Real Road Test: BMW E28 525e - Can Economy be Entertaining? 

Ah, from an era when BMWs were an exercise in perfect proportions and understated design. How times have changed.

Can't beat the classic 'Hubnut pulling away from standstill and pushing his glasses up immediately' move. Should be your trademark 😁😂

One of my all time favourite beemers of the 80s it’s a shame they don’t build them like this anymore, they just were better in every way in 80s and 90s. In my personal opinion

The 525e was not so much an economy model, but rather an “efficiency” model, pitched to draw customers from Mercedes and alike, who preferred “sedate progress in comfort”. To that end the model had a more comfortable suspension setup, better insulated engine noise and were equipped rather austere much like the Mercedes models of its day. This example is an “owners preference”, spoilers wheels foglights etc. were not standard. The engine was not just bigger in capacity, but raised compression ratio, low friction pistons, tuned for low end performance (intake/exhaust system + camshaft), and even less stiff valve springs to reduce friction torque. The lowered rev limiter is there for a good reason! The final drive ratio is MUCH taller than the normal models. There was a terrific website about the eta models, it’s offline now unfortunately. As you’ve correctly noted, the model didn’t sell well and was discontinued after this. This example is of the 2nd series, the first series had slightly less power and a 4500rpm (opposed to 4750) redline. The was also an “eta” model of the e30, the 325e.

As someone who eats their dinner in the car at work. I really appreciate these 12pm uploads, thanks

Who would have thought that the 'e' would be back 30 years later to represent a plug in hybrid!!

"I've always wanted to drive this car, just for the wipers" Yeah, that's an immediate subscribe. Found you from Aging Wheels on Twitter.

I am not into BMW's but this is a lovely classy machine. Enormous thumbs up to Hubnut for test driving this machine.

I owned one of these twice, got it back from a mate years later. Just a wonderful drive, especially around town. Wish BMWs were still this nice and easy to work on.

The owner of this car lives somewhere near me. Always nice to see it. Such great condition and such elegant styling compared to modern vehicles. Unusual colour for a 5-series too.

Beautiful car, love the look of those shark-nose BMW's, much better looking than those new ones with overgrown kidneys.

its nice to see a decent looking BMW. The styling on the older cars from the 1960's to early 2000's is so much better than the ugly new cars being made today.

I owned this very car a few years back ..I bid and bought it on eBay and travelled to London to pick it up from Wembley park ..couldn't believe my luck when I seen the condition of it... driving it back I noticed the last fifty miles it started using a lot more fuel and when I got home I discovered the fuel line that runs over the top of the engine had perished and it had been spraying petrol onto the exhaust manifold..miracle it survived .. beautiful reliable car

So glad you got round to reviewing this lovely example of an E28. I had four of them, including a 525e. Very torquey car.. and switching to sport mode was good fun when needing to overtake! Happy times. Regret having to sell! Thank you Mr HubNut!

True about economy and big engines. I did a trip 2 up around France in my 2012 Jag XK 5.0 V8 and it did 32 mpg over 1500 miles.

Those ETA m20 engines were very popular for tuning. I believe they used the forged crank of the 524td engine. And the 2.7L was very powerfull if you would combine it with the high compression cylinder head of the e30 325i. Together with a properly tuned ECU his would make for an easy and reliable 200+hp engine. Alpina basically did this for their e30 C1-2,7L, other tuners like Hartge did similar setups.

I like this one a lot. Yonks ago we had a 518i as our daily driver. It was a nice car. We christened it "The Dutchess" as it just made stately progress. It had a nice quality feel to it even though it was the bottom line model. It was C reg and on one outing to Cheltenham the kids pointed out it was the oldest car they had seen on the entire journey. Steel wheels and plastic hubcaps. I swapped on a set of alloys I got from the scrapyard for £30.

Fantastic car! (I’m extremely biased though as I own one myself) and a fantastic review as always from Hubnut! At the risk of being pedantic, the blanking plugs you mention for the windows are, in fact, a manual override. E28s with wind up windows had the crank mounted much higher up towards the electric mirror switch but still on the fabric portion of the door card. The plug can be removed if the power window fails and you use the socket in the tool kit to manually close it.

My first BMW was a 1986 E30 320i. My current one is a F31 320d. You have made me want to sell the new car for an old one. I still regret selling my E34 525i. The best car I've ever driven. Still want an E24 635csi Highline though...

Lovely Jubbly, enjoyed that. No airbag, doesn't it look better.

I used to have a 525ee which was a New Zealand only model. The extra e standing for executive. It had air conditioning, electric sunroof, electric Windows, premium sound system, sports steering wheel and lovely and I think unique woollen fabric seats and interior panels. Really was a lovely car. Very relaxing to drive but with a surprising turn of speed.

After seeing the new M4, the hideous grille I genuinely thought was a meme at first, I love to see a genuinely good looking BMW. The E28 is one of my favourites.

I was very surprised that you felt comfortable in the rear with good headroom. Visibility seemed great too. True, the Ford Granada Ghia may have edged it for refinement but it is a larger vehicle overall. I truly believe that BMW engineers came pretty close to perfection with the 525e. Executive comfort, 6 cylinder smoothness and response, automatic transmission with manual economy. The paint is lovely and the interior is immaculate. A credit to a careful owner.

Very desirable car in its day way beyond my means … didn’t stop me test driving one. That engine

One of my favorite generations of BMW by far. Just love the styling.

Great car ,looking very sharp in red, had a few of these 20 or so years ago mostly rotten and loose to drive but even then they always looked something, never payed more the 2 or 3 hundred pounds for them, great days ,also the same thing applies to the ford Granada you tested from the same guy, I remember buying a gold 2.8 i Ghia x estate car in really okay condition for £400 to drive to Glastonbury festival in 1994 another great car ,unfortunately that rotted out round the bulkhead because of blocked drainage holes, so very well done to the owner for keeping these two great cars on the road.

That e28 is gorgeous. Best car you’ve tested IMHO. I’d love to own that

You have brought back some delicious memories. I had one of these back in the day. Mine had the "525E" badge on the back and the E stood for Etta. Thank you. Ken

Yay old BMW content! 😃 The spare wheel is indeed under the boot floor, but it is on the left hand side. You'd think having the interior lights in the middle of the roof would be good, but in reality they're useless. The inspection lights are almost always non-functional on these, they do whatever they please! The steering wheel is reach adjustment only and there isn't much travel. There is no height adjustment. The drivers seat should have height adjustment (sometimes jammed) which might go some way to explaining your issue with seeing the gauges, and the feeling of being too high up!

Memories!!! My dad owned a 525e for a short while. It was replaced by a Rover 827Si fastback.

I had an 1986 e28 525i Automatic 10 years ago. Loved it! Excellent for long trips and still relatively fast, even at almost 25 years old.

Very supportive seats, they're always telling you how well you're doing while you're driving....

What a great car, you certainly did this one justice Ian. Incidentally I had a 1997 528i with a 5 speed box back in 2000 whilst living in the forest of dean and that was a wonderful car.

"Passenger arc has a lovely swing on it". A phrase you would never hear anywhere else! Lovely car. Not a huge fam of BMWs but that's one I'd own 👍

I got myself a rust free Spanish E28 525i with the bulletproof M30 engine 4 years ago. Coolest car I ever owned, love it to bits.

Steering wheel is elegant, very nice design.

Love these 5- Series. Thanks for this upload.

I always did like that particular 5-series of Beemer. Someone where I once worked had one and I loved it. Nice video as usual.

Thank you Richard - you are a credit to classic car custodianship.

I’ve had lots of e28s and the 525e is my favourite used last one as a daily driver for 10 years. The 525e I thought always had a sound of its own

I drove one of these back in the 80s. It was loaned to me while my own vehicle was in for repairs. It was in pretty poor condition bodywork wise, but excellent mechanically. It had a light at the bottom of the dash to tell you which gear you were in and changed automatically along with the gearbox. Pretty smart thing to have really. This one is a really nice example and is a real credit to it's owner.

Dear Mr Hubnut: thank you for being so relaxing and chilled out. Plus, you put in the title the few times you do have an anger. I enjoy watching your videos at all times of day, but I must say you're wonderfully soporific when I'm so inclined. Your voice is well balanced against the engine noise, which I also find incredibly relaxing by itself. Wonderful to have an evening snooze to in an armchair to :) and then wake up a bit, have more tea, and enjoy hearing more car facts. I'll often put on your older videos on automatic play. So thank you! :D

Back in those days, I drove those E28 524TD, with manual and automatic. Wonderful and responsive diesel and good memories.

Finally someone has done a video on the BMW e28 525e and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Had one of these for many years and it was so relaxing to drive with it's low revving, long stroke, big capacity, high torque, low friction engine and armchair like seats. It would return 25 mpg around town and upper 30's on a long run all with whisper quietness and silky smooth six cylinders. This chappie seems to review all the cars I've admired throughout my years with his honest, frank and sensible observations, I find myself agreeing with most of what he has to say. Really like the way the video is wrapped up at the end too with the zoom in to the grille and the 'copter view as the car drives off and you can hear the engine first ticking over and then the exhaust doing its stuff as he drives off. Great job, keep 'em coming I say. P.S. any chance you could review an E21?

Honeslty mate, I don't know what it is but I find your videos both very interesting and extremely calming at the same time. They've actually been a great help to me over the last few months with all the stress of COVID. Keep it up. (PS if you're ever tempted to make it to Brisbane back in Aus one day I've got a poverty-spec Mk1 Golf 'Clipper' Cabriolet and a fully-optioned '88 Accord (yes I know you've already done the Aerodeck!) with your name on them.)

Beautiful! 2.7 litre ETA engine lovely!! I had the M5 in 2001, it was lovely and absolute weapon. It appears this E28 has the M5 splitter on it too.

very impressed how fast the kick down was

Love the e28 5 series and 520i was my favourite for its silky smooth inline six - these cars saw the BMW brand take off in Australia and the 325e and 525e only came to Australia in ‘86 as we transitioned to unleaded fuel and this saw them as the only models until cats were fitted to other models - eta was designed for low down torque which Australia’s like

I really like that despite the view of the gauges. I could be quite happy wafting around in it. Very enjoyable video!👍

Awesome car, i can see the refinement through the video! Very relaxing and also exciting car! Wonderful!

In America these were called the 528e, but had the same 2.7 litre engine. I had an 1982, which was the first year the E28 was released and for that year the ETA was the only available version of the 5-series we could get in the US as the 533i did not reach these shores until 1983. Mine was lapis blue with blue interior and a 5 speed manual transmission. While my steering wheel was not quite as sporty, it did have front and rear power windows, air conditioning, a bank of warning lights above the rear view mirror and an early attempt at an on board computer. Sometime in the 1980's, the original owner installed a cell phone, however by the time I bought the car in 1994, the early style of cell phones were largely obsolete. I bought it with 141,000 miles on the odometer and sold it seven years late with a whopping 325,000 miles on it.

Takes me back to my 325i E30. I revelled in wet roundabouts what with the LSD. Made going sideways such fun. Loved the glorious straight six soundtrack.

Spot on as usual, another smashing video!

These 5 series have the strongest character, out of all 5 series generations.

Not a fan of modern BMWs or the kind of people who often drive them, but this is a lovely looking, beautifully preserved vehicle. I think it's the combination of the red paint, chrome and that shark nose that does it for me. And I miss velour interiors. I guess the far eastern markets (which seem to dictate car design now) don't like them, but I wish they'd bring them back! 75 looks great too, sitting over to the side :)

Had a couple of 520i versions, and absolutely adored them. I would have another one in a second.

So that's why BMWs go so fast, as their drivers can't see the speedo! :)

Only one for sale here in Au, an 1984 E28 528i Executive Auto for £31,000.

Glorious. Love a BMW straight 6!

My father has been driving BMW 5 series since 1978 till today. As a solid family car for 10 years of usuage per model, it was never disappointing. Although the older BMW 6 cylinders engines 40 years ago had not been reliable at all and needed to be changed frequently...

I adore this shape of 5-series, this and the E34 are by far the prettiest and classiest BMWs ever, love it in red too. Used to have friends who had an E-reg 525e and always loved its almost centre exhaust. Great test of a fab car - it’s got the classic 6 cylinder/automatic whine noise too. Sold.

Steering column adjust was for reach only, if I remember correctly

Love the shape of these.

I used to own this car 10years ago. It’s beautiful and so pleased to see it again, in such good condition. 😍

I had an E28 520i back in the day, and it had a much larger steering wheel, so didn't have the issue with seeing the dials. It was also really quiet from what I remember, so I was surprised you found so much wind and road noise from this example. One of the many cars I wish I still owned.

Brilliant video Ian lovely old car pity they don't make them like that any more

Hubnut is currently doing the greatest hits of my youth. Last week's Granada (identical to one I had) and I also had the 2 litre straight six of this very model, and also one of my favourite cars that I ever owned. If I won the lottery, I wouldn't buy a supercar, I'd buy mint versions of what's currently appearing on 'Nut!

Thanks for another great review of another car from a golden era when different manufacturers actually offered different characteristics in their model line up. I was going to buy one of these as my second ever car but bought an 87 730iSE instead. What an expensive mistake that was!!

Fantastic wiper action! RHD as well 👍🏻

What an absolutely delightful car to watch, drive and sit it as a passenger. You really can't fault it.

The only BMW I have ever owned was a 2004 318i. It certainly was firmly planted on the road and just rode well. Here in Australia though parts are extremely expensive and dealers or anyone in fact prepared to service or do any work on them are few and far between.

My favourite looking 5-series still looking good for its age. But I also liked the mk2 Granada. Lovely well made simplicity

These and E21 3 series are my favourite bimmers of all time! Amongst some very interesting cars up and down my road (and a helicopter casually parked in someone's drive, as you do) there's a lovely E24 6 Series parked up in a drive and collecting moss and bird bombs, it hasn't moved for years! I'd love to have the spare cash and and a smile winning enough to part it from its owner. Great review Ian, I absolutely love these cars and their oddly just off centre echausts! EDIT: What ever is C3PO up to though?! 😂

Really enjoyable, those older BMWs and this is a fine example of the breed.

Loved these.

What a lovely specimen! A business administrator's car, would love one! Never sold in Sweden as far as I know, 518, 520, 523, 528 and 535! Didn't know they sold as automatic, seems to go against economy, even with lock up! Love the Bavarian strict interior, stereo should be Blaupunkt. Suddenly I am craving for Bratwurst and need to search AutoScout24 for a BMW525!

Truly liked that model you drove, had a E34 diesel few years ago, found it gutless but built like a Tank....

Blooming heck! I lived 1.4 miles from the dealership that registered that car at that time. Happy days! A northerner now.

Magnificent in red, a sight to behold, thank you Sir!

That used to be the economy mentality way back when. Instead of having a 35 hp 1.3 that you had to constantly hoon like mad to actually get anywhere, put a bigger engine that you don't have to.

I had an e34 535i. (manual), On the open road I could get 31 mpg while cruising between 75 & 85 mph. Admittedly it was at altitude of around 1600m which helps. The secret for me was to never touch the brake pedal and never slow down for corners.

Making me want one again. Used to Shen a gold one 10 years ago. Lovely car.

A very nice example. The colour almost matches the colour of the braces from the 80s loadsamoney brigade. Good review Ian.

We had E34 535i with the same velour seats. As a boy I sat in the back and both interior and ride were very comfortable. Lovely car but MPG was 19. Lovely engine sound

Lovely example of a 525 what a lovely noise it makes

Lovely. The best styling era. Cheers

The fully body coloured door mirrors were such an eighties thing. Just like stripes on an army uniform you could always tell the managers from the minions by this. They almost look to 'showy' on such an understated car.

I had an E28 524d for a while. It was fun and pretty economical. I think that 3 spoke steering wheel might be an optional extra. The standard one might have been a bit bigger.

I had one of those, air con and 4 electric windows. Had a bigger and older style wheel that didn't obscure the gauges

I drove an E28 a few years back, a gypsy was selling it in the West of Ireland. Felt like I was driving into the bronx to find this machine to test drive it. But test drive it I did. When I opened the manual sunroof a ton of rust fell on my head. That was the sign I needed to negate the notion of reliving the gentleman of his BMW. Incidentally, comparing the E28 to a Granada is rather like comparing a BMW 3 series to a Ford Sierra. BMW E28 is a 5 series, that's the Sierra equipvalent. The Ford Granada aspired to the refinement of a 7 series BMW, one would be drawn to presume.

My mate and i used to use the pistons from these eta engines with the rods from M20B20 to build 2.7 litre M20B25 for bmw e30s'. Basically got i nicely revving 2.7 lump.

Beautiful Car.....Thanks HubNut👊👍

I have always loved the look of these, any 5 series BMW. I lusted after them and started searching for one. Research showed the service costs, and the cost of fixing one that had not been serviced when it should have been. Scary enough for me to chicken out out buy a 3.5 litre Mitsubishi Magna instead. No BMW for sure, but it went well and handled great.......and I could afford to service it LOL.

Back in the days a friend of mine had a 325i E30 convertible with all options converted to a 325e, IMHO the perfect combination. Still sad that I sold my 318i E30 Touring years ago, best looking car ever...

That car is very HubNut, could you possibly do a review on the E30 aswell please. My all time favourite car. Never driven or owned one but love it.

What a lovely car I have an E39 but I'd like a review on the E12 that would be awesome!

Even back in the 1980's, BMW's method of monitoring the speed was the use of road side speed cameras and/or the blue lights of a police car. Hence why they only give you a view of speed up to 20mph, and inexcess of 120mph.

I had a 1973 BMW 2002. It was a very surprising little car. I seem to recall it being a four cylinder and did quite well fuel economy wise while being fairly quick. It also rode surprisingly well for a small car. A fun little car. I have a fondness for BMWs though I have heard reliability is a bit of an issue with some of them.

I had 525e it was lovely, torque like diesel. Also been upgraded with 525i e34 12v camshaft ❤

The steering wheel can only be adjusted for column length , not angle, so push or pull the wheel with the adjuster unlocked.