Originally Posted by jimadams7

What's a jb4

Originally Posted by Mike_K

I'm in a unique position to comment since I've owned both. Let's start with the M5. It's amazing. Seriously, it is just an insanely awesome car with tons of horsepower, an exotic engine and a transmission that shifts so fast it's silly. It's essentially a 4 door super car. And that's it's undoing. It's cost of ownership is through the roof. There's the Embarrassingly bad gas mileage, the $500 rotors, the SMG issues, VANOS issues, etc.

The M5 is attractive because the cost to get into the door is similar to other, slower E60's. Unfortunately when you have to live with one the bills add up and fast. Plus let's be honest, in daily driving do the huge brakes do any better than the large brakes on the 535/ 550s? The lack of torque means the car isn't exactly quick from stoplight to stoplight either. As far as street cars go, the M5 is awesome but you're not going to be taking full advantage of it's potential.

And then there's the 535. Before I go off on the 535 let me explain my history. I wanted an M5 bad. I test drove them a bunch, did months of research, knew about the shortcomings, the cost of ownership, etc and knew I could afford it. I also bought a warranty for $5000 which had a 1000 mile grace period. Long story short, the SMG pump failed on my car within 300 miles of me purchasing it. Not covered by the warranty at all and $6000 to fix plus you may as well do the clutch when you're in there. Lucky for me the dealer took the car back.

So from there I bought a 2006 550i Sport with the manual transmission. I loved the car but the 360hp V8 wasn't enough for me and so I started pining for an M5 again but now I wasn't so sure I wanted to take on the additional cost of ownership. I knew I could afford it; I just wasn't so sure I wanted to. And then somewhere in my travels I discovered the 535 and the various tunes available for it and ultimately ended up buying a 2010 CPO car with the SAT trans. In stock form it's about as fast as the 550i but I bought it knowing that you can easily (and reliably) pull a lot more power out of it. A JB4 piggyback module and a dual cone intake will add about 100 horsepower without much fuss. Add E85 and you can bump that up by another 25 - 45 horsepower. It's easily removed as well.

The beauty of this setup is that you have a lot more torque than the M5 and you have peak torque from about 1500rpm through 5500rpm. Whereas the M5 is peaky and needs to be wound up to make it's power, the N54 is a freight train. And when you consider the environment you'll be driving the car most (the street) the extra torque is a huge benefit. The M5 will still be the faster car overall but the 535 will feel significantly faster where it matters (assuming you tune it) and it wouldn't be bested by the M5 unless you were doing a highway run.

The rest all pretty much goes without saying... The brakes are cheaper to replace, the suspension less complex though still plenty competent, no SMG issues, much better gas mileage and your 2010 will have the newer CIC navigation setup (assuming it's equipped with nav). Slap a set of M5 or M6 wheels on it and you have a car that basically looks like an M5 but that's also a lot more civil.

My vote is for the 535. I've had it for 4 months now and I still can't just take it across the street to the store. If I take it out I always end up hopping up and down the expressway just to stretch it's legs. I don't think the honeymoon will end.

That said, the M5 is amazing. You just have to ignore the cost of entry and figure out what both are going to cost you long term and determine if the higher cost of ownership is worth it for you. For me it ultimately wasn't and my failed SMG pump turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I'll leave you with this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGNX8SD_rUE

Originally Posted by Jim165

Man, given the choice I'd get the M5 manual just for the exclusivity and that awesome exhaust sound (especially with some RPI exhaust)! I could care less that another car is faster than I am. If you can afford to buy either of these cars, you can afford the maintenance. By getting a manual, you've already eliminated the biggest problem area of the car...the SMG tranny. Just get a warranty to cover everything else...

Originally Posted by jimadams7

What's a jb4

Originally Posted by Mike_K

Drive an SMG M5 and then drive a manual transmission M5 and see if you're whistling the same tune afterwards. The M5 was designed for the SMG transmission. The manual transmission was an afterthought and it shows. In my opinion with an E60 M5 you go SMG or you don't go at all.

Originally Posted by Mike_K

Long story short, the SMG pump failed on my car within 300 miles of me purchasing it. Not covered by the warranty at all and $6000 to fix plus you may as well do the clutch when you're in there. Lucky for me the dealer took the car back.

Originally Posted by Jim165

Hmm, sounds like you went SMG and STILL didn't go, LOL... just kidding!
Hence my point...I know the SMG is perfect for the M5, but it seems to be only half-assed engineered (or maybe over-engineered to the point of failure). Plus, it shifts like shit when in auto mode so what good is it when 80% of my driving isn't balls out? I'd rather have the manual, beef up the clutch components and have one less mechanical worry, thanks...