Catching crims and locking them up, in your community.
In a move that will undoubtedly leave highway patrolmen grinning, BMW Australia has announced that they are in partnership with Victorian police to supply some 80 BMW 530d saloons, which will be deployed in stages throughout 2018 as part of a highway-patrol fleet update. The latest-generation 5-Series, acclaimed by critics for its brilliant balance between performance and luxury, is actually used to this sort of work given that it’s been the motorway cruiser of choice for various police departments around the world.
The BMW 530d employed will not be the same car that you or I could pick up from a forecourt: Highway patrol vehicles will be throwing out a lot of the niceties you’d expect from a large luxury saloon, replacing them with bits and pieces from a ‘police pack’ that will outfit the 5er with the sort of kit suited to heavy-duty work. This is a big feather on the cap for BMW, to add another police department to the already-long list that they service.
“Lauded by media and customers alike for its combination of performance, safety, and efficiency, the new BMW 5-Series range is a natural fit for police duty.” — Marc Werner, CEO, BMW Group Australia
The 530d was chosen to balance performance and cost-efficiency, and we’re certain that decision makers were persuaded somewhat by the effortless performance by the creamy-smooth turbodiesel inline-6 engine under the bonnet. In civilian-spec, the 530d manages a respectable 195kW and a whopping 620Nm, sending power to the rear wheels via an eight-speed automatic gearbox.
When we drove an all-wheel xDrive variant recently, we noted that this engine had so much torque that it struggled to put power down even through all-four wheels, so we have little doubt it has the grunt for high-speed work.
If the look of this highway patrol car has won you over, you should read our review of the new 5-Series here.
For more information on BMW, check out our Showroom.
