5-Series History

Internally, BMW uses designators such as "F10" to refer to car body styles (chassis styles). The F10 is the sixth generation of the standard 4-door sedan 5-series chassis.

There they all are. From left to right:

1. E12 from 1972
2. E28 from 1981
3. E34 from 1988
4. E39 from 1995
5. E60 from 2003
6. F10 from 2010

Why did the letter suddenly change from "E" to "F"? Is there something very special about the 6th generation 5-Series?

"E" stands for the German word "Entwicklung" which means "Development". BMW started this back in 1968,  So the E60 was the 60th "development". They got all the way up to the E93 with the latest 3-series and basically ran out of two digits numbers.  Instead of going to 3-digits, they moved the "E" alphabetically up to an "F" and started again at F01 for the latest 7-series.

The "5-Series" gets it name from the first one called that, the E12. The E12 was the fifth development of the "New Class" platform, which set BMW in the direction they pursue to this day:  catering to the affluent middle class. The first of the new class was the BMW 1500 launched in October of 1962.

This car was really the first "5-Series", in that it was a 4-door sedan that evolved into the 5-Series of today. Coincidentally, it was launched in the same year and month that I was born, so I suppose I was destined to wind up in 5-Series cars!

Prior to that they had some limited success in compact economy cars and micro-city-cars, and a critical success but an economic failure with super high-end cars such as the BMW 507.

Even more lovely.

After naming the 5-Series, they named the 3-Series as such because it was smaller than the 5, and the 7-Series as such because it was larger.  In other words, "small", "medium", and "large". They also have various other models in the lineup, but these are the main ones.