Morning Call Article

Morning Call

October 11,1986

Money may not be able to buy everything but it certainly can buy an interesting car. Take, for example, the BMW 528e, the German automaker's mid-range, mid-priced and middle-of-the-road car.

This rather inconspicuous-looking car - styling is so subtle that you may have to look at it a couple of times to begin to appreciate it - offers high quality, fine engineering, several unique features and projects an overall image of what the finer things in life are all about. But, then, when you are paying almost $30,000 for what is essentially a compact, you should get something for your money.

The 528e is positioned between BMW's sporty 325 and luxury 73 5i. As such, it is not as easy to define as the other models. It is not really a car without a personality but the personality is not heavily pronounced. In many ways it is somewhat of a compromise but not a compromise that will cause undue hardship. In other words, if you don't want to spring for the extra $15,000 for the 735i, you could learn to live with the 528e.

The test car (supplied by Daniels Cadillac-BMW, 1327 Tilghman St., Allentown) was painted in a new color for the 1987 model year, salmon silver, which as a fisherman I really could appreciate. The salmon in question is obviously the Atlantic salmon and the color is a somewhat subdued version of BMW's traditional silver. Like the BMW, the color doesn't jump out at you but it does have an expensive look to it.

To begin with basics, the 528e is a five-passenger, four-door sedan with conventional front engine/rear drive. Wheelbase measures 103.3 inches, length 189 inches, width 66.9 inches, height 55.7 inches and it weighs in at 3,075 pounds. Front seat room is quite good and the power seats can be adjusted in a number of ways so that drivers and passengers of all sizes should be able to get comfortable. If the front seats aren't positioned all of the way aft, rear seat passengers will have a reasonable amount of leg room. The trunk, of course, is fully carpeted and measures 16.2 cubic feet.

The overall interior ambiance is, again, that of quiet quality. In traditional German fashion, seating is firm. For someone used to the softer give of a luxury car, this at first may seem a bit Spartan. Firm seating, though, is best appreciated on the long haul and the long haul is one of the 528e's strong points. Instruments and controls are thoughtfully laid-out but it doesn't hurt to read the owner's manual before taking that first solo flight.

Being a BMW, good handling should be expected. The 528e is agile and responsive - though not overly so. The four-wheel independent suspension - double-pivot MacPherson struts up front and Track Link semi- trailing arms in the rear - is basically the same as the suspension system of the 535i (BMW's performance sedan) but tuned for a somewhat softer ride. In the hands of a skillful driver (softer ride or not) the 528e can do tricks.

Antilock braking (ABS) became a standard feature on the 528e for the 1986 model year. I cannot say enough about ABS (whether it be on BMW or any other car). This system will no doubt one day be featured on all cars but right now it is mostly confined to upscale cars. What you may well ask is so good about ABS. For starters, ABS can reduce stopping distances up to 15 percent on dry roads and 40 percent on wet pavement and ice. But, perhaps, most important: No matter how hard the driver brakes, no matter whether it's a curve or straight ahead, rough or smooth road, slick or dry, the car can be steered. And this can mean the difference of having an accident and avoiding one.

The system works through sensors that "read" each wheel's rotation speed. If a wheel's speed decreases suddenly - if it begins to lock up - the sensors relay the information to an electronic control unit, which in turn commands a hydraulic unit to take over. If any individual wheel begins to lock up (more likely to happen in the rain or on ice, snow or gravel but sometimes even on dry pavement), it reduces hydraulic pressure to that wheel's brake. As soon as the wheel begins to rotate normally again, it restores pressure to that brake. All this happens very fast. ABS can "pump" the brakes up to 15 times per second depending on the road surface. Each front brake is pumped individually, the rear brakes separately from the front, something that no driver can do. The bottom line to all of this is that you can lay the brakes on as hard as you can on any type of surface or combination of surfaces (one side dry the other icy) and the car will brake straight and true. Just think of the possibilities.

The 528e is powered by BMW's 2.7 liter/164 cubic inch "eta" single overhead camshaft, inline, six-cylinder engine. The engine features an aluminum crossflow cylinder head with swirl-action hemispherical combustion chambers and electronic fuel injection and develops 121 horsepower at 4,250 rpm and 170 foot pounds torque at 3,250 rpm. This really isn't a whole lot of horses for an engine this size, but it was done on purpose. According to BMW, the accent is not so much on ultimate performance but on excellent response at low-to-medium engine speeds and maximum fuel efficiency (the Greek letter eta is used in engineering as a symbol for efficiency).

Performance is decent - zero-to-60 in about 11 seconds - and fuel mileage is quite good -18 mpg in the city and 26 mpg over the highways. So if this was what BMW intended to accomplish, it certainly did that. (Once again for a comparison, the 535i with its larger engine and 61 more horses can run zero- to-60 in about 7.5 seconds.) The test car's five-speed manual transmission (standard, a four-speed automatic is available) shifted very smoothly and easily. But, again, this is what you are paying for.