General Comments:
Fantastic drivers car with a cracker of an engine!
The 5 speed tip-tronic gearbox is a gem to use, although I tended to leave it in Auto mode as this was more than adequate for my driving style. The 5 series 2.8 6 cylinder engine is a really good, sporty unit that sounds lovely at high revs. Also a very quick car indeed!
Very comfortable seats and driving position too, the handling for such a big car is good too, although there was a tendency to "float" at times on very bumpy roads however this is not a criticism after all my Beemer was 10 years old. I often felt that the 5 series was more at home on motorways cruising at high speed, but would offer great handling/performance on the twisty A/B roads with ease. Overtaking was a breeze using the kickdown, and would very quickly take me to licence losing speeds.
Being rear wheel drive I found the handling in corners second to none, but don't press the throttle too hard if it's a bit slippery otherwise the ASC (auto skid control) might not activate fast enough to help you out! The 6 cylinder M62 2.8 pushes out 193 BHP that comes in hard after 3000 RPM, it WILL go sideways if you're not careful.
Useless in the snow and ice, but then what car isn't?
The fuel economy could be shocking though if driven hard, 19 MPG or less could be very easily achieved using the power of that glorious engine. I once had the MPG to around the 31 mark with very careful motorway driving (Not over 60MPH) but once off the motorways and onto the A roads the consumption would start to fall. Around town I could never get more than 85 miles to a quarter of a tank (70 Litre tank) And 230 miles would see me in ASDA refuelling again.
To be fair though, for the past year or so I have only been doing 6 miles a day, 5 days a week using the car for work. These cars aren't really designed for short journeys and will literally eat petrol at an alarming rate. If you get one DRIVE IT!
Overall a fantastic high performance, great handling car.
Sadly it had to go this week as I need a cheaper car to run for work. Plus I discovered that my BMW had a "chequered past" Turns out it was registered as scrapped!
Just goes to show you can't be too careful when buying used cars. I'm now in Vauxhall Vectra diesel land and enjoying driving past fuel stations for a change!
16th Feb 2010, 07:51
Great review! I agree with your comments about everything, however I found that using supermarket fuel gave me less performance and less economy. I therefore switched to using regular Shell unleaded. Same price (sometime cheaper), but with more to the gallon and more power when you need it!