Mardeth

Based on what Ive heard, the P400 and P500 should have like a night and day difference. Maybe theres something wrong with your car?? Have you done your breakin?

MRichmond

That is correct. There is a huge difference between P400 and P500, even within the break-in limits. Even if you are constant throttle in P400 at low revs and hit the power button, you will notice an immediate increase in power.

cte430

Hey Alex, how about the new Aston Vantage? only $110K or so. Sweet looking thing; Not a monster but sounds like a nice package

e55 baller

M5 has been out now and no Car Rags have posted ANY 1/4 times....what gives? Maybe BMW would not let them publish them cuz they are slower than expected?

With 3 years of dev time on the E55 I was expecting to see 12.1@118 -- 1 sec better and 10mph better than the 400hp previous M5.

Falco

Very good point...normally they have a full road test on the stands within days of the 1st car hitting our shores for public delivery...

Whassup with that?!?!

MRichmond

Now the Evil BMW has control of the press?? The first cars were not delivered in the US until late October. The automotive press likely got them about the same time. Expect full road tests in the next issue or two.

krispykrme

probably because no press car is available.

Delivery to customer did not occur until mid october. C&D usually publishes their test two month after getting their hands on one.

Earlies would probably dec/jan issues.

enzom

I certainly hope that nobody is propounding some strange conspiracy theory here. When the magazines get them, they will be tested. It is, however, unusual for a highly-anticipated car to get to US customers before a magazine test. I would be very surprised if the January issue of C&D (due in 2 weeks) did not have a road test of the M5.

E55AMG99

Damn! My mailman must be reading my C/D mag. I just got the december issue today!

enzom

He must be! Wow. I complain about my C&D getting here a week after it hits the news stand. You must have the mailman from Better Off Dead.

E55_POWER

Hey Chris! AMV8 is sweet for sure! Actually, I have found a new "love" for the M5 the last couple of days. I was driving the car fairly lightly when going to and from the office. I did notice a noticeable surge in P500 mode when accelerating and switching from P400 to P500. The car handles beyond what I can push the car to (don't have any track experience) cuz I'm too chicken ***** to hit turns at 50MPH. I think I'll just wait it out a bit and see if someone comes out with a 4.xx rear diff for this car to remedy some of the low end punch it's measing.

Today with the car having 600 miles, I almost got the 1200 mile service because my oil indicator was low and they added 3 Qts of oil (which I had to pay for - strange because I thought they covered this kind of stuff) and the indicator did not move. Drove the car for about 25 miles and still low so dealer was going to do the service immediately. Funny enough after I get off the phone the oil jumped from .2L to 1.3 - DAMN GERMAN CARS.
I did end up beating up an Audi A6 2.7T without going over 5500 RPM - not much of a kill I guess, fun nonetheless.

I think I will buy a more tame daily driver (damn the M5 is STIFF) and drive the M5 during nice days til the M6 or E63/CLS63 comes out.

I'm meeting Spero for coffee in the AM tomorrow and we're going to do some highway runs - this should be fun!

e55 baller

I picked my E55 up May 1, 2003. 1 month AFTER I read in the mags the ETs. The new Z06 ETs came out like 2-4 weeks before it hit the streets.

Something is seriously up with the M5. It has be anticipated for 3 years now.

I think somewhere some the car rag testers have about 100 passes on a couple M5s and can't seem to break 12.6-12.7 and don't want to report it...

E55AMG99

Well, the M5 I drove last week has been sold to an unsuspecting buyer for purportedly sticker. There is a one for sale right now at another dealership for $5500 with another car coming in where the buyer backed out. I'm glad I gave up my slot for $7500 split with the dealer. The market isn't as firm as it was 30 days ago out here when several cars were advertised and sold for $10K over. I wonder what January will look like?

E55_POWER

I've decided to keep the M5 as I'm having too much fun in it, I think I will eventually track this car. My goodness this car is a 4 door Porsche basically. Handling is out of this world. I'm hitting 90 degree turns going 45mph with tires barely screeching. I can't believe how well balanced this car is. My MP3 player in the CD is crap, I mean total crap compared to that of my E55. I-Drive, unfortunately, I'm becoming dependent on it. I drove my employees Lexus today and felt like I couldn't find anything. I'm close to my 1200 mile service then off to the track I go.

Some E55 guys will be there, I think I will let WayneE drive my M5 down the track since he has lots of track experience and will probably manage better times than I could. See you folks Dec. 2nd

e55 baller

I was supposed to run my friends new E60 M5 this weekened from a dead dig and roll (he also has a black E55 and a F360).

Guess what? He sold it already!

He said it had no power down low. It was to stiff of a drive for him and he did not like the SMG. I don't mind stiff at all but no tq/down low power would not be good for me. I think the SMG is awesome based on my experience with the M3.

He reconed it was putting down only about 300-320rwtq max....about 240rwtq less than me so he said "You win, and I win cuz I am selling it"

E55AMG99

My friend is selling his too after only 150 miles. He said his Range Rover Sport could beat the M off the line! I think he's asking $101K.

http://www.autosourcemotoring.com/de...spx?iid=810470

RennTechV12

Something tells me that the new M is going to go the way of the '02 745. Once people get the car it doesn't live up to all the hype and they sell it immediately. I bet you'll be able to pick those things up for low 60's here in about a year.

e55 baller

I'd agree, it may be a 1990 ZR1 Vette. What baffles me is BMW had how many years of R&D to eclispe the current day AMG technology w.r.t straight line speed.

BoBcanada

DUnno im thinking about getting a car as you all know, and M5 is on my list, But i damn sure to test drive it tho....

ON my list.

1. SL55 ( if i can bring one from US, WAY CHeaper) + Some SUV
2. E55 + kleemann mods
3. M5
4. Z06 + SUV ( but somthing in me just cant pay 100+ CAD gs for a chevy lol)

absent

Way too early to pass judgements regarding the future and resale of the M5.
True,some new owners who came from E55 may be dissapointed with the way the M5 drives but that's because they were used to automatic tranny and high torque available at any revs.E55 ,without a doubt offers a more comfy drive ,with all its power on demand,no work,providing there is enough traction.
After driving all the AMG products for the past 6 years,I wanted a little change and I'm glad I did get the M5.
It demands more involvement from me ,I have to pay more attention to the surrounding traffic(stay "in gear")since after all it is still just a manual car and even though it does not have a clutch you still have to change gears in the thing.Seems a lot of guys forget about that simple fact and when they try to go quick the fuel cut-off reminds them about that .
My E55 was incredibly quick,more so with the Renntech mods and probably would beat the M in a 1/4 mile (not sure with the Launch Control I'm still waiting to activate after 1st service).
In higher speeds,highway speeds,in the right gear,when the driver of the M5 is ready and fairly skilled that car is almost unbeatable.It pulls like nothing else.And here I see the advantage of the E55ou don't have to be ready,you don't have to be in the right gear,you don't even have to need any experience with the way your car "works",to win any impromptu "races".
On the other hand,thats what drew me to the M5,that need to "learn' the car,to improve my skills and my paying attention to traffic,in order to fully use this car's potential.
I'm going to keep it until my new S65 shows up,by then I may get tired of "working" behind the wheel, we'll see....

enzom

Thanks for the input. Always nice to read that guys are happy with their new cars. Which goes to the point - I am not reading that many people who bought new M5s are dissappointed with their purchase. They may be finding that the car does not have the low-end punch that their E55's give them, and that it means the M5 will probably not be as quick in the quarter. But they are generally saying that they love their new cars.

krispykrme

Again different approach.

I have already met several M5 owners that is very happy with their car including me.

Personally i just don't understand and probably never will why straight line performance is so important and to some only measure of a good car.

Like Absent said, M5 will require far more skilled driver than E55.

I for one am not dissappointed with M5, in fact I really liked it much more than E55.

E55 is more comfortable and easier to driver around the town. But M5 is simply more fun to drive.

Improviz

Hmm, sounds like you maybe shoulda bought the 550i with sport pkg and smg, then....coulda saved yourself some $$$. I suppose you spend all of your time in the 400 horse mode, yes?

Oh, yeah...takes a great deal more skill to pull those little SMG paddles on the back of the steering wheel than to bump the E55's shift lever left and right.

We've gathered that, since well before you bought it.

In your opinion.

absent

Improviz: by "skill" I mean not a professional racing skill but an acquired skill of using the M5 properly.
It's not a matter of just "pulling the paddles",you want to be smooth too,there is no torque converter so to be smooth yo have to learn how to do it.It is still a manual transmission,auto option sucks (unless your passengers don't mind bobbing heads) and it takes some learning which may take from couple hundred miles to couple thousand for someone who never had a stick.
Also,to be quick in M5 you have to work the gears constantly(which may be fun or drag depending on a point of view).
It's sort of like driving a Honda S2000 (very peaky engine) except much,much more power.

E55_POWER

I wen to the track with bunch of E55 folks, let some of them drive the car...

I'll let them speak for it, WayneE, 04E55AMG, Chris CT430?...

I think WayneE was impressed with the M5 the most and CT430 got to drive my car going around some turns.

As for fun factor, depends on what you consider fun, if you like Neck breaking TQ, E55 all the way, pretty much everythign else M5 takes the cake.