# The BMW 5 Series History. The 1st Generation (E12).



## [email protected] (Aug 15, 2012)

With the BMW 5 series E12, the first generation, we start our six part series about BMWs successful upper class model. In the seventies the 5 series was a statement in the upper midrange class. Take a look behind the scenes of its development with BMW insiders.

https://youtu.be/UFJwxJpoemU

_*You can read all about the latest 5 Series, the G30, here!*_

*BMW announces the first ever BMW 530e iPerformance, read about it here!*


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## M2Pilot (Jun 1, 2007)

My 2nd BMW was a '75 530i. Great car except for the a/c. Worst a/c of any car I've ever owned.


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## Freddiedenner (Dec 16, 2020)

Could anyone assist me with the ignition timing of the e12 520 i. 1983 model


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## 2002 tii (Jan 29, 2006)

M2Pilot said:


> My 2nd BMW was a '75 530i. Great car except for the a/c. Worst a/c of any car I've ever owned.


Mine was a '76 530i - agree the worst A/C along with the tendency to overheat in traffic. However I did keep it for 9 years and 130K miles


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## Autoputzer (Mar 16, 2014)

There's a good story about BMW air conditioners. 5 Series owners on the southern USA were constantly complaining about their cars' air conditioners. BMW NA relayed these complaints back to Germany, but they fell on deaf ears. The engineers in Germany attributed all the complaints to specific problems with cars, not to an overall design defficency.

Somebody at BMW NA convinced a high-level BMW engineer from Germany to come to the US for a meeting about the cars' air-conditioners. BMW NA said the meeting would be in Dallas, Texas, in the afternoon on a summer day. They ordered a black-on-black 5 series delivered to Dallas, but they also had the electric windows and sunroof disconnected. They had the chauffer driven 5 pick up the German engineer at DFW near midday, and then drive him around downtown Dallas in urban traffic (low engine speed resulting in low AC compressor speed, and minimal forced convective cooling of the car's body). The back of the 5 Series was miserably hot. The chauffer drove the engineer around and around until the engineer figured out what was going on. The engineer demanded to be taking directly to the meeting. The chauffer took him back to DFW, handed him a plane ticket back to Germany, and told him the meeting was over.

That fixed BMW's air conditioner problem.


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