Downsizing - froM5 litres to just 3....
Discussion
After 12 awesome months of ownership, I have decided to downsize from my beloved M5. This time a year ago, my heavily pregnant wife decided that we should sell our two door Avantime and buy a sensible family car - I then convinced her that an M5 was exactly that, a sensible family car and it turns out I wasn’t lying!
So we bought our beautiful sepang bronze 05 M5.
It is an awesome family car, it did everything we needed, hospital runs, shopping runs, B&Q runs, autobahn and ‘ring runs, its quiet and sensible when you need it to be, but when no one is looking it allows you to get to the speed limit at an absolutely terrifying rate. As a family we had some epic road trips, through Wales, Cornwall, Germany and it never let me down once. The only weakness I spotted was that I didn’t like splashing through paddles much, but if that’s the only complaint I have in such a highly strung car, I don’t think I have much to complain about
But there was one down side (and that was entirely my fault – not the cars fault, you will never hear my whinge about the fuel economy, I knew it before I bought it). But Herr Doktor (thus named because it was German and it had the power to kill me) was the only car in our family, so it was my daily driver and 24 miles a day of commuting and many weekend adventures soon added up to 10,000 miles in a year. At 210 miles for a tank (@£75 a pop), I figured out I had spent £3500 on fuel in a year, and that sadly was not sustainable. During the year, I also fitted a new clutch £3,177, oil change £288, and total other BMW services and parts = £1,500. The BMW extended warranty on an M5 with over 60,000 miles came in at £1,700 a year. I consider all of these to be reasonable costs for the joy of driving a V10 piece of automotive history but sadly not an hobby I can afford to keep supporting.
So I figured that the most sensible thing to do was to keep in the BMW fold and drop down to a much more sensible 3litre twin turbo diesel. So on the weekend I picked up our new sensible family car, this immaculate 535d m sport. It’s a late 2007 model, one owner with just 30,000 miles, fitted with nearly every extra (not including TV), but vitally including the night vision option (which will be useful if Jason Bourne ever comes to kill me).
Initial impressions are very good, it’s a considerable step down from 507bhp to 286bhp, but I am enjoying the increase in torques 384 to 428 and it has the sport gearbox which helps to ease the pain. Sure I won’t get the same sense of excitement when I see a clear motorway merge lane and thundering through the little Heathrow access tunnel isn’t going to be quite the same, but after a whole weekend of driving in the heavy oil machine I am still on the first tank - and for that reason I think I made the right choice!
So we bought our beautiful sepang bronze 05 M5.
It is an awesome family car, it did everything we needed, hospital runs, shopping runs, B&Q runs, autobahn and ‘ring runs, its quiet and sensible when you need it to be, but when no one is looking it allows you to get to the speed limit at an absolutely terrifying rate. As a family we had some epic road trips, through Wales, Cornwall, Germany and it never let me down once. The only weakness I spotted was that I didn’t like splashing through paddles much, but if that’s the only complaint I have in such a highly strung car, I don’t think I have much to complain about
But there was one down side (and that was entirely my fault – not the cars fault, you will never hear my whinge about the fuel economy, I knew it before I bought it). But Herr Doktor (thus named because it was German and it had the power to kill me) was the only car in our family, so it was my daily driver and 24 miles a day of commuting and many weekend adventures soon added up to 10,000 miles in a year. At 210 miles for a tank (@£75 a pop), I figured out I had spent £3500 on fuel in a year, and that sadly was not sustainable. During the year, I also fitted a new clutch £3,177, oil change £288, and total other BMW services and parts = £1,500. The BMW extended warranty on an M5 with over 60,000 miles came in at £1,700 a year. I consider all of these to be reasonable costs for the joy of driving a V10 piece of automotive history but sadly not an hobby I can afford to keep supporting.
So I figured that the most sensible thing to do was to keep in the BMW fold and drop down to a much more sensible 3litre twin turbo diesel. So on the weekend I picked up our new sensible family car, this immaculate 535d m sport. It’s a late 2007 model, one owner with just 30,000 miles, fitted with nearly every extra (not including TV), but vitally including the night vision option (which will be useful if Jason Bourne ever comes to kill me).
Initial impressions are very good, it’s a considerable step down from 507bhp to 286bhp, but I am enjoying the increase in torques 384 to 428 and it has the sport gearbox which helps to ease the pain. Sure I won’t get the same sense of excitement when I see a clear motorway merge lane and thundering through the little Heathrow access tunnel isn’t going to be quite the same, but after a whole weekend of driving in the heavy oil machine I am still on the first tank - and for that reason I think I made the right choice!
Edited by muhnkee2 on Monday 19th August 14:55
Edited by muhnkee2 on Monday 19th August 14:56
Hi G, howdo fella.
I'm not surprised you needed a new clutch!
Embrace diesel, I got rid of the XJR and bought myself a FF Range Rover TDV8. I was going to get a supercharged but even I couldn't ignore 25mpg vs a probable 18mpg that the supercharged RR would have done, especially when using the car to do Reading to London every day.
The modern diesel engines are superb with more than sufficient power for 'normal' use, I'm very impressed with the unit in the TDV8.
ETA: Like I used to find with the XJR, there's not many places you can use the extra performance of the big petrol engines , especially once the initial desire to hooligan around has waned.
I'm not surprised you needed a new clutch!
Embrace diesel, I got rid of the XJR and bought myself a FF Range Rover TDV8. I was going to get a supercharged but even I couldn't ignore 25mpg vs a probable 18mpg that the supercharged RR would have done, especially when using the car to do Reading to London every day.
The modern diesel engines are superb with more than sufficient power for 'normal' use, I'm very impressed with the unit in the TDV8.
ETA: Like I used to find with the XJR, there's not many places you can use the extra performance of the big petrol engines , especially once the initial desire to hooligan around has waned.
Edited by Piersman2 on Monday 19th August 15:42
Thanks for all the feedback, here are some answers:
At an independent bmw specialist, the quote for the clutch was still £2500 and would have risked the warranty, so i chose to go with BMW. when you consider the car is putting 507bhp through one clutch, I don't think its a surprise it costs that much, there are non bmw oem clutches available, but for better or worse, Herr Doktor has been kept standard and under warranty right till now, and i wasnt going to be the one to let the ball drop.
I am enjoying the low end shove of the extra torques, the car definitely lacks the excitement of the M5, kids don't stop and stare and listen as i drive past now. I would normally drive her with stability off in manual mode unlocking the extra 6/6s of noise and response from the car. Which was great for generating noise and excitement.
I dont know what the fuss is about the SMG, i haven't driven another 500bhp car to compare it with, and dont get me wrong, the gear changes were pretty brutal, but it gave lazy drivers the option of tootling around in auto mode - not that I think anyone ever did.
The plan is to get the DMS remap, but i a going to enjoy it standard for a while. 360bph "should" be enough for the commute.
I am still sad that i sold the Avantime, of all my cars its still the favourite, it was like having a happy but stupid dog as a pet, doesn't really make logical sense but always made people smile and was a joy to own.
At an independent bmw specialist, the quote for the clutch was still £2500 and would have risked the warranty, so i chose to go with BMW. when you consider the car is putting 507bhp through one clutch, I don't think its a surprise it costs that much, there are non bmw oem clutches available, but for better or worse, Herr Doktor has been kept standard and under warranty right till now, and i wasnt going to be the one to let the ball drop.
I am enjoying the low end shove of the extra torques, the car definitely lacks the excitement of the M5, kids don't stop and stare and listen as i drive past now. I would normally drive her with stability off in manual mode unlocking the extra 6/6s of noise and response from the car. Which was great for generating noise and excitement.
I dont know what the fuss is about the SMG, i haven't driven another 500bhp car to compare it with, and dont get me wrong, the gear changes were pretty brutal, but it gave lazy drivers the option of tootling around in auto mode - not that I think anyone ever did.
The plan is to get the DMS remap, but i a going to enjoy it standard for a while. 360bph "should" be enough for the commute.
I am still sad that i sold the Avantime, of all my cars its still the favourite, it was like having a happy but stupid dog as a pet, doesn't really make logical sense but always made people smile and was a joy to own.
Edited by muhnkee2 on Tuesday 20th August 13:40
E-maps with remap for a hell of a lot cheaper than DMS and I've never heard a bad word said about them, they did my old pre-LCI 535d.
Fuel economy was maybe a bit worse around town but slightly better on the Motorway, not that you'll be too bothered after the M5!
Think it was around 340bhp, mid range was laugh out loud quick it just pulled and pulled
Fuel economy was maybe a bit worse around town but slightly better on the Motorway, not that you'll be too bothered after the M5!
Think it was around 340bhp, mid range was laugh out loud quick it just pulled and pulled
A man who is used to 13.9mpg* never complains about fuel economy.
- 13.9mpg represents my average fuel consumption over a year of mixed usage, mainly urban driving, with motorway driving bringing it up to the heady heights of 16mpg!! But i visited a petrol station every 210 miles or after 2 hours of autobahn driving!
I made the step from E39 M5 to 535d about 3 years ago.
whilst the 535d is a very capable and fast car I totally understand and agree what your saying about the lack of excitement. However, in the real world and current climate, they do make good sense.
I very much agree with the E-maps recommendation. Simon came to my house and the difference is very noticeable. I recommend him greatly.
With all BMW diesels you need to change both thermostats and ideally whip out the swirl flaps, but I expect youre all over it.
whilst the 535d is a very capable and fast car I totally understand and agree what your saying about the lack of excitement. However, in the real world and current climate, they do make good sense.
I very much agree with the E-maps recommendation. Simon came to my house and the difference is very noticeable. I recommend him greatly.
With all BMW diesels you need to change both thermostats and ideally whip out the swirl flaps, but I expect youre all over it.
It can be hard to find a replacement for a car like that (M5). I had an LCI (late '07) M5 for 1.5 years, and just couldn't work out where to go after that. It was the wife's daily anyway, so decided she could do with a 2.0 TT diesel 
So we came down:
326hp (the M5 had been remapped to ~530hp)
85lb ft of torque
3 litres of cubic capacity
you've taken an easier move to digest though, with the TT 535D.. good on ya.
So we came down:
326hp (the M5 had been remapped to ~530hp)
85lb ft of torque
3 litres of cubic capacity
you've taken an easier move to digest though, with the TT 535D.. good on ya.
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