this big barge can handle a small and pot old British B- Road oh God this engine is just crazy man so much power steering I mean you know what the car’s doing right but just doesn’t have all that much

Feel air suspension wow yeah okay it deals with the bumps really well Actually And coming around here tuck it in yeah the tires don’t have too much grip I think even in the wet summer Tires would be a little bit better than this okay can we hit 60 before the corner let’s Go yeah cool course we can right tuck it in over Here bit of a beast this Thing all right we are going to have to slow down now because there’s very deep Puddles over this Bump yeah air suspension does its job really well actually keeps you in contact with the ground very well I must say and yeah you know what the car is doing I think I just have a bit more feel if we were on some summer Tires foot Down yeah do you know what the more time I spend in this the better the steering is getting or at least the more intuitive it’s getting could definitely be better though it’s just such a weapon so understated yet so fast Inc Capable yeah definitely has a bit of a bell balance than the estate car does it just feels a bit more Nimble on the rear end But you can’t fold the seats down So would I go for the estate Still it’s a hard one really I think for me personally do you know what even though I do generally prefer estate cars I don’t think I would because I very rarely need a big boot and and yeah I just think I’d go for the saloon I think it handles a bit

Better yeah I think it does and I think the estate is you know it’s quite heavy and you can feel the weight on it but this spec I think for me personally I’d go with the cognac leather which is like a brown leather interior not Everyone likes that though

But I do quite like it and I’d definitely go for the BMW sound or the bars and Walkin sound and also the Adaptive dampers because that air suspension and the sound system are actually well worth the money especially when you consider it’s now a used car and most of the depreciation has come

Out of it so you’re not really paying that much more for these optional extras the only thing I wouldn’t really bother with is this display key I think it is a bit of a gimmick but um yeah it’s a talking point at a party especially after a few

Points but yeah overall an absolutely fantastic car and well worth the money and you know what I think if you’re not really looking for a hot hatch I think this is a much better value proposition than the BMW m140i is to think you know they’re not far off in

Terms of price if you’re looking for a like for- likee car that means like same year same mileage you’re talking like four or five grand and when you consider you could get something that’s got a sound system as good as this it’s got adaptive cruise control air suspension it’s comfortable it’s got

More space a bigger boot yeah I think it’s a very good value for money car and one that’s really underrated actually especially when you consider it’s got X drive and you know still fairly good fuel economy around town and it’s still blisteringly fast you know you still get

The b58 engine at the end of the Day it’s a very good value car anyway as always if you enjoy this content please give it a like and why not subscribe is not only can you see more content like this you can see everything we have for sale my name’s Tom and you’ve been watching Paragon cars I’ll see you on

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