It might still look fresh, but BMW‘s mid-size luxury sport saloon was launched in 2011, which means that a new 5-Series is already headed our way.

In fact, that’s what we could be looking at here. The photos were sent to us by our reader Daniel from Zagreb, Croatia, who spotted it on the Autobahn about an hour outside of Munich.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to discern much from the photos, grainy and few as they are. The test car appears to wear some elements from the new 7-Series and that could mean that either the new 5er is set to adopt a similar styling to its bigger brother, which is more or less BMW’s established practice, or that it’s simply a 7-Series prototype that’s testing God knows what.

One thing’s for sure, though: the current 5-Series is one of the oldest models in its market segment and Mercedes has an all-new Mercedes E-Class out there. We bet Munich won’t leave its arch-rival alone for long…

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