I am about to purchase an e60 BMW530i. Have driven stick shift most of my life. Wife has driven saab with stick for several years and did O.K. We have driven volvo and Audi automatics past five years. My good weather fun car is a Porsche 911 with 5 speed manual. What is this forum's opinion of the manual transmission on the E60. Is it worth the practical inconvenience for the pure fun of driving the stick? Is my wife likely to hate it, or be converted.? We drive mostly out of heavy traffic, suburbam and interstate roads. Thanks for all input.

 

In city traffic the auto box makes the car easy to drive.
I usually drive a E65 730d with auto box. There isn't any other gearbox available in the 7. In regular drive i prefer the auto box in this car. When i want to drive it in a sport mode i would prefer to have a manual gearbox.
In the 5 series i'm prefering the manual box. It's a different car, more sportive.

 

Thanks. My thoughts exactly.