RS246.com Forum :: The World's #1 Audi R, S and RS Enthusiast Community

Mate of mine has a 56 plate M5 been meaning to get out in it for a while and today I did!

First impressions...

Well I fancied one of these before I bought the RS4 but I'm so glad I didn't buy one!!

The car is nice but the gearbox change in M mode is so harsh! But the worst bit is that when the road is mildy damp (which it was) the car was twitching all over the place! We just could not put the power down!

Now I took my mate out in my car over the same pieces of road and he couldn't believe how the RS4 stuck to the road and ate up the damp surfaces! Now an M5 may be quicker on a dry piece of straight road over a 1/4 mile drag race but i'm telling you this - on real roads, with cambers, white lines, round-a-bouts and damp surfaces it has no chance against the RS4!

My friend couldn't get over the noise of my RS4 (milltek non-res valved) he'd never heard one before! He loved the long 3rd gear and acually said that the M5 was embarrasing and dangerous on th same piece of road.

Anyway all I can say is that i'm glad I didn't buy one!

I found the same when I had a vxr8 against the m5 - the extra 80bhp of the m5 really didn't show and if anything was more torqueless than the rs4.

I owned a 2007 E60 M5 around 2 years ago, I bought it as I'd always been a BMW fan and had a few others, E46 M3, 330ci, 335i... so I wanted the daddy and I bought it one December just before it snowed. Not a great time to buy a 507 bhp rear wheel drive car.

It sat on the drive for 3 weeks without moving.

Driving it wasn't really a good experience, the gear shifts are terrible and probably the biggest reason I only kept it for 6 months.

Pulling out of a junction in normal driving mode the delay between 1st and 2nd felt like around 1-2 seconds, sometimes the car felt dangerous and as though it was sat in the middle of the road in-between gears. But then floor it to get the gears changing quicker and the car would struggle to get the power down through the tyres.

From what I remember there were 6 different settings for how fast the gear changes happened, what's the point in that, 2 or 3 would have been enough.

Straight line speed it would eat a standard RS4 for breakfast, they're booked at 0-100mph in 9.6 seconds, there's not much that does 100mph in under 10 seconds.

RS4 is without a doubt a much more usable car and given the choice would win every single time.

I enjoy taking round-a-bouts at 60-70mph and not even twitching!

My mate had one before I got the RS and I contemplated buying his. Never drove an M5 and have wondered if I had made the right choice with the RS. After reading this post it seems my instinct was right. Love my RS

Alex

I test drove an M6 before I bought my RS4, my experiences were the same. While the SMG is much improved over the E46 M3 version it's still horrid. Saying that it did feel more luxurious inside, the Head up display was neat and it pulled like an absolute train once you got it going.

I could of got a fully spec'd M5 and very nearly did through a chap off a local base who headed back to the States, he let me have it for a week and the things like the 3 settings for side bolsters was a good fun novelty for about an hour and I did like the heads up display, I absolutely hated the I-Drive system though that was a big part of me not going for it along with having an SMG-II E46 M3 and wanting to go back to manual I went the RS4 route.

Usually you can buy a car and regardless of how it performs have a nagging... what if... or maybe I should have gone for... but honestly no regrets on passing up on the M5 it would of been £3k cheaper than my RS4 as well.

Least as winter comes I will know I can actually get on and off my sloped driveway with the RS4

i had an M5 around 2.5 years ago too..awesome straight line power. As mentioned above gearbox can be tricky esp in slow stop/start traffic..and in the wet/damp conditions you have to exercise caution..

I loved mine and feel they are a bargain at the current prices..I had an eisenmann race exhaust on mine and it sounded like a lamborghini..

I do miss the power, but all round complete car has to be the RS4

I too had an M5 prior to the RS4 & it was a bit of a handful so i can only echo what's already been said. Day to day (in this country), the RS4 was the quicker point o point car.

In the M5's favour though was the straight line pace, the amazing V10 noise & all those toys. Mine was Mike Halliwells car (Halliwell Jones) so was spec'd through the roof & not far off £100K list with all the options:) Bought it 9mths old with 10K miles for a bargain price & enjoyed over 20K miles in the car (2 Ring trips & Spa), but i never used the slush aspect of the box, only the paddles & i did quite like the SMGIII box, but getting close to 540bhp (mine was DMS mapped) to grip to the tarmac in less than perfect conditions was always a challenge.

Do miss it a little & is a total bargain 2nd hand. Great car but not ideal in the UK.

Yeah I could tell my mate felt gutted when we went out in the RS4 as it felt so much more safe, quicker and responsive! On a straight bone dry road very different story but on uk roads that's a rare condition!