2009 BMW 535 Review by David Thomas

In the world of luxury station wagons, there isn't much sense in trying to justify the price tag. Normally, a wagon is a practical choice for families looking for utility with improved mileage versus a similarly sized SUV. If, however, you're shopping the all-wheel-drive 535i xDrive or its competitors — the Audi A6 Avant and Mercedes-Benz E-Class wagon — you clearly have an entirely different set of priorities.

Those probably include a high level of luxury, features, performance and, yes, some utility thrown in. BMW's 5 Series wagon provides plenty of each and elicited raves from our staff, my family and even me. It's hard to fathom why anyone would purchase a $55,000-$75,000 station wagon, but if you're going to, it would be hard to go wrong with this one.

The 5 Series wagon comes only in all-wheel-drive 535i xDrive form. Its sedan counterpart can be had in 528i, 535i or 550i configurations; the 528i and 550i are covered separately in Cars.com's Research section. Click here to compare the whole lineup.

See also:

Special windshield
The windshield is part of the system. The shape of the windshield makes it possible to display a precise image. A film in the windshield prevents double images from being displayed. Therefore, ...

The concept
Speed limit detection Speed limit detection uses a symbol in the shape of a traffic sign to display the currently detected speed limit. The camera at the base of the interior rearview mirror detec ...

Notes
Reception may not be available in some situations, such as under certain environmental or topographic conditions. The satellite radio has no influence on this. The signal may not be avai ...