This estate-car car does it all. It can be a limo, whisking you along in luxury for your night on the town. This huge car can be transformed into what feels like a sports saloon, thanks to its computer assisted steering and self-levelling air springs. If you need to lug stuff down to the dump, there’s all the room you need with the rear seats folded down flat. Holidays for all the family and their luggage? A breeze.

OK, so you don’t look down on the rest of the traffic from on high. But also, if you manage to drive so stupidly that you override all the computerised safety aids, you are never likely to roll this machine.

The final bonus for buyers of the 5-series Touring is that it isn’t so ugly as its saloon sibling. The estate-car addition at the back seems to bring the design together. While the saloon is all conflicting angles and strange shapes ending with that bizarre rear end, the Touring seems nicely uncomplicated, even understated.

Twin Turbo Charged
The 5-series Touring, which goes on sale across Europe in the middle of May, has a choice of four powerplants – a 2.5 litre straight six and a 4.0 litre V8 petrol – and 2.5 and 3.0 litre diesels. In September, BMW will also make available a revolutionary twin turbo charged diesel for the Touring, and the 5-series saloon.

This new engine boosts power output from its 6-cylinder 3-litre oil burner by about 25 per cent, and has been developed from high-performance boat engines, using what BMW calls multi-stage turbocharging to boost power and efficiency. The technology broadens the engine’s rev range by 500 rpm to a maximum 4,800 rpm. Fuel efficiency remains about the same.

Head Up Display
Six speed manual gearboxes are standard. The optional automatic has six speeds. I drove the 3.0 litre diesel and V8 4.0 litre versions around Munich in March, and although the V8 is a magnificent beast, the 3.0 litre diesel is still the pick of the bunch. The diesel has an amazing top speed of 242 km/h or 150 mph. BMW claims an average of 40.4 mpg (8.0 litres/100 kms). The 3.0 litre diesel I drove had a “head-up display” (HUD), which projects the speed on to a virtual space beyond the windscreen. This makes it easy to verify your speed without looking down and away from the road to the dashboard. Instructions from the satellite navigation system are also displayed. I often find that the most comfortable driving position for me means that the steering blocks my view of the dashboard and the speedometer. With HUD, this is a thing of the past.

Active Steering
The computer-assisted steering, also known as Active Steering, does a fine job and don’t listen to those motoring magazine writers who will tell you that this somehow takes away “feel” and “feedback” from the drive. The Active Steering simply makes a sharp drive all the better, and becomes a huge plus when reversing into a tight spot. No more arm-twirling with this system.
“With Active Steering you now have to turn the steering wheel just twice instead of three times…. in order to move the wheel completely from right to left. Manoeuvring becomes child’s play” is how BMW puts it.

The rear door opens and shuts automatically. Another neat touch – the car has two additional rear brake lights. The extra ones are activated under emergency braking, or when the ABS system decides to take action, to give early warning to following traffic that the braking is not just routine. The “Adaptive” headlights, (an optional extra) spread the beam to illuminate an upcoming bend “ensuring that the driver is no longer obliged to steer his car into a kind of black hole”.

Bigger, Lighter
The new 5-series Touring is bigger in every way than its predecessor, but its about 50 kilos or 110 pounds lighter thanks to more use of aluminium.

Its claim to be able to carry four golf bags in the luggage compartment, makes mincemeat of my two-golf bag test.