So, you’re either a diplomat, either a druglord with a lot of enemies and you really don’t want to show off in an S Class or a Rolls Royce? What to do, what to do? Have no fear, BMW is here. Yesterday, the Bavarian carmaker announced the BMW 5 Series Security, a special edition of the luxury sedan, whose main purpose is to protect as good as possible its passengers. To make sure you get to you destination alive, the entire passenger cell is bulletresistant and its armour fulfils the requirements of ballistic protection level VR4 (which means the car can resist attacks with guns like .44 Magnum, .357 Magnum or 9 mm Luger).

The armour is made of a combination of casings, moulded parts and panels, plus fibre mats used for the armourplating and aramid mats used for the roof, body columns and for the front wall to the footwell and the back wall to the luggage compartment. The security glazing of the BMW 5-Series Security consists of a 22 mm thick compound of plastic and glass, while the window panes also have a polycarbonate coating which provides shatter protection for the vehicle interior.

There are also several other security features of the car, but I’m sure that’s not interesting to you (we don’t really care about it too). All you need to know is that, if you ever fear that someone might want to kill you with a bazooka, the BMW 5 Series Security is probably one of the best choices. You can read more about it in the official press release.

Meanwhile, check out more photos after the jump. Read More: "BMW announces the 5 Series Security"

NHSTA announced that about 200,000 BMW vehicles in the U.S. will be recalled over a sensor problem that may cause the front passenger airbag not to deploy in the event of a crash. NHTSA says that if the front passenger seat is used often, that might cause small crack to develop in the seat detection mat. This deactivates the airbag and the airbag warning lamp and turns on the passenger airbag “on/off” lamp.

The recall, which is expected to begin during late September, affects the 2006 3-Series, the 2004-2005 5-Series and the 2004-2006 X3. BMW announced that the dealers will rework the front passenger seat sensor mat so that external force application to the seat does not cause a crack to the mat and also the warranty will be extended to 10 years from first registration without any mileage limit.

This time BMW went to great lengths to mask the new interior details with foam, but fortunately enough, the spies went to even greater lengths to take clear shots of it, so we can still distinguish some new features.

As announced for the 7 series, the new iDrive controller is mounted on the right side of the gear lever. We can tell that it has side buttons with functions, similar to the Audi’s MMI system. (you can see the foam tries to suggest the old iDrive controller position, further back) Also similar to Audi is the “P” button, for the electronic parking brake, located behind the gear lever.

Moving on, the new steering wheel seems to be fitted with scroll buttons for enhanced functionality. The dashboard seems to be a little more turned towards the driver

Rumors about the all new 5er’s equipment include active suspention, Head-up Display and a bigger sat-nav display on the dashboard.

The all new 5 series is supposed to arrive in spring 2010 as a 2011 model and it will be available as a sedan, touring and a fast-back version (which will have its own name, currently known as the PAS project).
Read More: "New BMW 5 Series interior spied"

Though everyone was impressed with the new Jaguar XF, everyone also agreed that the market it targets is highly competitive, with strong German rivals, such as the Audi A6, the BMW 5 Series and the Mercedes Benz E Class. InsideLine put up the XF against these cars and you’d be amazed by the results. I mean, I like the XF, but didn’t imagine it will be that good. Can’t wait to get my hands on it. One thing that needs to be mentioned is that the Jaguar had the most powerful engine, the 420 hp Supercharged V8.

Read More: "Video: Jaguar XF does great against its German rivals"