RE: BMW M5 Competition Pack: PH Carpool
Discussion
Mine's very similar to the OP, Monte Carlo Blue, the white leather, it's an LCI model but not a Comp Pack. Bought it with 16k on the clock from my local BMW dealer and I've added another 14k in the 20 months I've had it. It is my daily driver, and I use it for commuting for an "on the road" type of job, not just to the same office and back each day.
I absolutely love it. There. I said it. As someone else said above, there are so many haters and disapprovers, 99% of them, I'm sure, haven't even driven one, nevermind lived with one for any significant period of time.
Is it perfect? No. Not at all actually. But then no car is, and if a car gets towards being perfect, it's chastised for being soulless and "boring".
The dual clutch can be very dim-witted and slow when in auto mode, even on 2/3rds setting. Specifically when it's downshifting for a junction or roundabout into 2nd, a slight prod of the throttle to accelerate out and it just doesn't do anything. Or it goes mental. Ok, try bumping it up to 3/3rds on the 'box setting....far livelier, but then it doesn't shift up until 3k. Around town in 1st/2nd/3rd, that's a bit embarrassing.
All fixed in manual mode though. Which is absolutely crackers. 3/3rds on manual setting and the thump in the back on full bore upshifts is schoolboy amusing. The fact it can carry on pulling like it does and still thumping you in 4th, 5th and 6th is bonkers. I programmed M1 to be an auto gearbox setting, purely to calm things down for mundane journeys...it was getting a bit silly. To be fair, that tactic has worked perfectly.
Winter tyres are on at the moment. Dry roads, 7-8ºC ambient on a motorway (empty, good vis, safe...before somebody starts moaning), where the cruising speed may or may not start with a 1....accelerating in 6th and the TC light blinks!!
The same thing happens on a spirited drive in the middle of summer, on Pirelli's, down my favourite country road....straight line with gentle crests at 0.8 leptons, and it's trying to spin up. The stability control and TC are exemplary, and I've not found the need to disengage them. Ever.
Brakes have been fine so far, nowhere near needing replacement (I think the PO had tracked it once or twice). On a cruise on the motorway, driving at whatever the traffic conditions will permit (say 70'ish) and I can easily get an average mpg of 24-26. When I was dropping my daughter to her primary school each morning, 3miles each way, then it's 14.4mpg (there are certain mpg readings that seem to be consistently displayed....25.4 is another. I've never managed to get an mpg into the 30's; closest was 29.8 on a very (very) sensible family-in-the-back run up to Norfolk from Kent.
What else?...well, I've not felt the need to spend crazy money on the CP Akraprovic exhaust system, a simple wiring open of the exhaust flaps treats you to a very nice cold-start blare for 30secs or so. My neighbours agree. Honest. On a cruising run it's not OTT with resonance or drone, but give it the berries and it does (to my ears) sound fantastic. Not tuneful like a n/a V8, more of an industrial (the term Harry Metcalfe recently used for the 570 Spider) symphony of engine + turbo spool up. Do I object to the synthesised noise? Not at all, you wouldn't know if somebody hadn't told you. Again, far too much fuss made by keyboard warriors on that matter (IMO)
Issues....well, I won't lie, it was back and forth to BMW for a number of months in the early days. Some niggly things that needed doing, but one major item was that after a lot of diagnosis, GoPro footage (from me) and bum-in-seat listening, the gearbox was diagnosed as faulty and swapped under warranty. The trade price ex-works to my dealer was £12k....plus VAT if buying as a punter, plus labour....that would've been a £20k problem to fix without a warranty. For that reason I'm "happy" to pay the annual warranty extension. I wouldn't consider owning it without.
But heck does it go like a bat out of hell....the best description to non car folk I can think of, is that its the closest thing to being in the Millenium Falcon you've probably experienced. I've owned some decently quick stuff before, but a red line pull in 3rd in this thing still gets my legs trembling. It's crazy. Feels quicker than my other toy, a 550hp 964 Turbo. I struggle to understand why you'd want to do what a lot of the US guys do, and re-calibrate them to 7/800hp. Far too traction limited.
It still feels a very special place to be each time I get in. I've also got the M Sport full carbon pack around the dash, doors and console. All very durable and not too OTT with the carbon. The white leather, however, is a right bugger to keep clean. Any dark jeans and it soon transfers. You also (apparently) need to be very careful with cleaning products; being an open unsealed leather, BMW mandate that any warranty claim will be rejected unless you use their specific cleaner, made by Sonax I think. Anyway's it's very good at cleaning, so I have no problem with that, but it doesn't seem to seal it from repeat grubbiness like some of the products discussed on Detailing World probably would. Mine has the standard 19" anthracite multispoke wheels, which I think are the pick of the bunch, love them....but be prepared to spend 2-3x the time washing them!
Just my 2p.... but hope that's helpful to somebody?
I absolutely love it. There. I said it. As someone else said above, there are so many haters and disapprovers, 99% of them, I'm sure, haven't even driven one, nevermind lived with one for any significant period of time.
Is it perfect? No. Not at all actually. But then no car is, and if a car gets towards being perfect, it's chastised for being soulless and "boring".
The dual clutch can be very dim-witted and slow when in auto mode, even on 2/3rds setting. Specifically when it's downshifting for a junction or roundabout into 2nd, a slight prod of the throttle to accelerate out and it just doesn't do anything. Or it goes mental. Ok, try bumping it up to 3/3rds on the 'box setting....far livelier, but then it doesn't shift up until 3k. Around town in 1st/2nd/3rd, that's a bit embarrassing.
All fixed in manual mode though. Which is absolutely crackers. 3/3rds on manual setting and the thump in the back on full bore upshifts is schoolboy amusing. The fact it can carry on pulling like it does and still thumping you in 4th, 5th and 6th is bonkers. I programmed M1 to be an auto gearbox setting, purely to calm things down for mundane journeys...it was getting a bit silly. To be fair, that tactic has worked perfectly.
Winter tyres are on at the moment. Dry roads, 7-8ºC ambient on a motorway (empty, good vis, safe...before somebody starts moaning), where the cruising speed may or may not start with a 1....accelerating in 6th and the TC light blinks!!
The same thing happens on a spirited drive in the middle of summer, on Pirelli's, down my favourite country road....straight line with gentle crests at 0.8 leptons, and it's trying to spin up. The stability control and TC are exemplary, and I've not found the need to disengage them. Ever.
Brakes have been fine so far, nowhere near needing replacement (I think the PO had tracked it once or twice). On a cruise on the motorway, driving at whatever the traffic conditions will permit (say 70'ish) and I can easily get an average mpg of 24-26. When I was dropping my daughter to her primary school each morning, 3miles each way, then it's 14.4mpg (there are certain mpg readings that seem to be consistently displayed....25.4 is another. I've never managed to get an mpg into the 30's; closest was 29.8 on a very (very) sensible family-in-the-back run up to Norfolk from Kent.
What else?...well, I've not felt the need to spend crazy money on the CP Akraprovic exhaust system, a simple wiring open of the exhaust flaps treats you to a very nice cold-start blare for 30secs or so. My neighbours agree. Honest. On a cruising run it's not OTT with resonance or drone, but give it the berries and it does (to my ears) sound fantastic. Not tuneful like a n/a V8, more of an industrial (the term Harry Metcalfe recently used for the 570 Spider) symphony of engine + turbo spool up. Do I object to the synthesised noise? Not at all, you wouldn't know if somebody hadn't told you. Again, far too much fuss made by keyboard warriors on that matter (IMO)
Issues....well, I won't lie, it was back and forth to BMW for a number of months in the early days. Some niggly things that needed doing, but one major item was that after a lot of diagnosis, GoPro footage (from me) and bum-in-seat listening, the gearbox was diagnosed as faulty and swapped under warranty. The trade price ex-works to my dealer was £12k....plus VAT if buying as a punter, plus labour....that would've been a £20k problem to fix without a warranty. For that reason I'm "happy" to pay the annual warranty extension. I wouldn't consider owning it without.
But heck does it go like a bat out of hell....the best description to non car folk I can think of, is that its the closest thing to being in the Millenium Falcon you've probably experienced. I've owned some decently quick stuff before, but a red line pull in 3rd in this thing still gets my legs trembling. It's crazy. Feels quicker than my other toy, a 550hp 964 Turbo. I struggle to understand why you'd want to do what a lot of the US guys do, and re-calibrate them to 7/800hp. Far too traction limited.
It still feels a very special place to be each time I get in. I've also got the M Sport full carbon pack around the dash, doors and console. All very durable and not too OTT with the carbon. The white leather, however, is a right bugger to keep clean. Any dark jeans and it soon transfers. You also (apparently) need to be very careful with cleaning products; being an open unsealed leather, BMW mandate that any warranty claim will be rejected unless you use their specific cleaner, made by Sonax I think. Anyway's it's very good at cleaning, so I have no problem with that, but it doesn't seem to seal it from repeat grubbiness like some of the products discussed on Detailing World probably would. Mine has the standard 19" anthracite multispoke wheels, which I think are the pick of the bunch, love them....but be prepared to spend 2-3x the time washing them!
Just my 2p.... but hope that's helpful to somebody?
Edited by ains on Friday 9th February 17:48
Edited by ains on Friday 9th February 17:55
ains said:
...But heck does it go like a bat out of hell....the best description to non car folk I can think of, is that its the closest thing to being in the Millenium Falcon you've probably experienced. I've owned some decently quick stuff before, but a red line pull in 3rd in this thing still gets my legs trembling. It's crazy. Feels quicker than my other toy, a 550hp 964 Turbo. ...
That basically sums the F10 M5 up for me. Or as another owner said "a dab of the throttle and it tries to headbutt the horizon" Edited by ains on Friday 9th February 17:48
Edited by ains on Friday 9th February 17:55
The thing is just ridiculous.Mines being sold at the moment, and I'm sure I'm going to miss it.
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