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Geneva 2012: BMW M550d xDrive

What do diesel fuel, three turbochargers, multi-stage charging and variable turbine geometry, common-rail direct injection and a 3.0-liter displacement add up to?
2012 BMW M550d xDrive 16 photos
Photo: original image created by autoevolution
2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive2012 BMW M550d xDrive
A super-diesel engine from BMW, and is you combine that with a chassis setup developed by M Performance, you get a recipe for economy AND fun. This is the brand new 2012 BMW M550d version of the 5-Series, which unlike the M5 comes with all-wheel drive, so the car stays planted when the snow and ice hits.

It’s powered by a 376 hp (381 PS) engine and is capable of sprinting from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in just 4.7 seconds and on to an electronically limited top speed of 250 km/h (155 mph). There’s also a touring version of the car, powered by the same engine, but which is 0.2 seconds slower in the standard sprint. Still, you can’t have an M5 Touring right now, and AWD is always good to have on such a car.

The car’s party trick is that even though the 5-Series is a big car, and it comes with xDrive AWD, fuel consumption sits at 6.3 L/100km (44.8 mpg imp), while emissions are a very reasonable 165 g/km of CO2.
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About the author: Mihnea Radu
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Mihnea's favorite cars have already been built, the so-called modern classics from the '80s and '90s. He also loves local car culture from all over the world, so don't be surprised to see him getting excited about weird Japanese imports, low-rider VWs out of Germany, replicas from Russia or LS swaps down in Florida.
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