norsecarnut

You are correct on the sport pkg containing the 3 items, 20 way seats, steering wheel, exterior trim.

It also required being combined with the premium pkg or dakota leather.

M-sport was most definitely available on the US 535xit. Earlier models just saw it rarely but later 2010 had it often when the cars were customer ordered.

The 3 series wagon also got a lowered sport suspension in the sport package, the 5 did not but the 5 has a load leveling rear air suspension.

norsecarnut

Thank you for pointing that out, I couldn't think of a nice way to ask Harg "WTF are you thinking" looking at a car which already exhibits problems when there are so many to choose from?

As nice and fun as the E wagon may be, it is RWD, a super gas guzzler, and possibly more expensive to maintain than a 5 series. I do know the MB cpo warranty is not as good, it's a year shorter however you get forever road side assist with MB, if that's worth anything to ya!

I considered the AMG E wagon, an E55 actually, because it's SO much cheaper than the later 63 and nearly the identical car in terms of styling and options.

Also, for my prioritized list of required wagon attributes, the E did not come up high on the list:
1-AWD for absolutely any weather, any time, fully loaded, both safe and spirited driving
2-manual transmission
3-fun engine while relatively good fuel economy

Any of those 3 remove even bothering to test drive the E55/63.

The E61 BMW manual is just about the best possible mix of my requirements. The only things that could make it better would be a higher output diesel for that felt as strong as the tuned twin turbo inline 6 but also a suspension that would make it handle more like an M5. It is a little lumbering compared to the similarly weighing Audi S4 Avant we share.

Anyway, I could on all day about wagons we have in the US

I vote true CPO BMW for sure.

Lotus99

I call it as I see it!

You're right though J, I wouldn't seriously consider a wagon that's not AWD. That's always going to be a requirement for me. The high HP number is just fun to throw around in my head.

PS If I truly had no choice, the only lemon 535 car I would consider would be one that was clearly bought back for only the HPFP issues, which I'm familiar with and has now been finally fixed by BMW (a 4th version of the part came out with the recall earlier this year, and noone's reported them failing yet, plus there's a 10 year warranty on them), and that it is independent of anything else in the car. But still, I wouldn't want a car that's got "lemon" on its title if I had a choice.

Lotus99

As I mentioned above, of the last few years (which were the only ones I considered when looking for my car), the 2010 year was the only year (based on the model brochures) that the M Sport Package was available. I posted the 2010 ordering sheet above, and here's the 2009 and 2008 brochures, which don't list the M Package as an option.

2008_5Series_SportsWagon.pdf

2009_5Series_SportsWagon options.pdf