Finally, a car magazine reviews the 550i. I just read the article and it compares the 550i to the new Lexus Hybrid "Sport" sedan. The 0-60 for the 550 was 5.0, lateral acceleration was .92g, and the slalom was 64.8mph. Needless to say, the handling of the 550 was superior to the Lexus, as were all the objective performance numbers. The Lexus was judged superior on controls, i.e. no i-drive, was marginally quieter, and was less expensive. Gas mileage was 18+ for the Lexus, and 15+ for the BMW.

I'm glad I own the BMW.

 

I haven't seen that article yet. Another article I read on the 2007 550i had gripes about the lack of steering feel with the active steering and the artificial feeling of the active roll stabilization. I'm looking to purchase a 550i but have not driven one with those features. Does yours have them or have you an opinion on them ?

 

Well, you need to drive this car with AS and ARS....but for me, I love the AS and I love the ARS. This car handles incredibly well for a heavy, 4-door sedan....virtually flat at speed around corners. Active steering is something that some of us like, and others don't, so my advice is to drive both, back to back and extensively and make your own choice. For me, I love how this car rides, handles, looks and sounds

 

Thanks for the heads up on this Darkside. One potentially important point is that this test (unusually but nice to see) featured the 6 speed and the tester fell into the trap of assuming that the step would probably be a few ticks slower than their 5.0 recorded with the manual. Based on the evidence of the 545 testing here the step seems to be the one that's may be a few ticks quicker most of the time. Some of the 545 owners here have already recorded (just) sub 5 second 0-60 times and matched these test numbers so it's probably fair to assume that a 550 in the hands of the dedicated straight line acceleration guys here is, if anything, likely to be perhaps a shade quicker. Otherwise based on a very quick read the 550 as Darkside noted walks all the performance categories - and whilst this wasn't a real test per se (two duelling editors, one like the lexus, one liked the bimmer) the numbers speak for themselves and the editor who liked the lexus seemed to be swayed more by the wow factor of the hybrid. Only reasonable conclusion is a win for the 550 but that Lexus does look like a top drawer piece of kit.

 

Here is my opinion. I have owned two BMW's prior to my 550, which has AS and ARS. I must say the ARS does not feel artificial at all so I don't understand that comment. It is seemless. The AS is great in normal driving situations...around town and on the highway. The ease of steering is remarkable compared to my 540 without AS and is a truely incredible convenience item. And, when driving aggressively on my favorite curvey road, I don't sense a real lack of steering feel. With that said, in my opinion, it does lack some of the weightiness in the steering that one expects in a sports car, which this is not...although it is one of the sportiest sedans you can buy. That is probably the source of those comments. I believe the pros of AS out weigh the cons. It still handles very well and offers great road feel. I am able to drive faster on this favorite road than I could with my 540, which I am sure the power has a lot to do with, but this is a very curvey road and it handles the curves better than my 540 did. There is noticably no body lean due to the ARS, which may feel ariticial to someone that expects it to lean perhaps. But, it does not feel unnatural to me...but reasuring due to the lack on weight transfer I guess.

I will think hard about getting AS next time, but will not surprise myself if I opt for it again. I suppose if I drove over 50% of the time pushing the car on my curvey road I would not get it. But since I probably drive this road 1% of the time it makes more sense for the comfort and convenience of AS. Hope I helped.

 

Nice mpg for that performance too, the Lexus I mean . . . for 15 mpg, I was hoping for a Lambo or a Ferrari or maybe just an M5. 550i doesn't seem so efficient, but maybe some 550i could tell me their average mpg with normal driving.

 

The Lexus recorded only 3 mpg more than the 550 on this test.

 

26.2 mpg on highway doing mostly 80 to 90mph with avg of 82.4mph on a 240 mile run. The car has about 750 miles. Mixed city (Chicago) and highway, I got about 20mpg with some spirited drivng.

 

Gotta pick up a copy of R&T or wait until the article's online.

What was the 1/4 mile and 0 to 100mph?

 

We have a button which can disable DSC & DTC.


How cool would it be if we also had a button to defeat Active Steering? That way you could turn it off when driving aggressively, and leave it on when your just cruising around town.



It couldn't be THAT hard for BMW to engineer that, could it?