gizze

The key word here must be "average" which should represent a mixture of driving. My journey truely represents this being country roads first with lighter traffic, followed by motorway with both free flowing & stop / start and town driving which is mainly stop / start. As I included uninterupted motoway driving at steady speeds produces much better economy but by no means should be viewed as representing average driving conditions in the South of England. I agree with you auto boxes generally give worse performance but not all manual shift drivers get good economy because they do not drive and change gear at optimum points.
BMW do not show a 25% difference in their official figures between manual & auto so again driving style plays a part and part of that is the different way drivers drive both manual & auto cars as we are not sensing the shift points in auto cars.
The driver here who stated he only gets 32 mpg however for a 520d should definately change his driving style or get the car checked as even in the worse driving conditions I can still get 29 MPG in a 530d.

 

I don't think he needs to get his car checked out though, that is the figure I would expect. I think he needs to borrow another 520dA for 2 days and see what he gets from that, I bet it is the same.

 

coming back to the original topic...
I'm over the moon with my 520d M-Sport manual. Had it for a month now and clocked up almost 7000km across europe, so the motor is becoming noticably looser. That said, at precisely 3000km it was as if the engine management system freed up a bit more power - maybe it was just my imagination or is it programmed that way??

Big relief on the performance front; was a little worried that it wouldn't have enough poke, but it's good fun on country roads, effortless relaxed cruising, and 230+km/h (speedo-not gps) on the autobahn is no problem. I think it's averaging about 7Litres/100km, but do not pay too much attention to this as I have a company fuel card.

The ride in general is great and incredibly relaxed. It feels a little harsh at times over certain bumps. Not sure if this M-sport suspension related, the infamous run-flats, or more likely a combination of them both. Oh, or maybe my choice of driving line?! Not an issue though, just an observation, and just adds to the "sport" feeling. The sport seats are proving to be very comfortable on long journeys - was a little nervous because chose options such as LOGIC7 (-awesome sound, worth every penny!!) and the Sunroof, rather than the Comfort Seats.

Love the looks and pleased to see the Carbon Black paint still looks awesome and gives off the blue shine even with the inevitable film of dust on it. Only item I'm planning on changing is the black grill to a full chrome grill, simply because I think the matt black finish somehow looks out of place with the Carbon Black metalic finish.

I've just come from an E46 with normal hallogin lights to the E60's xenons, so I'm obviously thrilled with the massive improvement in light. As for the adaptive lights (Kurven Licht), I think I'm going to end up crashing before soon, as it's proving to be too much fun watching the lights move every time I move the steering wheel. Boys and their toys hey

All in all, I'm over the moon with the E60 and all the options I went for. If, however I had more budget to play with, I would have gone for the HUD option, having recently had it on a BMW courtesy car and thought it was excellent. Oh and a V8 engine would have been a nice option too!

Glad to see so many others here in the forum are please with the 520d's as well. I get the impression BMW are selling quite a few of these in Europe.

Cheers

 

Got my 520d SE in late May, done about 5k miles so far.

Averaging about 42mpg in mixed driving and have seen 52mpg on a 200 mile motorway run

Now it's loosening up I have noticed better torque 'swell' and I really love the fact that the particle filter means no clouds of smoke pouring out when you boot it!

Any downsides?

Interior light pack is probably not worth paying extra for, and I've noticed the interior can mark easily (cloth seats - I won't be so tight next time!).

Other than that totally pleased with my choice, glad I went for a 5 not a 3!

 

At least you can pick up a set of leather seats for a decent price. ?600 odd for the SE seats, ?800 odd for sport seats and around ?1000 for the comfort seats, and they usually come with all the door cards too so it only takes a couple of hours to do the complete swap.

 

Hi all, 1st post and enjoying this thread as I'm going for an ex demo 520d SE. Basic spec plus metalic paint, bluetooth and 6 CD. The leather sports seats would be great as I have been tempted by the 520d M Sport since putting my deposit down but fear the firm ride would result in more family issues - currently got the 320d Coupe which I love but wife and kid not convinced.

Can you change all the seats to leather or is it just the front? not sure if that would look disjointed?

Anyone directly compared the SE with 17" to M Sport with 18" RFT? - might still have time to change .

Great forum and great threads. Thanks for all the info already posted that I've been reading

 

You usually buy the leather interior with front seats, back seats and 4x door cards.

The SE with 17" run flats are not great, with 17" non run flats it is too wallowy.
The M-sport with 18" runflats is definitley a little firmer, but I wouldn't say it is more uncomfortable, just firmer.
The 18" m-sport with non run flats is actually still a little wallowy, and the suspension could do with being slightly firmer still, but it makes it extremely comfortable and feel very planted so a good compromise.


The SE without run flats I find far too soft, and at 90mph on the motorway it doesn't feel rock solid. Friend has a 525d se and he mentoined this and I thought he was nuts, but I had a go and he is right, it feels like a big car from the 70s, well not that bad but it is the best way I can describe it.

Try and get an M-Sport, so much better handling, nicer looking, and alot better residuals, in fact my 535d m-sport worked out ?18 a month less than a 530d SE purely based on residiuls. Get the dealer to change the run flats for proper tyres though.

 

I did a direct comparison before I ordered my car and what was true for the e39 is also true for the e60: Go with M-Sport. It's better, not only in control and damping but amazingly so, also in comfort and road noise.

My guess is that the M-people did to the 5-series what BMW themselves did to the 3-series; they adapted springs, damping and bushings to perfectly accomodate the RFT. Remember that the 5-series was launched with RFT only as high-end option, the 3 followed RFT only and the M is developed at the M Motortechnik after the initial launch of the 5-series. Also, the Good Year RFT seem much better in terms of noise than the 17" (Dunlops or Bridgestones?).

My current 5 M-pack is better than my previous e39 standard in every comfort related aspect.

If you can, drive them back to back. If not, go for the M-package and you will be forever happy.

/M

 

thanks guys, gonna see what the dealer can offer and what stock they have. Other car not ready yet so may be an option to change to the M Sport, at least have a look at one anyway.

 

My dealer was saying that 82% of 5 series orders so far this year have been M-sport, and 60% of SE orders have been company cars.
I think that tells you alot.