I will give my opinion on this, I owned a DMS tundes 535d M-Sport touring, it was a very nice place to be, had all the toys including heads up display, panoramic roof, I retrofitted the M5 steering wheel with paddles for fun on the twisties, it looked great in carbon black with tinted windows, black out grilles and black interior and everyone commented on it, and I am talking complete strangers, which is a surprise when you own a BMW, as they were nice comments!!
It did 0-60mph in 5.6 seconds, and got to 100mph in just over 13 seconds (using a racetech AP22 performance meter), while returning 34mpg on a run, although 27mpg over 9 months and 20 odd thousand miles. I could get the whole family in it and leave St. Tropez at 10am after breakfast and be back in Norwich (1000 miles) in time for match of the day (12 hours later) whithout feeling tired in the slightest, just a bit of back ache from the terrible seats in it, so make sure you get comfort seats the sports seats are not nice in the 5er.
So all in all a perfect car??

Well, no. It was still a big, almost 5m long ffs! heavy car.

The ride was verging on shocking with the run flats, and is no better now, went out in a mates again on Saturday, so you need to put real tyres on it, but then you realise that the dampers are actually not brilliant, once you get the comfort back you feel like they could do with upgrading the suspension to get a little control back, superb when on the motorway, but back road blasts are a little wallowy.

There was just too many things that started to niggle me with the 5 series, and we also had a 120d M-Sport at the time, and have to say that was actually a nicer place to be, far more chuckable, seats to die for, better sound system and generally more fun. I eneded up taking the 1er more than the 5er when both keys were on the table.

So I got rid of the 535d and bought a CSL, awesome, awesome car, don't need to go into details on that as we all know what it is like. But I needed something that I could rack up miles on, so I bought a 2005 S4 avant after 6 months of owning the CSL, wow!!!! The S4 was just wrong in so many ways it was untrue, lasted 4 weeks!

Had to be a 335d, fun and chuckability of the 1 series but the engine and pace of the 5 series, could get it in touring guise again and with the M-Sport kit it looks great. However after taking a few out I decided to try the 335i.

The 335i - Totally awesome, awesome all round car. I had to buy one, and I did.
It is not that much slower than the M3, I know on paper it says 5.8 seconds to 60mph for the step, but I am getting times of 4.9-5.1 everytime, and that is stock form, procede is on its way that adds 60bhp and should knock .5 seconds off that time. (update, with the Procede I was getting 4.5 seconds everytime.)
I get 25mpg without thinking about it, so only 2mpg behind the heavy 535d, and can get 30+ on a run no problem.
The comfort is sublime, from sept 2006 the M-Sports got new suspension, Bilstien I believe, and they now come with the new Michelin Pilot Sport 2 run flats, and together it feels like a proper BMW again, first time I have not ditched the run flats. I did actually buy a set of Goodyear Eagle GDS3's for the car before I collected it, but they have been returned, the new set up is that good. In fact if anything it may be a little too soft, so I may put some slighty stiffer springs on. But as an all round package it would be fine for even the hardest of critics, I think it handles better than a regular E46 M3 and is far more comfy, you can really feel the new chassis has moved things on a hell of a lot.
The seats are the same as the 1 series and are superb, better than the 5 series sport seat, more comfy than my old mans S320cdi, and they destroy the Recaros in the S4, simply fantasic!!

The interior is great too, I have gone with Nav, bluetooth, voice, heated seats, storage pack, and a few other toys, it is Lemon leather so it has black carpets, dash etc. but with lighter seats and door card inserts. It feels alot more driver focused than the 5 series without ever feeling small, in fact it could do with being a little smaller if anything, but cars are generally getting bigger I guess, and when it is as balanced as this you can't really complain.

So this is the perfect car??
Well not quite, it could really do with a Limited Slip Diff, even more so when the Procede arrives I would think, (update- Yeah really needed an LSD) and as I said the suspension could be a little firmer, but apart from that it is awesome.
The idea was to keep this until the new M3 arrives, but I am seriously tempted to just hold onto it, with the procede it will be just as quick I would think, then add the Hartge LSD and put some slightly stiffer springs on and it shoudl handle wonderfully too, while still returning 25-30mpg.


I can see no reason at all to own a 5er over the 3er, well I guess if you really do need the extra space and are prepared to sacfifice the handling to get it, or if having a 5 series on your drive to impress the neighbours is more important than the overall driving package.

Hope that helps a bit?