Double digit inflation, soaring cornmodity prices, of onions and potatoes pinching your wallet; life isn't getting any easier and is forcing an all round tightening of purse strings. The economic slow down is a reflection of the middle class's increasingly tight fists. Stock prices too have crashed through floor but that hasn't affected the one class that's immune to inflation, recession and negative growth rate - the super rich. Spending on luxury goods in India is growing at scarcely imaginable pace and so is interest in luxury cars this year the segment is projected to grow by over 60 per cent to 7000 units.

The most interesting part of the luxury car business (which is completely at odds to how every other segment operates) is that cutting prices has a damaging impact. It's no secret every luxury car manufacturer is making more than a tidy profit and can comfortably undercut their rivals but the Indian super rich perceives a cheaper carto be, in some way, inferior to its rivals. So you'll find all luxury cars priced similarly, in the stratosphere. Mercedes-Benz, Audi and BMW probably love their customers to bits.

The growing market also means that all three German manufacturers are growing handsomely and not at the expense of each other. BMW for instance is ahead of schedule on their phase one plans with 12 dealers already operating in 10 cities and sales targets for this year have just been revised upwards by 40 per cent. It's well on its way towards it - by end 1563 cars were sold against an initial projection of 2000 cars till the yearend.

Fuelling that growth is the 5¬series, the most popular BMW in the country (not the cheaper 3-series; remember cheap doesn't work here!) and is also the best-selling upper mid luxury car outselling the likes of the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and to a lesser extent the Audi A6. To fuel the fires of interest, the 5-series range has just been revised with two new engines and more headline making equipment.

The model year 2008 5-series range now starts with the 520d that's powered by the same 2.0-litre four cylinder common-rail diesel engine that debuted earlier this year in the MY08 320d but with detail refine- ments to suit the character of the 5¬series. It develops 177PS of power at 4000rpm and 350Nm of torque at 1750rpm and has a claimed 0¬100kmph time of8.4 seconds (though with Indian fuel that'll probably be in the low nines) and a top speed of 226kmph.

Name: New BMW 5-Series.jpg Views: 110 Size: 39.6 KB

The 525d with the 2.5¬litre has been replaced by the 530d that uses a 3.0-litre straight-six die¬sel that kicks out 235PS of power at 4000rpm and a whopping great torque curve peaking at 500Nm at 1750rpm. The numbers clearly mark out the 530d as the most powerful diesel saloon in this segment with a claimed O-lOOkmph time of 6.8 sec¬onds and an electronically limited top speed of 248kmph. The super rich needn't be worried as fuel effi¬ciency is claimed to be identical to that of the 525d.

We drove the 530d from Chennai to Mahabalipuram and though there isn't much you can make out round the congesteCi roads of Chennai, once we hit the East Coast road and stepped on the loud pedal the enor¬mous increase in torque was clearly evident. There's an even stronger shove in the back every time you floor the throttle with the speedo needle arcing past 200 clicks so rapidly that you have to be ultra alert. There's also so much torque in reserve that most overtaking moves don't require the excellent six-speed auto to kick down a gear though in sport mode the gearbox downshifts for you when braking hard, ensuring the engine is always spinning in the meatiest part of the torque curve.

Highlighting the sport appeal of the 530d she gets 18-inch alloys in a new 5-spoke design and a smaller diameter sports steering wheel. Despite the stiffer ride that the bigger wheels bring in apparently most customers ask for an upgrade from 17- to 18-inch wheels and so its now standard on the top end diesel. The 530d can also be had in Highline trim that introduces, for the first time in India, night vision.

The system uses a Far Infrared (FIR) thermal imaging camera that can register heat-emitting objects (like pedestrians and animals) 300 metres away; that's 150 metres fur¬ther than the beam spread of the bi-xenon headlights. This image from the heat-emitting object is projected onto the iDrive screen and just as in a thermal image the hotter it is the more brightly is it displayed. Needless to say this offers tremendous safety benefits, more so in our country where cattle, people and sundry wildlife saunter across the highways without a care or worry.

Night vision is also standard on the 530i that is powered by the same 3.0-litre straight six developing 258PS of power. The base petrol engine remains the 2.5-litre 214PS straight-six which in addition to new design 17-inch alloy wheels gets cruise control and natural brown leather that's far more tasteful and richer than either the grey or full black leather that was the norm earlier.