Driving and owning the M5

[lemming]

Originally Posted by FC

Ironically, ever since my used 190E, I've never aligned a car. Even the ZHP which was a daily for 6 years always tracked true. I inly aligned the WJ Jeep GC and the LR4 recently because of suspension work. Perhaps I am naive, but I am not too worried about the roads. The area where I drive has pretty good roads (great for Boston standards).

JST brought up the Panamera. My issues with it other than it being even more money was the size. There is also the perception element. To non-car people, an M5 looks like 5 series.

One thing I will say is that on a car as loaded as a fully-optioned M5, a lot of the things that would cost an arm and a leg are free if they are even available.

Good feedback. I would need some extended driving time to see if I could live with a car this big (the M5 is not tiny either).

I get your point about the M5 serving its mission as under the radar too. Good point.

[FC]

Is this an M5 thing, a BMW thing, or is something off?

When slowing down from basically any speed and at any rate of deceleration, I don't recall ever feeling a car downshift as the car slows. It just basically does its thing in the background. I don't recall this on any other automatic. The cars just come smoothly to a stop and when you are ready to go again, it is in 1st gear.

On the M5, I can feel the car down shift to 3rd, 2nd, etc. It's not abrupt, or jerky, but you notice it. It can feel sporty and cool but in efficient+comfort mode, you'd expect this to go away. Maybe this is a DCT thing and they wanted to mimic the effect? Also, as I slow and creep towards a parked car and I have a soft amount of pressure on the brake pedal, the car will downshift (2-1?) and all of a sudden it slows less slowly and I have to adjust the rate of braking.

Today I was stuck on some awful traffic where I was at a stop-crawl for an hour. I noticed that while on "efficient" the car would right away shift to 2nd, and as I needed to stop again, this noticeable 2-1 shift happened every time. I found that changing the car to Sport made it hold 1st gear through ~5mph and avoided this constant 1-2-1 shift.

Any thoughts? Do other BMW ZF 8-speed autos do this?

[Alan]

Enjoy the learning curve … it’s something new and different.

[FC]

Originally Posted by Alan

Enjoy the learning curve … it’s something new and different.

[robg]

Originally Posted by FC

Is this an M5 thing, a BMW thing, or is something off?

When slowing down from basically any speed and at any rate of deceleration, I don't recall ever feeling a car downshift as the car slows. It just basically does its thing in the background. I don't recall this on any other automatic. The cars just come smoothly to a stop and when you are ready to go again, it is in 1st gear.

On the M5, I can feel the car down shift to 3rd, 2nd, etc. It's not abrupt, or jerky, but you notice it. It can feel sporty and cool but in efficient+comfort mode, you'd expect this to go away. Maybe this is a DCT thing and they wanted to mimic the effect? Also, as I slow and creep towards a parked car and I have a soft amount of pressure on the brake pedal, the car will downshift (2-1?) and all of a sudden it slows less slowly and I have to adjust the rate of braking.

Today I was stuck on some awful traffic where I was at a stop-crawl for an hour. I noticed that while on "efficient" the car would right away shift to 2nd, and as I needed to stop again, this noticeable 2-1 shift happened every time. I found that changing the car to Sport made it hold 1st gear through ~5mph and avoided this constant 1-2-1 shift.

Any thoughts? Do other BMW ZF 8-speed autos do this?

Yes! I remember my old f10 5 series did this and it kind of bugged me. And yeah I used to do the same thing in traffic to keep it in 1st. I even wrote a letter to bmw at one point about this saying wtf


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[FC]

Originally Posted by robg

Yes! I remember my old f10 5 series did this and it kind of bugged me. And yeah I used to do the same thing in traffic to keep it in 1st. I even wrote a letter to bmw at one point about this saying wtf


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Ah! Good to know. Thanks!

[zach]

Originally Posted by FC

Is this an M5 thing, a BMW thing, or is something off?

When slowing down from basically any speed and at any rate of deceleration, I don't recall ever feeling a car downshift as the car slows. It just basically does its thing in the background. I don't recall this on any other automatic. The cars just come smoothly to a stop and when you are ready to go again, it is in 1st gear.

On the M5, I can feel the car down shift to 3rd, 2nd, etc. It's not abrupt, or jerky, but you notice it. It can feel sporty and cool but in efficient+comfort mode, you'd expect this to go away. Maybe this is a DCT thing and they wanted to mimic the effect? Also, as I slow and creep towards a parked car and I have a soft amount of pressure on the brake pedal, the car will downshift (2-1?) and all of a sudden it slows less slowly and I have to adjust the rate of braking.

Today I was stuck on some awful traffic where I was at a stop-crawl for an hour. I noticed that while on "efficient" the car would right away shift to 2nd, and as I needed to stop again, this noticeable 2-1 shift happened every time. I found that changing the car to Sport made it hold 1st gear through ~5mph and avoided this constant 1-2-1 shift.

Any thoughts? Do other BMW ZF 8-speed autos do this?

My X7 m60i does exactly the same thing. The old M50i didn't. Notably, the engine in the new one is an s68 rather than an N-something in the old one. It takes some getting used to but I'm ok with it.

[FC]

Originally Posted by zach

My X7 m60i does exactly the same thing. The old M50i didn't. Notably, the engine in the new one is an s68 rather than an N-something in the old one. It takes some getting used to but I'm ok with it.

Thanks. Yeah, not a deal breaker, just different. But I bought the car used, so I wanted to be sure it wasn't some weird thing I should have checked out.

[SCA]

Further confirmation, my mother’s former F85 X5 (S63) did the same thing.

[FC]

Originally Posted by SCA

Further confirmation, my mother’s former F85 X5 (S63) did the same thing.

Thanks!