Driving and owning the M5

[SCA]

Originally Posted by lemming

Well. Not sure the M5 has ever been a sports car. It embodies what M started as and just added better and better engines. M to me has always been about taking a passenger car and making it sporty —but not a sports car.

Fully agree.

BMW basically invented the “sports sedan” while the M division made the original E28 M5 a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

A sports car to me equals vehicles equipped with only two doors.

Originally Posted by Nick M3

There were a few small things that you could do with the E39 that radically tightened it up. None of them really solved the slopbox steering, though. If they'd sold it with a rack and pinion.

This… the steering in the E39 540/M5 is horrendous. Let’s call a spade, a spade… it is total garbage!

[FC]

Originally Posted by SCA

Fully agree.

BMW basically invented the “sports sedan” while the M division made the original E28 M5 a “wolf in sheep’s clothing.”

A sports car to me equals vehicles equipped with only two doors.




This… the steering in the E39 540/M5 is horrendous. Let’s call a spade, a spade… it is total garbage!

Sure, I just can't help but compare it to the F80 - another BMW M sedan that is still somewhat contemporary. That car felt big and heavy at low speeds (but always tight and sporty), but if you drove it hard it was fun and definitely "shrunk around you." I felt I had to be a little careful with the RWD setup, but otherwise, if you were willing to go faster than you should it was actually pretty fun and engaging. I'll add that the M5 is big and clearly bigger then the F80, but not THAT much bigger. The F80 isn't small. And from the driver seat, as you are driving it, the difference seems even smaller. If you stop and look around, sure, the cabin is clearly roomier, especially the back row.

The M5 does the same but it is more isolated and with less feel. The limits seem so ridiculous that I will never come close, but what the AWD takes away in terms of coming even close to the limit it gives back in terms of confidence. In that way, it reminds me of the 997TT. The M5 can go full-on RWD, but I'd need a ton of seat time and the right setting to be willing to push that.

How quiet the cabin is may be messing with my head here a bit too. I need to get to the bottom of the sound thing.

[Josh (PA)]

it will be interesting when the weather gets a little nicer if you get that 'shrinks around you feel'. Otherwise, your review reminds me a lot of my e39m5. I think that incredible levels of competence from a car that doesn't rub it in your face has always been the essence of the m5. I remember the best description of my old e39 being a locomotive. Silly levels of power with no drama. When you pushed that car, though, it did come alive and felt like it shrunk around you. Maybe when it warm up and you can get some heat in the tires this one will show that side of itself.

It is beautiful and I'm sure you'll appreciate the comfort side when you're commuting to work most days.

Congrats again. This is such a cool car.

[Nick M3]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

it will be interesting when the weather gets a little nicer if you get that 'shrinks around you feel'. Otherwise, your review reminds me a lot of my e39m5. I think that incredible levels of competence from a car that doesn't rub it in your face has always been the essence of the m5. I remember the best description of my old e39 being a locomotive. Silly levels of power with no drama. When you pushed that car, though, it did come alive and felt like it shrunk around you. Maybe when it warm up and you can get some heat in the tires this one will show that side of itself.

It is beautiful and I'm sure you'll appreciate the comfort side when you're commuting to work most days.

Congrats again. This is such a cool car.

There were a few small things that you could do with the E39 that radically tightened it up. None of them really solved the slopbox steering, though. If they'd sold it with a rack and pinion, I'd have one instead of the E90 today.

I still periodically wonder if I made the right choice though.

[FC]

Originally Posted by Josh (PA)

it will be interesting when the weather gets a little nicer if you get that 'shrinks around you feel'. Otherwise, your review reminds me a lot of my e39m5. I think that incredible levels of competence from a car that doesn't rub it in your face has always been the essence of the m5. I remember the best description of my old e39 being a locomotive. Silly levels of power with no drama. When you pushed that car, though, it did come alive and felt like it shrunk around you. Maybe when it warm up and you can get some heat in the tires this one will show that side of itself.

It is beautiful and I'm sure you'll appreciate the comfort side when you're commuting to work most days.

Congrats again. This is such a cool car.

Thanks! Pretty happy with it so far. I still feel like I've not really driven it, since I've only done a neighborhood loop twice.

I've never driven an E39, but I find it interesting that you keep drawing parallels between my experience in the F90 and yours in the E39.

I want to get it registered and go on longer drives and spend more time outside of comfort mode. Certainly the interior, features, and quality are amazing. The car has zero rattles. It's not old, but it's not new either with 33k miles.

[FC]

I focused a lot on reading reviews and articles covering the LCI changes to the F90, but last night I read a few about the F90 when it first came out (car has not changed much since launch) and was surprised to hear how much praise it was given compared to the F10. They mention how much feel and driver engagement was added back. Man, the F10 must have really sucked.

https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews...5-test-review/

https://www.motortrend.com/reviews/2...st-review/amp/

[FC]

I just found out that this is the radar detector that the M5 came with: https://radenso.com/products/radenso...te-edition-2-0

Apparently it's $2k or more! And this clearly professionally installed. Holy cow. I'll have to see how well it works.

[Josh (PA)]

Originally Posted by FC

I just found out that this is the radar detector that the M5 came with: https://radenso.com/products/radenso...te-edition-2-0

Apparently it's $2k or more! And this clearly professionally installed. Holy cow. I'll have to see how well it works.

where did they mount the display?

[FC]

To the left of and up against the rearview mirror on the glass. Right against the headliner. It's pretty small ~ 1"x2"?

[FC]

First commute into work today. My feelings are mixed.

I'm still getting to know the car, but I'd say that in full comfort/default mode the car is both excellent and boring. It is an incredibly comfortable car. I can talk about that more later, but I'll start with the driving.

In default/all-comfort/efficient mode, while at steady speeds it is a very luxurious ride though far from plush. The suspension is still great for handling, which I love. But because the car is in 8th gear, even with a light to moderate application of the gas, the car will down shift a gear or two. Smooth as the shifts are, they are noticeable and feel unnecessary. Then it will promptly shift up again. I guess I am not used to that because of driving manuals or the LR4 having only 6 gears and a torquey V8 so it will not downshift in the highway unless you press the gas pedal an appropriate amount. There is a temptation to want to try out the car's speed, and when giving it gas it will drop multiple gears. This will always feel odd to me (Mrs. FC's Mini does this too). I am not used to a performance automatic with so many gears. Usually I'm in a manual choosing what I want. The paddles are great, but again, not awesome when you find yourself 3+ gears away from what you want. It also doesn't help that the "road" (normal/comfort) display does not show you the gears except in a tiny lower corner in the dash. The Sport display will have to do to know where I am, but you lose other info. Perhaps this is configurable.

In sport mode, the car will hold 7th gear at 60-70mph which makes the car much more responsive and seems better suited for morning commutes with traffic. There is just a lot less shifting. I do suspect it would make fuel economy suffer from what is already a not-good EPA 17/21 rating (though hysterically, still significantly better than the LR4's 13/17 rating).

So far I see no reason to not be on comfort suspension all the time. The car has excellent reflexes for its size and I cannot see why I'd want to sacrifice ride comfort except for very aggressive driving. That should be rare.

For now I suppose I should not be surprised with the tradeoff. The car is nowhere near as exciting as the M3 and one could argue the GTI is more engaging and fun to drive. But it is sooo nice inside and relaxing in traffic. Then there is the absurd amount of features and creature comforts, and of course, outrageous levels of too-easy-to-access performance.

It will take a bit of time to digest how surprisingly uninvolving this car is. At the same time, I am very glad I did not get an M550i. I honestly think I may have been better served with a loaded M340i instead of an M550i. I also say that because even a loaded M550i would not have had all the features the M5 has. And I did a bunch of searches on 540i's and that was significantly worse.