“Or, it’s possible the innovative feature may never make it Stateside, like many other European products.” Does it mean that after rebuilding their economy we are not good enough for uber-features? Second class country? One word: boycott!

i’m all for hot hatches, but not into a 5er hatch.

Bring it on.

BMW is just copying Skoda with this.

Another useless body variation! What it is with car producers these days!?! Yo germans, hasn’t the R-Class taught you anything!?

The reason hatchbacks are not popluar in North America, is because hatchbacks are uglier than homemade sin. We don’t have dinky little roads here, and if you need to haul some cargo around, you simply borrow someones truck or minivan, if you don’t already have one yourself. Very simply, the North American market has voted, and we don’t need or want hatchbacks…especially in the sport luxury vehicle segment that BMW owns. What’s the purpose?…so you can put a load of landscape mulch in the back on the way home from the office?

I still don’t get the “americans won’t buy this or that”. We’re never given a choice, and when there is one.. well look at Subaru sales for their impressa sedan.

well most owners of BMWs won’t dare to put anything that could get their precious BMW dirty like mulch/dirt/or haul tools that could scratch their leather interior- that’s why they’ll call pedro in his beat up 87 Ford to do the dirty work

A hatch on a 5 series just does not seem appropriate.

I don’t understand where the “Americans hate hatchbacks” sentiment comes from.

Scion tC… Mazda 3… Mitsu Eclipse… Subaru WRX… all good cars… all hatches… and I could go on.

All it takes is a halfway attractive hatch design that dosen’t look like an 80’s station wagon and you can have a winner. Not that I think for a minute that a 5-series hatch would be a good idea. It’s too upscale. How about a 3-series instead?

^^^RaineMan, all those cars you mentioned are entry level/kids cars. Amd that IS the hatchback segment…and that’s exactly why it is inappropriate for a hatchback BMW.

Really, who cares?

Auto Express makes up a lot of its stories to fill space, like its Insignia meets Mondeo story that just photoshopped the Insignia next to the Mondeao. It lacks credibility and most of its scoops should be taken with a pinch of salt.

It’s “grain’ dufus. Are you that retarded?

I love all this attention you pay me, it’s very flattering. As far as idioms go, you take something with a pinch of salt.

http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/take+with+a+pinch+of+salt

not a good ideea in my opinion

5series is not upscale from a 3series or a 1series, It’s how BIG OF A CAR DO YOU WANT OR LIKE> also think of it has a smaller X6 is all it is going to be this is not correct information. BMW is thinking of a 4door coup to go between the 5 and the 7. Rumer has it that is might be a 6series. Remember the 6series came out in 2004. Same year the 5series came out. So it is time that they did something with that around the Same time>I belive that what we are looking at is going to be the new 6series 4door coupe. ANd no there still going to make just the 2door coupe and cab

BMW copying Skoda! That’s different.
The 08 Skoda Superb trunk design is nice.

I thought BMW had a 5 series 5dr in the eighties?

Madcapp,
SUV is nothing more then station wagon on stilts. Don’t believe me? Take any magazine and see what does it say about body stile: WAGON.
Good idea, BMW. With oil price going up every day and if you have active lifestyle or kids it would be very practical vehicle.

RaineMan,
I’m 6′5″, so in 3-Series (if they would make hatch instead of 5-Series) nobody would be able to sit behind me.
And whoever doesn’t like it don’t buy one, but give people like myself a choice other then Sedan and Touring.

BMW, please cut this crap… ;(

This is nothing new. It was an option on Chevy Novas in the 70s and the car was virtually indistinguishable from the standard trunk version.

i bet it would just look like a panamera… theres not much wrong with that. I happen to like hatchbacks and wagons, so everyone complaining should realize there is a market for practicality.

more craps are coming from BMW.

Americans may not like this, but Europeans love hatchbacks, and so it would be a good idea for that market.

It’s as controversial as the 7-series and everybody said that the trunk was horrible, take a look to the 7 series sales, what it shows is that not matter what predictions say you have to wait ’till seeing it face to face.

what is so practical about hatchbacks other than the price ?

Rafa LL,
look at other luxury cars they all copied in one way or the other 7-Series trunk and i-Drive

Blah blah ****ing blah. If there’s no market for luxury hatchbakcs, then explain the Porsche Panamera. And don’t tell me Porsche has made a mistake, these guys bat 1000 with every single thing they release.

KaKalover, it’s “grain of salt.” Idiot.

razr1983 hatchbacks have more interior cargo room then a sedan

DumpsterTugJob, follow the link, its pinch of salt or grain of salt whichever you choose to use. It makes you an idiot for insisting there is only one correct form for the idiom. Out here in a superior coastal state where people have passports and travel abroad, pinch of salt is more commonly used. Feel free to only read local newspapers and vacation in upstate Michigan with your bum chum Impulsive.

Wrong, fool … it’s still GRAIN OF SALT … I couldn’t care less what your failing state, AND IT IS FAILING MISERABLY ISN’T IT, believes is the correct usage of the term.

Coincidentally, you are a FAILURE … funny, eh?

That back profile reminds me of the Crossfire. Yuk.

WHY ill tell you why its a good idea – I have a dog and I dont want the back seats coverd in mud, I dont want an “estate car” sorry sportwagon,and it would be nice to get 5 cases in a 4 door 5 series, about bloody time they came out with a hatchback version.

its the main reason why i have been looking at alternatives to bmw for my next car, a pain as bmw have the market in the uk sussed re emmision based tax etc, and the commpany car policy is based around emission levels.

Its a very good idea in my book.