Prices from £18,000 Our pick 530e M Sport (Pro Pack)
We – or more specifically editor Steve Huntingford – ran a new BMW 5 Series as a company car last year without feeling at all guilty about it. Any concerns about perceived profligacy were negated by the fact that the version Steve chose was the plug-in hybrid 530e – a car that demonstrates better than any other that the trappings of luxury and a low carbon footprint can go hand in hand.
But much as we love the 530e as a new car, its £50k-plus price tag is still going to be a sticking point for some buyers. Thankfully, fundamentally the same car has been around since 2017 (albeit facelifted and given a longer electric range during that time), which means you can buy a used example of this remarkable luxury saloon for as little as £18k.
That said, we’d recommend spending a bit more (from £25k) to find a later example fitted with the optional M Sport Pro Pack, because this includes adaptive suspension, which gives the 530e a plusher ride than you get with the slightly unsettled standard set-up.
Either way, the 530e is more rewarding to drive than rivals such as the Audi A6 and Mercedes-Benz E-Class, while matching the former (and beating the latter) for the quality of the materials found inside. Its official electric range is 31 miles (or up to 37 miles on later versions) – competitive with what rivals can manage and enough to cover many commutes.
Plug it in regularly and do mostly short journeys and you might get close to the official fuel economy of 166mpg, helping to keep running costs relatively low for such a large, luxurious car. And whichever power source it’s running on, the 530e is so smooth and quiet that it puts some luxury limos to shame.
By luxury car standards, it’s proving reasonably dependable, too. Although a higher percentage of 5 Series plug-in hybrids were reported with faults than petrol and diesel versions in the 2022 What Car? Reliability Survey, the 530e still performed creditably, ranking fourth out of 10 models in its class.
In saloon guise (there’s also a pricier Touring estate version), the 530e may not be as practical as the Volkswagen Passat GTE Estate and Volvo XC90 T8, but it’s a more complete package than either, with superior performance, handling and refinement, plus a more polished interior.
Once again, we stand in awe of the remarkable value for money that is the 530e. It’s the definition of luxury, but without the high costs that usually come with it.
BEST FOR PRACTICALITY
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