106rallye

Saw a new M5 on the road today, not in the best colour imho (bluey silver) still looked amazing even though we were sitting in traffic round the Watford ring road!

thought these were not officially available yet??

Andy

Mike123

Saw a new M5 in my living room at 8:30 pm tonight!! Only had to switch on Channel 5 as well................

Deep Singh

Meant to be released on Thursday(Autocar). Order now and delivery date is 2007!

FletchCSL

Saw fifth gear tonight nearly foamed at the mouth, am kicking myself now for selling on my slot, i'll be off to the dealership this week!

Just looked so right going sideways, Needell can drive!

Mmmm black one with tinted windows and plum colour interior.......

eldudereno

Sounds much better than it looks...

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

Have you read this write up?

http://www.bmwm5.com/articles.php?id=33&page=1

Beating 993 turbo (passing it in a drag race at 200kmh)
Almost identical performance to a Lambo Gallardo
Same performance as a Porsche 996 Turbo with X50 engine kit and Techart-tuning (510 HP)

Love all the gadgets too, the tv, the gear **** (how cool is that?) the HUD, the bluetooth etc etc

I want

Deep Singh

Ugly ugly ugly. The only thing that assures its success is that there is no real competition

turboman786

Nah it aint ugly, its a masterpiece, cant wait till they're 5 years old and can be picked for £18k!

simo

One went past me the other week going sideways with a blonde bird driving it! . Was in white & did'nt look to bad at all . The only downside were the stickers all over it, said something like 'ring taxi'

MadMark

I work near BMW GB and have seen about 6 or 7 in the last few weeks - must be the press collecting them for "sampling"

ian_sadler

I'm still thinking about an M5 (not new though )

Gav

I saw one yesterday on the M1 at Mansfield. Such a stunning car and looked far far better in the flesh than in the mags. Sounded beautiful too Had the coolest reg possible for that car too but shouldnt put it on here really!

Gav..

talizman

iTrader: (1)

What, M5 BMW?

Jerome

A car ruined by the lack of a manual gearbox option.

davyboy

murfs

I've got to say that I like the preformance potential but it's an ugly car. Too rude for a BMW.

Robocop

According to the motoring press, the Yanks are kicking up a stink about the new M5 not being available as a manual.
Apparently BMW are going to quickly make a manual box version as well as the "standard" version and that this will be coming to the UK.
This is good news. All I need now is £62k burning a hole in my pocket

Deep Singh

I doubt very much if we see a manual version. No need with a 7 speed SMG gear box with multiple settings

Brother_Will

And since when have the yanks liked manuals?

Jerome

I think you'd be suprised how many North Americans drive manuals. The US is one of the biggest markets for BMW M cars, so I imagine quite a few are manuals.

Jerome

I, for one, really don't like auto boxes. Regardless of how many settings or paddles etc, I really don't like them. I recently drove a Merc C36 AMG and, whilst I really liked the car and it's performance, it would be vastly improved with a manual gearbox. Personally, I would have the equivalent BMW M3 with a manual.

Anyway, stalling a performance car at a traffic light grand prix is a "rites of passage" for a true driving enthusiast...

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

All.

I saw one on the M4 yesterday (Fri) as I was coming home from work (from London towards Windsor). We were stopped in a queue and it made a wonderful noise as it pulled away!

X.

jameswrx

iTrader: (4)

I saw one my first one earlier, look pretty big on the road.

furrydice79

drove an x plate m5 a few months ago, if the that was anything to go by then the new one will be wild..

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

All.

Saw another one earlier today (Sat) in Ascot. Common aren't they!

X.

Deep Singh

I've got a C32 AMG and its auto/tiptronic gearbox is crap for 'proper' driving. A SMG gearbox is a different kettle of fish. Unless you've driven one you w'ont know what I mean.
Remember F1 cars/WRC and touring cars all have semi autos, so why should a road enthusiasts car have a manual??

Paul_M

There's no denying SMG performs better than a human could shifting a manual, hence why racecars all use this kind of technology. That doesn't mean that everyone will like the feeling of driving with SMG, if you're in a race every tenth of a second counts so "enjoyment" is irrelevant. But on the road I'd happily give up a few tenths on the 0-60 sprint for the gearbox I enjoyed driving with more.

I'm not saying I'd definitely choose the traditional manual over the SMG cos I've never tried SMG, but if I found I preferred manual then that would be the option I'd choose even if SMG is "better" in terms of performance and race-car like. I wouldn't touch an auto though, hate them.

PS With the reference to Americans and manuals, there's a group of people over there who are enthusiastic about driving and enjoy driving sporty cars with manual boxes (stick-shift ). Coupled with the relative rarity of manual variants of many cars on the used market means certain cars like 540i sports, 850i command a premium of several thousand dollars for the manual variant - that's if you're lucky enough to find one for sale that hasn't been snapped up!

Deep Singh

Personally I think full manuals are a dinosaur of sorts. The problem has been getting the semi autos to deliver, the early varieties being ****e. Why stress out your left foot when a little flick of the switch can do the trick even faster?

Fluffmeister

And hit every branch on the way down

I honestly think it looks a lot like an MG ZT / Rover 75 from some of the angles in that test article.

The old Boxheads are better off sticking to bombing chip shops and holidaying in Poland