Quote:
Originally Posted by ksoze
Both are excellent cars, but the M550 is far from pointless. I will assume you have not spent much time behind the wheel of one - it is more than the sum of it's parts. The M550 is not simply a big engine stuffed into a bland car. The 300 pound weight difference is more then offset by the increase in power. In reality, both cars are more than anyone really needs - but the M550 ticks a lot of boxes for a 500HP+, leather wrapped 4 door sedan that can run with most any street car it meets.
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Understand what your saying, but to me the M550 is a bland car and lacks the agility and engagement I’d expect out of a sporty vehicle. Given it’s size, that’s certainly to be expected and I guess that’s why I don’t see the point of going with 550 over the 540.
The way the 5 series is ultimately going to be driven (commuting, long road trips etc) does not really warrant the extra power. It’s too big of a car to take to the canyons and nobody in the right mind would track it because it’s too big and frankly isn’t fun to drive.
The 550 is a great car and is more capable than a 540, but it’s not more fun. I don’t consider quicker acceleration all that much more exciting. If it had better steering feel then I’d be more inclined to get a 550 over a 540, but both of them are fairly bland driving vehicles.
Personally for my daily driver I went with a G30 530i M-Sport with most of the options checked. I test drive the 540 and 550 several times but I commute in heavy traffic and the extra power would not be beneficial. Moving from the 530 to the 540 is probably a bigger step up in refinement than going from 540 to 550 so in retrospect, maybe I should have done the 540 for the added smoothness even though I didn’t need the extra power.
If I want to have fun though, a 550 really doesn’t cut it. My e36 M3 is a much better fun car, as is the M2 comp. if I wanted a 5 series and it had to be fun, the M5 is a significant leap over the 550 in driver engagement. While you can get an m550 to m5 power levels, the suspension and steering in the m5 are on a completely different level and actually makes the car feel like an engaging vehicle.
Aside from all of that which is subjective, the 550 suffers BMWs notorious issues with the V8. Its a car I’d only feel comfortable leasing whereas the 540 is a car I’d feel comfortable owning.