alohalc

ask her if she knows why they called 530 and 545. before she even opens her mouth to answer, just tell her a 530 is $53.0k and 545 is $54.5k but a 545 is much faster and gets a lot more goodies .

jsal

I had the very same concern and was trying to do the very same thing, get active roll and the tire/wheel upgrade without the active steering.

My concern with active steering was switching between vehicles and getting all screwed up or having my wife get in the car and driving into a curb. I tested it and it did not seem like a big deal.

Aside from almost clipping the curb when I first drove out of the dealership, It has not been a problem. In fact the steering system is great - very responsive and I have not noticed any drift on the freeway like they wrote about.

My opinon is that the road & track guys live to drive a raw vehicle on a test track, which is not something most of us do. They do not want any automated systems. I am sure at somepoint, the DSC is going to save me some extensive bodywork. Granted, I would like to disable traction control without losing all of the DSC functions, but you can't have everything.

The mags almost steered me away from the e60. It kind of pisses me off as my 545i has been the best driving machine I have ever had and I have driven alot of vehicles on test tracks during my automotive employement days.

The active steering, active roll and overall performance is great. The Idrive is very usable and not a negative. When you hook up a bluetooth phone, you will find that having a computer screen in your car is worth it.

ZinMe

I had the very same concern and was trying to do the very same thing, get active roll and the tire/wheel upgrade without the active steering.

My concern with active steering was switching between vehicles and getting all screwed up or having my wife get in the car and driving into a curb. I tested it and it did not seem like a big deal.

Aside from almost clipping the curb when I first drove out of the dealership, It has not been a problem. In fact the steering system is great - very responsive and I have not noticed any drift on the freeway like they wrote about.

My opinon is that the road & track guys live to drive a raw vehicle on a test track, which is not something most of us do. They do not want any automated systems. I am sure at somepoint, the DSC is going to save me some extensive bodywork. Granted, I would like to disable traction control without losing all of the DSC functions, but you can't have everything.

The mags almost steered me away from the e60. It kind of pisses me off as my 545i has been the best driving machine I have ever had and I have driven alot of vehicles on test tracks during my automotive employement days.

The active steering, active roll and overall performance is great. The Idrive is very usable and not a negative. When you hook up a bluetooth phone, you will find that having a computer screen in your car is worth it.
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You know, the "my wife running into the curb" scenario is an important factor. We've scrapped the rims on all our cars (even our Sequoia.) Maybe I'm better off with the standard wheels and tires after all. I hope everyone is enjoying the information about my household. Curb feelers anyone??

ZinMe

An update on my progress...

I've decided to go with the '06 530. The extra horsepower / torque gives it enough umph in my opinion. What BMW did with weight control of the car, the 6 spd transmission and the handling make it perform even better than you would expect for a 255hp car.

I've decided against the sport package. The main advantages that I can see are the shadow line trim and ARS, however I actually don't want the wheel upgrade. We trash our rims. Also, I've had two dealers tell me that the tires wear out every 15k miles with the sport pckg and I'm not into the addt'l maintenance.

The net cost of the '06s over the '05s is minimal-- with xenons and satellite prep include in both, the price tag is only $200 more. The dealer is charging $1500 over deal cost for the '06 vs. $500 over for the '05. So the total differential is $1,200.

I'm a little nervous about reliability for the new engine, but I plan to address that by leasing and buying from the closest dealer to have the relationship.

We're going with orient blue with black interior, premium pckg, premium audio and satellite. Order goes in this weekend assuming we can close on the lease rates. Rippin'.