v_therussian

...as I've eloquently put it in the title, yoooooooooooo!!!

I have had a revelation... and the revelation is: my car's like a friggin' turtle compared to a 535... but that's not the point here. The point is simply this: the 535 is a friggin' rocket! That being said, and surely to repeat someone's pre-existing thread, the question is: 535 or 550? I'm a devout e60 fan and I am pretty sure my next car (or even next two) will be an e60. I'm definitely not going below the 535, but how about the 550? Is it worth the extra money? I've looked at both before and dismissed the 535 as being slightly less powerful, but having driven it on an extended test drive tonight, I've changed my mind. The 550 I have not yet driven, so it is impossible for me to gauge.








PS Oh, and if anyone's got a decent set of wheels for a RWD sport pk, my friend's looking for bargains, so PM me (just don't "spam" me with "...I saw your post, we carry..." type of stuff pls

DD_545i

You'll get the answer "535" from the 535 owners, and "550" from the 550 owners. The only way to find out is for you to give a similar amount of test-driving on the 550. There's no right/wrong answer. My previous car was a 6-cyl twin turbo (Audi A6 2.7TT), and this one is a 545 NA V8. The next car? might be a TT, might be a big engine NA. Right now I'm loving my V8 though

v_therussian

haha dude, my previous car was an Audi A6 2.7T awesome ride, loved the turbos, but what a POS when it started to break! wow! And yeah, you're absolutely right! Guess, I'll be going for another test drive one of these days...

DD_545i

Bet yours didn't look anything like mine (at the back end) I was lucky that nothing went wrong in the 14 months I owned mine. It didn't reach the mileage to need a timing belt and had a full warranty.

sdg1871

On a bang for your buck basis, the 535 beats the 550 hands down. Lightly optioned, the 535 is a lot less money than the 550 and is only a tiny tad slower. Given that the 550's advertised bhp of 360 is 60 bhp greater than the 535's advertised bhp of 300, it's hard to believe that the 535's acceleration just about matches the 550's (being about a tenth or two of a second slower) so my guess is that the 535's engine actually makes more than the advertised 300 bhp. On this I fault BMW -- given the large price gap between the 535 and 550, the 550 should be, but is not, considerably faster but BMW will be correcting this with the F10 when it drops a 400 bhp TT V8 engine into the 550's successor which should plunge 0 to 60 times below 5 seconds.

There are certain advantages that the 550 has to the 535 that led me to it. While both cars feel about the same from 0 to 60, the 550 feels like it accelerates a lot faster than the 535 at highway speeds. The V8's mid-to-top-end power feels a good deal stronger than the TT V6's and the power delivery is more silky. And I just love the sound of a high-reving V8. But in any condition, the 535 is a fast car.

Also, if you decide to option up the 535 with all of the stuff that's standard in the 550, the price gap shrinks (but does not disappear). I also love some of the goodies that come with the 550's sport package.

I like the fact that the 550 is a very rare car. It stands out. There are few very of them on the road. If you go to dealers' websites, you'll find something like 20 to 30 535s for every 550. 535s are everywhere (and who could blame people for buying one given its better bang for the buck, killer engine, nearly equivalent acceleration to the 550 and the fact that, unlike the 550, you can easily find one in dealer stock with the color and options you really want). I like owning a car that few others have.

I'm not going to be modding my car but if you want to mod, the modders on the board say that there is more you can do to mod the 535's performance (and its TT engine) than the 550.

Bottom line: test drive the 550 and compare it to the 535. You can't go wrong with either one.

DD_545i

You've said yourself there that the 550 has more options (= more weight) and has two more cylinders (= more weight). The 550 might not be much of an improvement in straight 0-60 time, but it has a better torque curve and no turbo lag. We had a similar situation in the Audi A6 forum. The 2.7 Turbo had 250bhp, the 4.2L V8 had 300bhp, but their performances were also quite similar in terms of 0-60. Of course getting a 535 will give cheap and easy modding possibilities to surpass the 550 performance.

Right now, I'm in the mood for owning a moderately lazy and unstressed V8 with oodles of torque and loving it It's nice not having to kick-down to reach the torque and boost.

ObD

The big argument in favor of the 550 was the MSport option. You can now order a 535 with the MSport option and save $5K or so. Also the F10, aka E60 replacement, will have a TT V8 so the 550 will still be out gunned by its own. The TT I6 in the 535 has plenty of torque down low and throughout the rev range. Add an electronic tune to the 535 and it will run with the new M3. A mechanical tune to the 550 is a more costlier proposition.

sdg1871

+1. There's no substitute for cubic inches.

melimel

take it as you wish im in THAT mood ..lol

Gene

haha...