E60 M5 SMG over Manual?

[smack]

I am needing a new car due to work relocation, and since the place I am going to move is bike hostile, I figure I need 4 wheels with fun to keep me away from bikes.....
So I have been looking around at fast metal, and took an E60 M5 out for a spin today, which is more livable than the R35 GT-R I tried last weekend (loved the car, but the roads suck here, and it is out of it'e element). Now, you might say, WTF, no such thing as a manual E60 M5???? Well there is in the US. I have thought of the idea of a E60 for 5 years, but the stories of the gearbox going wrong have put me off.

So I tried a manual M5 today. Clutch and gearbox is nicer than my E39, not light and day, but better. And it drove calm and composed like modern 5ers. An E60 in manual is the (in this case an oddball due the the US market) last of the M cars before electroncis everything, so if yo would, is the SMG that good to go for?

ETA, it didn't feel much faster than an E39 M5, a bit more top end punch with the 500hp when you rev it out, but in 5th or 6th in the manual box at low/mid range the V10 didn't have the pull of the V8 engine in the same sort of conditions. Still, a nice car, just needs to be driven differently to the E39 M5.

Edited by smack on Monday 9th February 08:40

[Shaoxter]

From what I hear the gear ratios in the 6 speed manuals are messed up compared to the 7 speed SMG.

SMG really does suit the high revving engine, treat it like a manual and there's no reason why it would wear quicker than an actual manual box (unless it wasn't set up properly...)

[markclow]

I live in Atlanta and owned an M5 with a stick. The manual transmission was much smoother than the one in my E46M3. No problems with reliability. However I am not sure it suited the motor's characteristics.

[skillimz]

Smg all the way.