Bill Howard, BMW CCA
April 5, 2007

BMW’s refreshed-for-2008 5 Series at the New York Auto Show. The 525i is now the 528i, the 530i is now the twin-turbo 535i, and the V8 550i soldiers on. The cockpit has more storage, iDrive gets tweaked, and there’s a USB adapter that plays more than iPods. (Bill Howard photo)
NEW YORK -- In an auto show with no significant theme, BMW's contribution was a refreshed 5 Series with better engines, improved interiors, and a couple styling tweaks. That was on the first day, Wednesday, of the 107th annual New York International Auto Show. The refresh includes revisions to BMW's iDrive system to make it quicker to respond and a bit easier to use.

The show-with-no-theme resulted from hybrid and alternative-fuel announcements from some automakers, 500-hp cars from others; and big cars (some) as well as small cars. In fact, some automakers had all of them at once, in particular Ford, which showed crossovers, flex-fuel vehicles, hydrogen cars, and a 540-hp Mustang. So you might call it the show with something for everyone.


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