E55_POWER

Just bought her about an hour ago...home now and taking off to enjoy her. Will give impressions soon.

Low end doesn't compare to the 55K but above 5K RPM the M5 seems to pull harder.

So far, excited from the drive home

cte430

congrats Alex!! Let us know what you think. What color int./ext.?

04E55 AMG

Congrats Bro! Next track day (Dec sometime) we will go head to head! Screw that, I will meet you tonight and we will do some stop and go runs
Nice and dry and cold, perfect for the beast to grab a late night snack....

Did you get my VM?

Post some pics

VelocitE55

Congratulations, look forward to hearing more.

04E55 AMG

I see you updated your profile with K2 and IC!!!!!!!!! Congrats again

BoBcanada

post more impressions and more pix!

E55_POWER

Well, wife made me drive the 750 tonight because we took our son out with us

Pictures, well everyone knows it's not much of an "eye candy".

I'll take pics on Monday.

Spero, I left you a vmail. I was in Chicago and just got back and went do dealer late this afternoon.

I'll call you tomorrow, maybe we can hook up.

Race you? Sure, but I know I'll get my butt kicked :p

MB Fanatic

Hey, whats wrong with the 750li man? Its a beautiful car, certainly moreso than an M5.

04E55 AMG

Not if we switch cars

E55_POWER

Comfortable for sure! But I wanted to hurry up and rack up my miles to get to 1200 so I can use this "so called" LC.

750 is GREAT, no question - best big sedan IMO. BMW does a great job in the road feedback dept.

E55_POWER

Spero, you know you're more than welcome anytime to drive any of my cars.

Damn dealer didn't give me a manual (coming Tuesday or so) so I don't know what this S mode is that the M5 owners are talking about.

The M5 pulls fawkin hard as crap at the upper RPM range. The seats are actually more comfortable than the E55 seats, strange. Interior is plain boring.

Wife didn't even know I was getting the M5. It was kinda funny, I came home first and literally 30 seconds later she pulls up in her 750 and asks, "where is my Escallade" LOL She actually likes the way the 5er looks. We were considering the R Class to replace the Escallade, but I didn't like anything about it, except the R63 I saw in pictures

I'll probably be busy fiddling with the car tomorrow and activating Sirius.

Well, I should enjoy this for the next 4 to 6 months before I dump this car.

BTW, Ustino gave me a SL65 to test drive...FAWK that thing hauls A$$, holy cow. The SL600 was fast but felt a bit "flat", couldn't exactly make out what was "quite missing". We were looking at possibly ordering the CLS55, but he talked me out of it saying some crap like "you had an E55, why get another one for $10K more" WHAT? This coming from a MB salesman?
Now I see, he was trying to sell me a $200K car :p Frankly the SL65 is just not worth $200K to me, unless I hit the Lotto.

I'll call you tomorrow.

blackbenzz

Alex and Spero, a couple of us are going to MIR on sunday, maybe you guys can bring your cars to run too. Next week is the last week MIR is open.

Jon200

Congrats on your new ride man

Mardeth

Can you elaborate? The dealer didnt give the S mode in SMG? Never heard of that happening before. As far as I know the true manual will come late 06.

krispykrme

Your dealer is idiot.

Look at your dash, does it say D or 1?

If it says D. Then the SMG is in auto mode.

If it says 1. Then the SMG is in S mode.

You can change how agressive the gear shift is in the M5.

Now look at your shifter. Take your eye and move toward the console or hand brake.

Now you should see a button with bars on it. Push right, you can change from S1 to S5, or A1 to A5 (depend on whether you are in auto or S mode).

To change mode, move your shifter to the right. (The dash indicator should either read a 1 or D).

To engage S6. Make sure you are in S-mode. Switch off DSC. In your dash, the gear indicator will show the 6th bar. Then use the bar button between the shifter and hand brake to access S6.

E55_POWER

Sorry, I should have said no Owner's Manual.

Mardeth

Oh man. Aint I the Einstein...

moa4r

congrats Alex, I knew you would enjoy that thing.

-Mo

Evil Duffman

congrats, post many pics please

BenzoBoi

Pics and impression would definitely be awesome!~! Congrats...

WayneE

Alex/Spero, if you guys are out playing around, drop me a line (I pm'd you my #). I'd love to check out the M5... plus, I have a bone stock E55 if you need something for comparison

DerekFSU

It definitely has it's place. I just got back from Roebling Rd Raceway again and other than 2 cars, I owned everything out there in my solo run group (all porsches). I was even gaining on them in the corners. The M5 is unbelievable on the track for a large car.

E55_POWER

Drove about 200 miles the last 2 days. The M5's low end Torque is noticeably lower than the 55K car. The one thing I noticed is that the power (horsepower), there seems to be more than the 55K cars...maybe this sounds strange, but the M5 seems to have more power at the high RPM ranges as it seems to pull harder as the RPM goes up, where as the 55K's feels like it starts to drop around high 4K range in my experience.

The handling of the M5 is just simply amazing. I could not believe that a big sedan could handle this good...almost P-Car good.

The I-Drive just sux in the M5, the 750s I-Drive is much more intuitive. The MP3 player the M5 is on the CD player rather than in the 6 CD Changer - the 750 is the other around so this confused me a bit at first.

The seats are strangley more comfortable than the E55s, but the ride of the M5 is very harsh and stiff. Soft setting on the M5 is noticeably stiffer than E55 in Sport2.

The exhaust note of the M5 is actually quieter than I expected (I will probably change the the exhaust soon).

The SMG is simply awesome...I don't know how people are actually complaining. For a daily driver, sure it's not as easy and comfortable as any automatics, but I think I got the shift "down" and I simply let the gas go a tad before shifting and it's pretty smooth.

The car is not very noticeable as that was one of my biggest gripes, in terms of it not looking too much different thant he 545 SP. Only a M3 driver seemed to notice my car and keep following me, actually tailing me, so I said "so much for break in, and decided to let it rip"

Braking is pretty good, I would say equal to E55, couldn't tell which one was actually beter, both very good.

I tried to take off in 1st gear by just mashing the gas while in S mode...it took off like a Corolla before hitting 2000 something RPM. This car is useless for drag racing without LC. I don't have that option yet cuz car only has 230 some miles. I've hit 8500 RPM many times and it's pretty addicting up top, but man I have to admit, M5 owners will lose their license if they keep the car in the sweetspot all the time. M5 requires more more involvement than E55 for sure.

I'll post more as I near my 1200 service.

RJC

Doesn't the new M5 have the upgraded SMG? Saw my first M5 in person, cosmos black, very nice. Congrats

Kev04C320

Good write up. I guess different car for different purpose. The M5 is definitely fun to drive on the Autobahn as well as on the track. The E55 is more of a luxo-cruiser that allows you to get sporty once in a while.

The M5 is a very good car mechanically, but most people can't get over the looks of it. It can be tracked like Derek said, but it sucks as a family car. I have BMW-phobia since I was a little kid. Everytime I rode in my uncle's 323i, I get motion sickness and throw up afterwards. However, all is well when I got back to my dad's W124, go figure. I guess I'll stay away from BMWs for as long as I can.