Gone is the C4S. In its place, a black/black E60 M5.

So far, I've mostly driven it with the Inhibitors in place (my pregnant wife and 1-year old son), so I haven't given it much stick. Clearly faster than the C4S in acceleration, but not as great under braking. Comfort factor higher, cool factor similar but different. Sound quality, better (and I had PSE on the C4S)

DSC Off, P500Sport, S6, EDC Sport, and she'll squeal the tires in 1st, 2nd, and 3rd. Try doing that in an AWD NA 911!

Overall, assuming the reliability is not an issue, I think this car will be a worthy successor to the C4S, and gives me a great platform to keep as a DD, and add a 997 GT3 later on, as funds and garage space permit.

 

When is the 6speed manual coming out? Should be available on the '07 if I'm not mistaken?

Nice car, nice color choice.

 

she's beautiful, glad to hear it worked out. when shopping for used, did you find more than a few available, and were they willing to deal much?
how long was the learning curve on smg and i-drive? are you a pro yet?

 

There's inventory out there. I was lucky, in that the particular car I wound up with had been on the lot for a couple of months. Originally, they were asking about 90k for it (original sticker was around 95), and that price floated down to 83.6, and I got it for 82.6, which seems like a good price from what I've seen elsewhere. The M5 is apparently not a huge seller in the Midwest.

Regarding the 6-speed, I believe you're right, and it'll be there for the 07 model year. In my case, I needed a car that my wife feels comfortable driving, and she has a mental block about driving manual after she saw the check I wrote for a new clutch on a 99 Carrera! So, SMGIII is the best of both worlds (given that I can't swing a Veyron). I anticipate a learning curve to get it down, but it's nowhere near as jerky as I'd been led to expect. Still not as smooth as a well-shifted manual, but give me a week or two, and we'll see if I can get it down.

I'm still not sold on I-drive, but it's not as ferocious as reported, either. The weird thing is that there's a force-feedback effect through the controller when you scroll quickly through a menu. I notice it when I scroll through the Sirius channels. It's like the car is trying to throw off the yolk...

 

You will love SMG. I had ver 2 in the M3 and it was awesome. There is a small learning curve though, but I actually enjoyed SMG over the regular 6 speed.

 

Congrats! I want to see how different the SMGIII is compared to that of SMGII besides the obvious.

 

buy my exhaust before i buy another M5 please... will ya

 

great car, my dad has one on order like that but he cancled it now i have to live with his 2000 450hp m5

connor

 

Congrats! It's even the right color!

By next week, you'll be shifting that baby smoother than a deuce and quarter!

 

We got a lot of M5's on 6speed now! Congrats on the new car.

 

Thanks guys. I'm pretty happy with it. The sound is ethereal. Interestingly, for being so hard to distinguish from A.N.Other 5-series BMW, it's been attracting a lot more attention than the Porsche ever did...

 

Awesome ride PMac!
It's bad you exchanged the C4S for it...but probably you had to do.
Post some more pics for us...don't forget!

 

Congratulations on the M5! i'd love to have an Imola Red one.

 

Learning curve for the SMG should be easy though... You'll get used to it after few days of driving..

About the Idrive... I agree that it's not "that user friendly" at first... I had to read the manual during the first few days of ownership to get familiar with that thing

 

everything is about getting used to on this car. not sure if it's good thing or bad thing but that's just the way it is.

about iDrive, i found it's much easier to use voice control to get into the main selected page first than proceed the following.