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2017 BMW 5 Series Touring Accurately Rendered as the M550i xDrive We All Want

Is there an easy way to tell the new M550i apart from all the other 5 Series models? We're not sure yet, but it looks really sexy with those M6-style wheels.
2017 BMW 5 Series Touring Accurately Rendered as the M550i You Want 3 photos
Photo: Theophilus Chin
2017 BMW 5 Series Touring Accurately Rendered as the M550i You Want2017 BMW 5 Series Touring Accurately Rendered as the M550i You Want
Less than 24 hours after the brand new 5 Series was revealed, the first rendering has emerged, and it's a good one. Theophilus Chin made the G31 Touring model happen with the help of his Photoshop skills.

And his base car is arguably one of the most interesting of the new 5er range, the M550i. BMW spent a lot of time testing a prototype with a 4.4-liter engine at the 'Ring, but nobody ever realized it was a member of the M Performance family.

Especially as a Touring, the M550i will make a lot of people happy, since the M badge hasn't been on a hatchback since the E61 M5 Touring went out of production in 2010. One thing this 2017 model has that its V10 predecessor lacked is xDrive.

That's why in sedan form, the M550i can sprint from 0 to 100 km/h in 4 seconds flat, 0.3 of a second faster than the F10 M5. Of course, the next M5 is going to be even faster, but BMW has come up with a brilliant alternative to the Audi S6 Avant and a superior car to the Mercedes-AMG E43 T-Model.

There are two models that lay the groundwork for the M550i xDrive. Firstly, there's the old 550i that also featured a 4.4-liter engine and was available with xDrive. That was no slowpoke, but another car used to own the M badge, and that was the M550d xDrive.

As the name suggests, it had a diesel engine, more specifically a 3-liter tri-turbo with 381 hp and 740 Nm. By comparison, our 2017 contender is good for 462 hp and 650 Nm. However, a twin-turbo engine should feel radically different where it counts and has a much higher probability of being offered in America. Did we mention it makes a better noise and is much easier to tune?
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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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