The car that started the 5 Series name, styled by Paul Bracq with Marcello Gandini of Bertone as co-designer, and the first BMW built with computer- assisted crumple-zone design.[1] It replaced the “New Class” saloons in 1972 with a body that kept their basic dimensions but looked far less boxy, and, at launch, offered only a carried-over four-cylinder engine, with the range’s straight-sixes following over the next few years.
Three trims are recorded here: the 520, the entry four-cylinder that
launched the range; the 528, the mid-range straight-six; and the M535i of
1980, the first M-badged 5 Series and the car BMW itself credits as the M5’s
forerunner, though the M5 name did not yet exist. Several exact engine
displacements in this entry (the 520’s 2.0-litre four, the 528’s 2.8-litre
six, the M535i’s 3.5-litre six) are recorded as estimated: the article
states only the rounded litre figure for each engine, so the widely
documented exact cubic-centimetre displacement is marked as an estimate
rather than presented as a sourced fact.
