It's not even in dealer showrooms yet, but the 2017 5 Series is already gathering awards—plural. Earlier in the week it was named the 2017 Car Of The Year by Britain's What Car? magazine, and on Friday it received the EyesOnDesign Best Designed User Experience Award. The EyesOnDesign awards are the officially sanctioned design awards for the 2017 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), and they represent the best production and concept vehicles that made their worldwide premiere at the NAIAS.
We expect that this is not the last time we will hear of the seventh-generation 5 Series held in high regard by judging panels for its technology and design working in harmony, which is what the EyesOn Design judges liked about it. With the latest iDrive 6.0 user interface, BMW Gesture Control, the latest iteration BMW Head-Up Display, Remote 3D View, and an improved Voice Control with natural voice input, the new G30 5 Series is the most innovative 5 Series so far and excels in personal connectivity.
The 2017 5 Series, which was represented at the 2017 NAIAS by the 530i, 540i, 530e iPerformance, and M550i xDrive, feature some of BMW's latest driver assistance and semi-automated driving functions, such as Remote Control Parking and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems
Ludwig Willisch, President and CEO of BMW of North America, was justifiably proud of the new 5 Series and the technology it contains, saying “BMW has long been a pioneer in advanced Human Machine Interface (HMI) technologies and the new 5 Series brings together everything we have learned in our 100-year history. It is truly an honor to receive this prestigious award from EyesOnDesign for the Best Designed User Experience on the all-new BMW 5 Series.”
Base prices on the new 2017 5 Series run from $52,195 for the 530i sDrive to $73,095 for the M550i xDrive, both including the destination and handling fee.
The 2017 BMW 530i, 530i xDrive, 540i, and 540i xDrive should start arriving at U.S. dealerships in February. The 530e iPerformance and M550i xDrive will be available in the spring.
There was quite a bit of nice hardware at the NAIAS this year and we would have to say the competition for the EyesOn Design Award must have been stiff. It's nice the see the new 5 getting these accolades right out of the gate.—Scott Blazey
[Photos courtesy of BMW AG.]
