redwhiteblue

brutal. I guess that is why you guys are offered the 520s. I would be forced to drive like a turtle at that rate. I probably pay the equivelent of that the way I drive though.

ipp

That's also why we can buy 520d M-Sports, that looks exactly as cool as your 550i Sports (and costs as much too...). And even if you'll chose the 550i Sport model it's not the real M-Sport pack you'll get. As you said in a earlier post, why can't you chose a 528i M-Sport in the US?

pennetta

It would be as if you were driving with three people in the car with the 550 vs. one person in the 535 as a result of the weight penalty. If you add weight anywhere in the car, all four wheels will get some of the load. The 19" rims would weigh more and would spread the weight evenly so maybe its not all the engine.
I have owned both the 545 and TT I6 models and have driven the 550 to the limit and the TT models feel more athletic and better balanced. Case in point, my 545 would plow more than the 535 in a turn so I used to carry more air pressure in the rear tires to compensate which induces more oversteer. No compensation needed with the 535. This would imply extra weight in the nose overworking the front tires.
I know we are just having fun here, but comments from the 550'ers that have real experience with the 535 would be the most beneficial.

doug_999

Ok, this is about which car is the better handling car.

The 535 with less weight should handle better - except
The 550 has non-RFT tires on 19" wheels which should help a lot.
The 550 "might" have a slightly different suspension - while the marketing says it does, nobody has been able to prove it (the part numbers are either not out or not different from what I have read).

So you have a heavier car with better wheels/tires and a possibly better suspension. So it becomes very hard to determine which car is the better handling car.

bimmerturn

This will go forever...

Did you ever hear of someone spending 60K to 70K for either car and say well I rather a different car???

Each has made up their mind and in my mind the 550i is the ultimate car, I am sure the 535 is for it's owners.

Richard in NC

Three out of 4 salesmen where I bought the car didn't even know they did away with RFTs in the 550i sport package.

HotLap

Here, here...well said!! Finally, teh voice of reason

Bentleyt

There appears to be two camps one for the turbine smooth inline 6 and the growl of the V8, beauty is in the eye of the beholder I own both but I prefer the line 6, yeah baby....

redwhiteblue

There is no room for debate here about handling. There is debate over which car is faster, better, sexier, more desirable, torquier whatever but handling nothing.

Plain and simple 300 pounds less weight equals superior handling. 19 inch tires mean nothing other than nicer looks. Look at a porsche-nothing bigger than 18s all around.

You can easily put non-runflats on the 535 so you cant count that.

If you think the 550 handles better what possible justification do you have? OBviously the tuned suspension is not noticable as many vets on here cannot tell any diff

swajames

If you look at posts here on the forum from LCI 550 owners who had a pre LCI 545/550 there seems to be a consensus that the handling is sharper than their prior car. The pre LCI V8 cars had a different suspension setup (US sport, ARS, style 124 wheels and RFT's, similar to the new 535). That said, in my judgement I'm not sure one handling characteristic can be said to be better than the other, it boils down to preference. More to the point I doubt any of us push our cars hard enough often enough to truly get close to the real limit (doesn't matter whether we have a 535 or a 550, I suspect that in most cases the car has much more talent that we do as owners and drivers). BTW Porsche is indeed putting 19s on its cars, the Carrera S comes with 19's as standard.