Short review of my bro's 2017 540i

Hi all!

My brother bought a used 2017 540i with the M Sport package a few months ago. While I was skeptical of the G30 5 series in 2017, as a ~$33k used car it’s really looking great to me.

The 540i comes from the prior chapter of BMW interior and exterior design, where grills were still small and cabins still had buttons. The conservative styling is just more to my taste than BMW’s current confrontational metalwork. Even though it’s a little dated, I like how the 540i really keeps out the road noise, delivers a comfortable ride, and has plenty of useful and cool features. The M Sport package helps it drive like a BMW sports sedan, too.

The straight-six B58 engine in the 540i is plenty fast, and it’s silly to think how much faster the M550i, M5 and M5 Comp are. We live in an age of horsepower!

Anyway, I had a great time driving the 540i. I’ve got lots more thoughts about the car, but I’ll spare you here. (Full thoughts on my blog.)

Best,
Mike

Great photos! The G series really is a huge step up from the F series in every way possible. I enjoyed driving the G30 loaners, even the 530i with the i4 really moves. They are great daily drivers but does get boring rather quickly. The m sport really makes the car look sharp though!

saw one of your messages in another thread in this forum - spent the rest of the evening reading through your reviews. I especially enjoyed reading the "pick your own adventure" one comparing your E90 to the rest of your fleet. it was when I was shopping for an E9x and your writing on the car helped confirmed a lot of what I was looking for. glad to see another entry on your blog, you have a great knack for writing!

kuiper Thank you for the kind words! I'm glad you enjoyed my choose your own adventure piece. :-)

STooK wrote

I enjoyed driving the G30 loaners, even the 530i with the i4 really moves. They are great daily drivers but does get boring rather quickly. The m sport really makes the car look sharp though!

Interesting that you say they get boring quickly. I could see keeping a 540i as a daily and something small and aggressive like an M2 for the weekends, but I agree that as a one car solution the 540i is pretty tame!