The car I was testing had a lot of features that impressed me, but some of the most notable ones were the steering assist and radar cruise control.

It's got everything, including steering assist, which I know isn't massively important in this class of car, but it's still really useful. If you wanted to turn off the stability control, you'd need to go through three clicks on the assistants menu. The Mercedes was a nicer place to be, and this one wasn't far behind.

The navigation system is pretty good, and when I searched for something like "golf courses", it came up with the closest ones near the car. It's also got touchscreens, but I still had the R Drive controller. You can zoom in and out with a pinch, which was interesting to try.

One thing that surprised me was the online entertainment system. It has Spotify, and you can search for any song or artist you want. I liked the gesture control, where I could turn up the radio just by waving my hand. It's actually quicker than using the touchscreen or buttons.

Radar cruise control takes the fatigue out of a long journey, but it can be a bit odd to use at first. When it's on, you don't have to put your hands in, which is nice. However, if you try to take control yourself, it gives you a steering feel that's not quite right.

I was impressed with the car, but I didn't love it. It's way more dynamic than I expected, and the interior is great. But sometimes it feels like driving a taxi, rather than a sports car. The reason all taxi drivers seem to love it is because of its practicality.

If I had one criticism, it's that there's hardly anything unique about this car. If you want dynamics like the XF, or the coolness of a Volvo, you might prefer one of those instead. But overall, this has got everything that matters to me, and sets the standard for this class.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enso this is the new Mercedes e350d AMG line now don't get too excited about the AMG line bit for the moment because although it's got an AMG badge on it this obviously isn't a fully blown AMG it's mainly uh some body skirts and the larger Wheels this car's got the fre Le turbocharged diesel engine and not a whopping great twin turbo V8 power 258 horsepower which is decent I mean friend in mine the hottest of hot hatches 5 years ago weren't putting out that figure and torque the torque is a whopping 457 foot which means this thing will do na to 60 in 5.9 seconds but this is clearly a front engined rear wheel drive car I mean I don't know if you can see about how much work I'm putting in here but this is a really really really entertaining car to drive and the handling is so neutral you can just feel it Tipp into under steer but a small lift off the throtle just brings the back into play a bit and gets rid of that under steer I can feel the computer working I can feel the ESP trying to help me trim my line but it's not intrusive at all Mercedes claim despite those massive power and torque figures that this thing will do a combined MPG 54.3 mil to the gallon and you know what I'm not surprised cuz I'm cruising along here 70 mph ninth gear it's got a n speeed Gear Box by the way and I'm doing just over 1100 RPM and that makes this car an absolutely fantastic place to spend time when you think of luxury cars you think of a Mercedes I'm afraid and I know I certainly do so the class is very good but there is a new car on the seene which is the new BMW 5 series you join me inside it more importantly what's it like to drive well I spent quite a lot of time in this car already I've spent about 2 and half th000 miles in it and it's absolutely superb it's not the most agile Dynamic car in the I think that's probably still Jaguar's XF I'm not sure it's the most comfortable car in the class I think that's probably still the E-class but I think when BMW goes to town on this car and they go to town on the 5 series like they do with no other model they throw everything at it they want it to Encompass the best that the class has to offer in both extremes so this one's on M sport suspension with adaptive dampers and it could be more comfortable you expect it more comfortably if it was an SE on smaller wheels and so on and so forth but it's a nice spe and it does ride nicely and on a on a Motorway it is really effortlessly comfortable and the auto just puts itself in the right gear at the right time to help it do that it reads the satinav Rolls-Royce first introduced this but it's a BMW system even then it reads the saav it knows what Corners are coming up it knows how fast you're going so therefore it thinks well you probably want to be in third or fourth gear on the way out of that bend that's coming up on the nap I mean that's genius isn't it that's really clever the motor is really good too this is the 3 l diesel in the 30d with X drive so it's got four-wheel drive loads of torque 260 horsepower 400 something pound foot of torque same as the E-class it's entertaining to drive it's super fast with X drive it's got loads of grip and traction I mean if you're looking for one of the best all round cars in the world you know this is the sort of car you you'd come to but there's more to tell you about lots more to tell you about uh more to tell you about which Clues g a control to turn the radio up like I just did inadvertently so you spent a lot of time in this yes inde and the Sass has got this isn't it it's got two displays two split I actually think it's a fantastic setup yeah um you can get rid of the rev counter and here you can have your navigation where the rev counter is you can have your Eco display where the rev counter is and it's so easy to read really clear my only gripe with this whole thing um is everything is triplicated so I can do anything I want here yeah I can do anything I want here yeah it all does the same thing and I can also do you can use a little touch and sometimes if you're trying to do one thing and you hit it with your palm of your hand it's in way and I've had that a few times I've been going to adjust something but I've accidentally hit hit something with the palm and it's yeah it's kind of got in my way I've got a terrible tasty music and that's no surprise to people who know me and this is massive so when I'm sitting in traffic it displays music see somebody can see C everybody can see my Spice Girls album it's pretty embarrassing it's not a touch screen is it no it's not touchcreen I don't mind it's not it's quite a long way away it is touchcreen is it really uh also the dynamic control I reckon if you were slightly shorter than me I know not many people are but you wouldn't be have to see this button ey I can just about see it from the corner of my eye yeah so there's a few things on here that if you wanted to adjust you'd need to have a good old glance at them and mean it terms of sort of perceived material quality I'm not I'm not a mad fan of fake carbon but MH I really like this I really like this and that BM has got loads of kits what yeah go on what is it go on what's this has this Scott radar Cru radar Cru of course it has M silly question it's a Mercedes M when it sees a speed limit sign in the distance will it assist you by suggesting you slow that you're not you slow down yes it does I actually think it slows down for you if you're in Cruise it will slow down for you oh really without you doing anything without you doing anything it slows down for you yeah which is pretty good all right has it got steering assist it has it's got a lot it it has it's got everything I know this is not massively important in this class of car yeah uh if you wanted to turn off the stability control yeah how would you do that okay um so it's quite fly okay you need to go on the assistants menu yeah click the ESP menu yep and then there so it's at least three clicks away and by the way see how much I've ve off the road then you know I said that the Mercedes was the nicest place to be this is this one close this is really tell you what this one's got 20 grand worth of options on it which is not a great surprise but the things I'm impressed by right most of all so nav when I go to search for something yeah say I wanted to play golf if I type in G then it comes up with the closest golf courses pretty good to to the car which is you know it's quite cool and I presume the same works for like restaurants and stff I like you really good and this is now touchcreen as well but I've still got the r Drive controller you know you can you can zoom in and out with a pinch and stuff like that it's a bit more phony but interestingly I I was looking at your eyes when you're doing that yeah your eyes are off the Rope for such a long time I know I know same as when I was the system in the Mercedes that is a problem so the other thing I like about this online entertainment I think Spotify or dies online entertainment and you can search any not that entertainment any any song any song you want to search up you just you know it it's it's got there which I which I got like I've got gesture control so I can turn up the radio oh now that is clever that is really it's actually quicker to do it's actually quicker to do that or use this if like me you come from an Italian and family and everybody waves their hands around when they talk you better turn it off you turn it off yeah you got to you got to it's not going to work here cuz we're on test track but in terms of radar cruise control steering assist yeah I don't know about you man I just find it really takes the fatigue out of a long long journey I struggled with it like to be honest I had to go over it yesterday when when I was driving this car back from Yorkshire yeah at first I don't know where to put my hands so when it's on yeah I would kind of do I put my hands in my lap and then every sort of 5 or 10 seconds it conf front me turn the wheel but all you have to do is touch it you don't actually have to put in with some cars you have to put an input you should and it's semi-autonomous anyway isn't it so you should have your hands on the wheel or and also I found it was a slightly odd feeling when it was active if you tried to take control yourself it gives a steing really way it kind of counters it doesn't really like and on some slip roads it loses where the inside line is and it just goes oh and then it and then it Wes up it so I'm not that Blown Away by the whole system I know it's clever but for me at the moment it's still a gimmick yeah I'll just R this back through France and Spain there it's called there it's really handy and because it's BMW ESC off is only one push I think for the sake of testing that all right which would you have I really really like the Mercedes I like it more than I thought I was going to like it um it's way more dnamic than I thought it was going to be um I love the interior I'm not blown away by how it looks sometimes it makes me feel like I'm driving a taxi yeah which is a big negative thing it is a but but there's a reason that all the text drivers use it is such a great car um so you know Kos to Mercedes for making a a car that all the taxi drivers want to want to use um but I would have this car when you sort of say what elements of the E-class or say a Volvo S90 or the Jag 77 what would you actually prefer that they've got that this doesn't do well enough there's hardly anything swap hardly anything I might swap some of the Dynamics of the XF into this some of the coolness of a Volvo maybe I'd like say some of the Interior feel of a Merc but by and large this has just got everything to me this sort of sets the new standard in this classso this is the new Mercedes e350d AMG line now don't get too excited about the AMG line bit for the moment because although it's got an AMG badge on it this obviously isn't a fully blown AMG it's mainly uh some body skirts and the larger Wheels this car's got the fre Le turbocharged diesel engine and not a whopping great twin turbo V8 power 258 horsepower which is decent I mean friend in mine the hottest of hot hatches 5 years ago weren't putting out that figure and torque the torque is a whopping 457 foot which means this thing will do na to 60 in 5.9 seconds but this is clearly a front engined rear wheel drive car I mean I don't know if you can see about how much work I'm putting in here but this is a really really really entertaining car to drive and the handling is so neutral you can just feel it Tipp into under steer but a small lift off the throtle just brings the back into play a bit and gets rid of that under steer I can feel the computer working I can feel the ESP trying to help me trim my line but it's not intrusive at all Mercedes claim despite those massive power and torque figures that this thing will do a combined MPG 54.3 mil to the gallon and you know what I'm not surprised cuz I'm cruising along here 70 mph ninth gear it's got a n speeed Gear Box by the way and I'm doing just over 1100 RPM and that makes this car an absolutely fantastic place to spend time when you think of luxury cars you think of a Mercedes I'm afraid and I know I certainly do so the class is very good but there is a new car on the seene which is the new BMW 5 series you join me inside it more importantly what's it like to drive well I spent quite a lot of time in this car already I've spent about 2 and half th000 miles in it and it's absolutely superb it's not the most agile Dynamic car in the I think that's probably still Jaguar's XF I'm not sure it's the most comfortable car in the class I think that's probably still the E-class but I think when BMW goes to town on this car and they go to town on the 5 series like they do with no other model they throw everything at it they want it to Encompass the best that the class has to offer in both extremes so this one's on M sport suspension with adaptive dampers and it could be more comfortable you expect it more comfortably if it was an SE on smaller wheels and so on and so forth but it's a nice spe and it does ride nicely and on a on a Motorway it is really effortlessly comfortable and the auto just puts itself in the right gear at the right time to help it do that it reads the satinav Rolls-Royce first introduced this but it's a BMW system even then it reads the saav it knows what Corners are coming up it knows how fast you're going so therefore it thinks well you probably want to be in third or fourth gear on the way out of that bend that's coming up on the nap I mean that's genius isn't it that's really clever the motor is really good too this is the 3 l diesel in the 30d with X drive so it's got four-wheel drive loads of torque 260 horsepower 400 something pound foot of torque same as the E-class it's entertaining to drive it's super fast with X drive it's got loads of grip and traction I mean if you're looking for one of the best all round cars in the world you know this is the sort of car you you'd come to but there's more to tell you about lots more to tell you about uh more to tell you about which Clues g a control to turn the radio up like I just did inadvertently so you spent a lot of time in this yes inde and the Sass has got this isn't it it's got two displays two split I actually think it's a fantastic setup yeah um you can get rid of the rev counter and here you can have your navigation where the rev counter is you can have your Eco display where the rev counter is and it's so easy to read really clear my only gripe with this whole thing um is everything is triplicated so I can do anything I want here yeah I can do anything I want here yeah it all does the same thing and I can also do you can use a little touch and sometimes if you're trying to do one thing and you hit it with your palm of your hand it's in way and I've had that a few times I've been going to adjust something but I've accidentally hit hit something with the palm and it's yeah it's kind of got in my way I've got a terrible tasty music and that's no surprise to people who know me and this is massive so when I'm sitting in traffic it displays music see somebody can see C everybody can see my Spice Girls album it's pretty embarrassing it's not a touch screen is it no it's not touchcreen I don't mind it's not it's quite a long way away it is touchcreen is it really uh also the dynamic control I reckon if you were slightly shorter than me I know not many people are but you wouldn't be have to see this button ey I can just about see it from the corner of my eye yeah so there's a few things on here that if you wanted to adjust you'd need to have a good old glance at them and mean it terms of sort of perceived material quality I'm not I'm not a mad fan of fake carbon but MH I really like this I really like this and that BM has got loads of kits what yeah go on what is it go on what's this has this Scott radar Cru radar Cru of course it has M silly question it's a Mercedes M when it sees a speed limit sign in the distance will it assist you by suggesting you slow that you're not you slow down yes it does I actually think it slows down for you if you're in Cruise it will slow down for you oh really without you doing anything without you doing anything it slows down for you yeah which is pretty good all right has it got steering assist it has it's got a lot it it has it's got everything I know this is not massively important in this class of car yeah uh if you wanted to turn off the stability control yeah how would you do that okay um so it's quite fly okay you need to go on the assistants menu yeah click the ESP menu yep and then there so it's at least three clicks away and by the way see how much I've ve off the road then you know I said that the Mercedes was the nicest place to be this is this one close this is really tell you what this one's got 20 grand worth of options on it which is not a great surprise but the things I'm impressed by right most of all so nav when I go to search for something yeah say I wanted to play golf if I type in G then it comes up with the closest golf courses pretty good to to the car which is you know it's quite cool and I presume the same works for like restaurants and stff I like you really good and this is now touchcreen as well but I've still got the r Drive controller you know you can you can zoom in and out with a pinch and stuff like that it's a bit more phony but interestingly I I was looking at your eyes when you're doing that yeah your eyes are off the Rope for such a long time I know I know same as when I was the system in the Mercedes that is a problem so the other thing I like about this online entertainment I think Spotify or dies online entertainment and you can search any not that entertainment any any song any song you want to search up you just you know it it's it's got there which I which I got like I've got gesture control so I can turn up the radio oh now that is clever that is really it's actually quicker to do it's actually quicker to do that or use this if like me you come from an Italian and family and everybody waves their hands around when they talk you better turn it off you turn it off yeah you got to you got to it's not going to work here cuz we're on test track but in terms of radar cruise control steering assist yeah I don't know about you man I just find it really takes the fatigue out of a long long journey I struggled with it like to be honest I had to go over it yesterday when when I was driving this car back from Yorkshire yeah at first I don't know where to put my hands so when it's on yeah I would kind of do I put my hands in my lap and then every sort of 5 or 10 seconds it conf front me turn the wheel but all you have to do is touch it you don't actually have to put in with some cars you have to put an input you should and it's semi-autonomous anyway isn't it so you should have your hands on the wheel or and also I found it was a slightly odd feeling when it was active if you tried to take control yourself it gives a steing really way it kind of counters it doesn't really like and on some slip roads it loses where the inside line is and it just goes oh and then it and then it Wes up it so I'm not that Blown Away by the whole system I know it's clever but for me at the moment it's still a gimmick yeah I'll just R this back through France and Spain there it's called there it's really handy and because it's BMW ESC off is only one push I think for the sake of testing that all right which would you have I really really like the Mercedes I like it more than I thought I was going to like it um it's way more dnamic than I thought it was going to be um I love the interior I'm not blown away by how it looks sometimes it makes me feel like I'm driving a taxi yeah which is a big negative thing it is a but but there's a reason that all the text drivers use it is such a great car um so you know Kos to Mercedes for making a a car that all the taxi drivers want to want to use um but I would have this car when you sort of say what elements of the E-class or say a Volvo S90 or the Jag 77 what would you actually prefer that they've got that this doesn't do well enough there's hardly anything swap hardly anything I might swap some of the Dynamics of the XF into this some of the coolness of a Volvo maybe I'd like say some of the Interior feel of a Merc but by and large this has just got everything to me this sort of sets the new standard in this class\n"