BetterMakeWay

In fact...i'm willling to lean to a tiptronic gearbox not just because it's faster then the manual but because i want a single car. I'm not into position right now to have more cars so i need a single car. Of course a manual gives a bit more driving feel but i won't buy a turbo just for weekends or for track days (not that there are any here) or only seondary roads. I would buy a turbo and use it as a all day car. So tiptronic is a option since it has alot more pros then cons.
When i'll be rich enough i'll have a bigger car as a daily car and a GT3 like car for pure driving enjoyment.

oyster

Hello,

end of next week, I?ll be finally trading in my P 996 with six-speed manual (one of the best around) for a new E60 with steptronic and be happy with it. I test-drove a 550 with SMG, too, but this couldn?t shatter my belief, that a large-block V8 SEDAN has to have a smooth automatic transmission. My favourite things about this car will be floating the city streets at 1500 rpm with a lot of power at my command and travelling on the autobahn at 140 mph and an acceptable noise level. I choose the E60 for style, comfort and luxury, not for its race-track abilities. And I think most of E60 owners did, too.

Browsing the threads here, I wonder, what some of You guys see in an E60, putting on after-market air intakes, rear spoilers and g-meters on Your 530i (I must admit, this g-meter thread is my favourite, are those guys serious, discussing 0.01s timing and the influence of air humidity on tire performance?).

I agree with artfromspain, that maybe a manual gearbox is sexy right now stateside, as few cars have got it and even fewer people know how to use it. :'( (I don?t think putting the blame always on the wife not knowing s*** about cars is quite "continental").

Boys, just relax in Your comfort, sport or whatever seat fits You and let German (steptronic) engineering do te rest, You still will be a cut above the rest!

Just my (Euro) two cents!

BetterMakeWay

I fully agree! Some of us are almost too ridiculous or obsessed on performance, on cars that, yeah...were ment to perform, but not at 0. performance figures. Yeah sometimes i'd like to do smth to add a little more performance to my sedan, but that's because i lack of a P 997. That doesn't mean i start stripping down the car, getting the spare wheel out (weight saving) or checking the tire pressure daily or stuff like that.

BTW willkommen auf dem besten Forum! Hope it's right.

xe460

I had been driving manual for years and now I am so done with it, especially with the traffic in So Cal stop and go most of the time. The 6-spd steptronic is so quiet and smooth. Now I just like comfort. I guess it's a sign I am getting old.

BetterMakeWay

Yeah me too. And i'm 22.
Also i really don't get the point of manual on a big saloon like the e60. Gives a bit more feel yes and driving involving yes...but does it really matter? That's the only pro for this kind of car. If we were to talk about a....let's say a 997 turbo ....then we could really debate on manual vs automatic (here i add smg also(no clutch pedal gearboxes)).

swajames

None of which, other than the fact they happen to share a common number of wheels, are remotely comparable to a 5 Series.

swajames

Agree with both of you (bettermakeway and oyster)

cobradav

I'm with the Step group and I am also of the opinion that it gets better mileage than the manual due to its extra OD of 0.69 in 6th versus 0.87 (same as Steps 5th gear) for the Manual/SMG 6th gear. You can get into 6th pretty low (43-45 MPH) so its pretty easy to see why better mileage in practice and in the US EPA ratings.

AS far as being involved in the performance monitoring game (not yet but soon). I am in it for the RESEARCH purposes. I just like knowing what my capabilities are (car and driver) and contributing to the research being conducted by Znod and grogan and others. It's fun for me as I am a gadget man as well. But I am not into it for pure perfomance reasons. By that I mean, I do not intend to make any mods (although I might). But I might "test" the charcoal/no charcoal filter theory just for the pure science of it.

FastCarFan

I agree. They're only cars, right? And if you are really concerned about performance, as you said, a 4,000 pound sedan isn't a good starting point! And the reality is that most mods will not cause any performance difference that a normal person would notice--only somebody with one of those meters would care, and then we're talking about fractions of a second. And the most common mod--exhaust--actually reduces performance in most cases!

That timing meter post in the main forum, with more numbers than I can believe, is a great example of somebody who has way too much time on his hands, and far too little useful things to fill it with! I'm surprised he hasn't taken out the back seats to reduce weight, and all those "adjusted" times--give me a break. Why doesn't he adjust the times for the day of the month--that would be useful...

swajames

that's a little unfair mate, the timing thread is just a bit of science/research fun from some enthusiast members and it's the kind of thing that once you start you kind of keep going to see if you can improve times etc. I'm not someone who would mod my car too much either but I appreciate the efforts of the guys on the timing threads - at the end of the day it is after all just for fun.