ver, senior managers wielding a company cheque for $40,000 can have their cake and eat it. The 525tds is genuinely economical: running this car rather than the equivalent petrol version for the typical three-year, 100,000 km corporate stint could save 2,000 litres of fuel. The 143 bhp 525 tds diesel concedes very little to the petrol car as far as driving enjoyment is concerned (Lewin, 1996, 30).
By going for a six-cylinder engine, adds Lewin, instead of the four-cylinder diesels of most of its rivals, BMW has eliminated the traditional roughness of the diesel: on the motorway at 140kmh the 2.5-litre 525tds is as refined as a petrol car, and probably more responsive.
The market that the BMW Series 5 is targeting is the upper end of the upmarket, those Brits who think nothing of laying down 40,000 to 53,000 bp. for a car that has both power and class. This is a reaction to what has been described in the British popular press as the concept of big money being back:
Sales of second homes in the country are up. . . Rolls-Royce and BMW are doing better than for several years. The most expensive restaurants are full; so are executive boxes at the theatre and sporting events. Gossip columns have begun to show signs of the return of conspicuous spending: the pounds 13,000 meal out; the pounds 30,000 crate of wine that was drunk rather than laid down; the computer businessman who gave a new BMW to every one of his sales force to land 25 contracts.
According to BMW executives, a more precise description of the typical target for a BMW Series 5 is male, mid-30s, married, and earning 50,000+ pounds a year in an executive or professional position. This ideal target also has at least four credit cards, travels on business at least 12 times a year, and "is slightly disillusioned with his lifestyle" (Scotthall Showroom, Cambridge, 1997).
It was at this showroom that the tale of the computer executive who gave his sales staff new ...