RE: BMW M550d: Chris Harris live blog

[Animal]

veryslowone said:

german tefalheads

That name's never going to stick...

[HBFS]

Will this be made in RHD?

[3ftandclean]

Vladimir said:

3ftandclean said:

Yes, well spotted!
3ft is about all I can manage!

Recentish pic at a nearby break- about 3ft and clean I'd say!



Been some cracking waves down here in the last few weeks. Before that was dire for ages!

Anyway back to the BM - is a Touring coming out?!

That looks like my kind of wave.
Here's the Touring.

[mike-r]

Don't know if this has been noted...but have BMW ditched orange back lighting on clocks?

Won't be buying any new BMW now.

[ZeeTacoe]

Stuart said:

Meanwhile, if we can drag ourselves away from discussions of Germanic Sausages for a moment, Chris has put some interesting conclusions up at the top of the story....

Chris Harris said:

1800h - Munich airport, check-in

Apologies for the sporadic nature of my live blogging today. Driving, filming and patchy network service have made things tricky. Thoughts standing at Munich airport security?

It's kind of two cars in one, but not quite in the way you'd expect.

As a large, comfortable, stable, breezily-rapid cruiser, the M550d is stunning. Give me a touring and I'd be the happiest man around. But, and it's quite a but, this is a long way from being an oily-M5. It feels much less agile, and even though winter tyres gave unrealistic grip levels, I was quite disappointed at the lack of appetite for fun in the chassis. The steering is fine, the ride is firm and the fuel economy when driven very hard fell to 20mpg. We were in a hurry. Will it do 45mpg? Not in my hands it won't.

What this car does is cleverly fill the gap between fast conventional 5s and the big-dog F10M. What it doesn't do is challenge the latter's appeal as the fastest way to transport a family.

Perfect for the powerfully diesel loving company directors on ph. Should be a fit for their personality too

M3SMGE46 said:

Ah..but will this M5d accept biodiesel made with a fuelpod? if so then at 55p/ltr flat out 20mpg turns to flat out 40mpg and cruising at 80mpg... makes total sense if you make your own diesel... oh and you can afford it..er..mistake..if you can afford one then you should also be able to afford the fuel so you would get a proper M5 in the first place ...doughhh

Be nice in a Q car 5 Touring though...

Not in a million years. The tri turbo engine will cost a bomb and a bomb is what you'll have if you put home made ex chip fat diesel into it. I wonder how much crate engine one could have for the price of this diesel

[will261058]

More or less what a lot of us suspected then.

[AreOut]

BigTom85 said:

Single figures for sure.

if you mean "flat-out" like following this diesel on autobahn...then it would do ~15 mpg I guess, because it has a VERY long 7th gear, it goes 200 km/h at like..3000 rpm or so

[Vladimir]

3ftandclean said:

That looks like my kind of wave.
Here's the Touring.

That'll do nicely!

[MattOz]

The touring is definitely the sausage of choice. Shame it's not coming to the UK, but the Alpina equivalent would do the job nicely. Isn't it comfortably north of £70k though? Seems a huge amount of money for an exec saloon.

Not being a powerfully built director of many companies I'll have to wait a few years before considering one. Hopefully by that time the F10 M5 will have depreciated sufficiently for it to be in the running.

[anonymous-user]

surveyor said:

Steve Gunnis said:

In what way? In the 'M5 is much faster in every possible way and more fun to drive but has worse mpg' way? Yeah, I couldn't see that coming.

Really

M5 Performance: 0-62mph in 4.4secs, max 155mph, 28.5mpg Torque, 501 Nm @ 1500 rpm Bhp 550
M550D Performance;
Acceleration [0 – 100 km/h (62 mph)]: 4.7 seconds,
top speed: 250 km/h (155 mph),
average fuel consumption:44.8 mpg
Torque Nm 545

So equal on top speed, better on fuel (not important unless equal in other areas), slower by .3 seconds to 62, and higher torque.

With 4WD which will be quicker on the road/track? I think it would be an interesting comparison.

I think the 50-100 times would be a much better measurement of real world performance. Does anyone have those figures?

[chris116]

mike-r said:

Don't know if this has been noted...but have BMW ditched orange back lighting on clocks?

Won't be buying any new BMW now.

It has changed, but there is the option to change it back to orange inside the car I believe.

[Johnboy Mac]

So, the same mpg as a very hard driven Porsche Panamera S!

[SammyW]

I would love a 3 series touring with that engine. Imagine the remap potential!

[Cheib]

HBFS said:

Will this be made in RHD?

No.

[Cheib]

MattOz said:

The touring is definitely the sausage of choice. Shame it's not coming to the UK, but the Alpina equivalent would do the job nicely. Isn't it comfortably north of £70k though? Seems a huge amount of money for an exec saloon.

The Alpina D5 is £56k and the touring £3k more I think.....by modern BMW standards that's good value IMHO. I wouldn't even think about a 535d or M550d even if it was available in this country.

[Boss Hogg]

Makes no sense that it's not coming the UK, especially given how our company car taxes are designed, you would think it was designed for the UK market!

I'd buy one if it came here in RHD.

[Uncle John]

Diesel this, diesel that.

I'm afraid I don't buy it.

What we are witnessing is the slow but sure demise of the high performance but, and this is the rub, characterful petrol engines. And for what? A negligent gain in mpg and perhaps a little more torque.


At the expense of the experience.

Any numpty can mash the throttle in a derv and feel the force, but to get the best from a petrol tact and precision are required, and when this comes together the derv is a rapidly diminishing speck in the mirror.


It hurt me bad when Alfa and then Honda specced a diesel.

This st isn't the future.

It's a scapegoat.

[tommy vercetti]

Uncle John said:

Diesel this, diesel that.

I'm afraid I don't buy it.

What we are witnessing is the slow but sure demise of the high performance but, and this is the rub, characterful petrol engines. And for what? A negligent gain in mpg and perhaps a little more torque.


At the expense of the experience.

Any numpty can mash the throttle in a derv and feel the force, but to get the best from a petrol tact and precision are required, and when this comes together the derv is a rapidly diminishing speck in the mirror.


It hurt me bad when Alfa and then Honda specced a diesel.

This st isn't the future.

It's a scapegoat.

Times have changed unfortunately, fuel prices, recession, european fuking emmissions haven't exactly helped either.

[Vladimir]

Uncle John said:

Diesel this, diesel that.

I'm afraid I don't buy it.

What we are witnessing is the slow but sure demise of the high performance but, and this is the rub, characterful petrol engines. And for what? A negligent gain in mpg and perhaps a little more torque.


At the expense of the experience.

Any numpty can mash the throttle in a derv and feel the force, but to get the best from a petrol tact and precision are required, and when this comes together the derv is a rapidly diminishing speck in the mirror.


It hurt me bad when Alfa and then Honda specced a diesel.

This st isn't the future.

It's a scapegoat.

And you manage to get that thrill from a Freelander do you?

[Zod]

chris116 said:

mike-r said:

Don't know if this has been noted...but have BMW ditched orange back lighting on clocks?

Won't be buying any new BMW now.

It has changed, but there is the option to change it back to orange inside the car I believe.

It has never been orange in M cars!