Overall, I think with so little down, and incidentials such as tax, title, license and acquisition -- good deal. Personally, my 14 E63 wagon was 110 K list, bought it for 102,500 after AMA fleet discount and my dealer discount.

 

I am incredibly dissapponted at how bad these rates and residuals are.

Was just looking an an M5 and competitively residuals should be around the 60% mark for 12k and mf should be closer to .0013 (3.12%).
.00195 is 4.68% interest while .0026 is 6.24% interest!
Also you should never be putting any cash down on a lease, that's just cash down the drain.

 

Yes I was cross shopping the M5 and there is no question that its lease is more favorable than the E63. That is typical -- BMW tends to subsidize its leases more than Mercedes. The E63 lease money factor only becomes more competitive if you put down the 10 MSDs. Of course if you put down the maximum 7 MSDs that BMW allows then the M5's lease becomes much cheaper once again.

At the end of the day a buyer will need to decide whether the price premium on the E63 is worth it over the M5. To me it is. The M5 only has rear wheel drive which makes for a much slower 0 to 60 times and much poorer winter traction and much poorer traction taking off from the line or coming out hard of a low speed corner. E63 also is considerable more powerful at stock power and when tuned than the M5.

Then again the M5 has much better paint colors (to me) and better electronics and interior room.

 

M5's diff cannot handle the power well imho (E92 M3 had a perfect diff otoh); and even with winter tires it was difficult. But the interior and transmission >> E63. Next M5 is likely AWD which should hopefully solve all of this.

 

I am a lifelong BMW guy who has owned 3 different BMW 5 Series V8 cars (E39, E60 and F10).

But as much as I like BMW I like performance even more. And on that score the current E63 just destroys the current M5.

The president of BMW's M Division has admitted that the M5 the suffering in comparison to its competitors. It's hobbled by the feeling of being very very heavy and by having only rear wheel drive to handle it's massive power.

All of the car experts are saying the next M5 will have all-wheel-drive and be considerably lighter than the current one. I look forward to BMW getting back in the game. But in this generation of cars the E63 S is the better performance car.

Now if only Mercedes would make some extroverted exterior paint colors available like the M5 has. No red. No orange. No bright medium blue. Whoever picks the E63's colors is way too stodgy (and I'm not paying $10,000 to paint the car with the CLS's fabulous mystic blue color). As much as I am not a fan of the exterior paint choices of the E63 its huge performance and tuneability wins the day for it.

 

14 or 15 the price wont differ much plus its not like they have plenty of these in stock so unless you order one (which you never know the price until it comes in) then you dont have much to negotiat. AMG cars don't come at a deal.

 

Agreed! I'm in the same exact boat at the moment. Have owned 9 different BMWs in the last 11 year, 3 special ordered, 3 M cars, and MB simply has BMW on lockdown as of late. I don't find most of the BMW's very appealing in any way.

I was curious on your comment about the electronics being better though. I was under the impression the e63 had better tech offerrings, i.e. Distronic Plus (active cruise to complete stop) vs Driver Assist Plus (no complete stop on M5s; only 550 and below full stop). What are some the better tech offerings you've noticed in the M5?

 

No pano roof bummed me out in the M5. The massage seats also are more to keep you awake then to actually rub you. Not that the E's seats provide a thorough massage or anything, but you can at least feel it!

 

I should've been more precise. I think as far as driving electronics Mercedes does have the edge. I think with respect to cabin electronics such as iDrive, BMW's iDrive is superior to COMAND. Also, the M5 has a much bigger more readable screen then the tiny little porthole-sized screen found in the E Class. And the M5's B and O does not compromise the trunk room like the E63's.

In terms of a value proposition. the E63 S is far better equipped in terms of standard equipment than the M5. Everything is optional on the M5 and essentially to get almost any of the options you have to buy them all in a few packages (especially the Executive Package) which makes the average M5 about $115k MSRP assuming the buyer doesn't get the carbon ceramic brakes or the B and O. Because of the E63 S has a much higher level of standard equipment, if you avoid the B and O and the carbon ceramic brakes you're generally looking at between $105-$110k MSRP.

But BMW discounts the M5 more heavily and its leases are more favorable than the E63 S so the actual monthly payments on a lease actually work out to be cheaper on most M5s as compared to E63 S.

But to me it's not about dollars and cents as the differences are not all that dramatic. It's about performance. It's about engine power, acceleration, and traction. It's about road feel. It's about the amount of added engine horsepower and torque you can receive from just a tune. On all those scores, at speeds you can drive in the United States legally or semi-legally the E63 S is superior to the M5 by a mile.

The only place where the M5 has a speed advantage over the E63 S is an acceleration beyond 100 miles an hour where the M5 does prove to be faster. But who drives those speeds anyway in the United States on a regular basis? I don't.

Now if only MB would break its obsession with dowdy paint colors and add some extroverted colors to the E63's selection of exterior paints.

 

Anyone know top tier MF for August - is it 195?